(is it a or an?)

We all hear about the importance of an e-book cover and how it can make the difference between a few clicks and hundreds of clicks. The e-book cover is the portal to your novel and has to convey a sense of professionalism. If you have spent good money editing your book and now want to sell it. The cover must convey, if possible, what your story is about.

I have drawn a great distinction between a work of fiction and non-fiction. With non-fiction it’s easier to think of keywords and images that sell when constructing your e-book cover. But with a work of fiction you might have to work in more abstract terms, and let the unconscious convey the message. With my novella ‘Once When We Were Human’ I loved the title and feel it quite clearly is relevant to the story, about a time when we used to be human but were now dogs.

The sub-heading of an e-book cover

The image is an obvious one as my tale is an animal allegorical one. So no surprises there, but I will discuss the sub-heading I put underneath the title, to show how I can go wrong, in getting to as many readers as possible. Originally the sub-heading was ‘A tale about the dangers of apathy and the meaning of art.’ Of course, the tale revolves around a conceptual artist but it is more about the dangers of totalitarianism, than the meaning of art.

If a reader sees ‘the meaning of art’, they may miss the point and feel the story is all about art, and it’s not for them.  The sub-heading should help sell the book, a little bit more, and give the reader a further hint on what the book is about. This generally only relates to e-books because only with e-books do we have to take in keywords and sub-headings.

Taking my work of fiction into account. I decided to take a quote from a 5 star review I received and use that instead. The 5 star review mentioned ‘a homage to Brave new World, 1984 and Animal farm’ and I felt this was more closer to the truth, and readers would be more engaged with this sub-heading. This more obvious sub-heading should help with my click-through rate.