What’s your book about?

Should be an easy enough question to answer, right? But that answer suddenly becomes hard when you have a less then a second to show a potential reader what the book is about – and you have about an inch of space to make your point. Even the book detail page doesn’t give us a whole lot of real estate – so you have to be ruthless. Cut out everything that doesn’t convey the most impact – we want the most bang for your buck.

So what’s the book about? What’s the genre? Is is a genre that’s hot right now? If so, we need to capitalize on that. Male Male romance is a very popular genre right now – so a cover with two hot guys will immediately catch the attention of readers looking for it. A cover with a single hot guy will also be eye catching, but it doesn’t convey the best marketing tool you have in your disposal – an immediate peaque to the reader’s interest. And pique usually equals to click. And click – if your blurb is well written, if your excerpt is compelling, if the stars have aligned – may result in a buy.

This can also backfire – if your book is about vampires in a market up to it’s ears in vampires, what makes your book stand out? Fangs and blood just won’t cut it anymore – but talk dark and angsty just might:)

Of course, there are some authors who don’t need to do that – they can sell a book on the strength of their name alone. If that’s you – may I have your autograph?