Profile #2:"What's Great About This Ebook Cover?"
By Susan Kendrick
My partner, Graham Van Dixhorn, and I are judges for the Ebook Cover Award category in Dan Poynter's Global Ebook Awards program. To give these authors and experts more visibility for their ebooks, and to use these covers to share the strategies we teach and use in our own work creating book covers, we're featuring many cover entries right here on our blog.
The Pathway to Love
Julie Orlov
Visit Julie Orlov's website. Her, ebook, book, Kindle edition, workbook, and audio guide are available on her Products Page. The Kindle edition is also available on Amazon.
Ebook "Back Cover" Sales Copy
I'm going to focus on Julie Orlov's back cover copy because she did such a good job on the cover itself and the way she uses this book marketing copy throughout her website. That is the great benefit of back cover sales copy, even for an ebook--it creates a powerful, brand consistent, at-a-glance marketing message that promotes your book or ebook wherever you use it. Here's what makes this ebook cover special:
Know What Your Audience Needs and Wants
If your book or ebook is a solution to a problem, you need to understand that problem. Julie Orlov handles this beautifully. The first paragraph of Julie's back cover starts with, "Discover the secrets to creating more understanding, acceptance, and love in your relationships." She gets right to the point. She doesn't waste any time connecting with her reader and what they're looking for. You have about 10-15 seconds to get someone's attention and get them to see the value of what you book. Make every second count.
Show What's Unique About Your Solution
Julie then moves right into the second sentence, which shows exactly how her approach to relationships is unique: "Through the art of storytelling Julie Orlov reveals how relationships grow from fantasy to love in four phases." She uses storytelling and she reveals four phases. ... What are those phases? Am I in one of those phases? Which one? ... This is the possible response from someone reading this copy. It does two things. It draws them in and gets them to keep reading.
Create a Sense of Abundance About What the Reader Gets From the Book
Next, Julie uses the "Not Only" copywriting technique to show the range of help available from her book. The third sentence reads, "The book not only empowers you to create the relationships you want but demonstrates how your relationships mirror what you need to see, thereby providing the perfect conditions to heal, grow, and transform."
Here is a simple but important point. Notice in the back cover copy the use of "you" and "your." Notice, too, how you can create energy and momentum with phrases ranging from "not only empowers you to create" to "providing the perfect conditions." This kind of language gets your prospective buyer excited about the possibilities in this book. And, that is exactly the role of the back cover, to get prospects interested enough to read the book and to buy it.
Use a Few Powerful Bullet Points to Seal the Deal
Great book covers use visual chunks of copy to draw in the reader. Bullets are the place to highlight the most compelling benefits of your book in an at-a-glance format. See the bullet points on The Pathway to Love when you click the image (right) from the softcover print version of The Pathway to Love.
On Julie's website home page, those three back cover bullets take center stage. As Julie has also done, you can then tweak your back cover copy to suit the needs of an individual website page-
-whether you are promoting your ebook, book, or overall brand and expertise. In this case, Julie added a fourth bullet that mentions "relationships at work," a significant part of her expertise and the kind of consulting and speaking she wants to attract more of. As you look at other pages on Julie's website, you will continue to see other parts of her back cover copy.
On a tactical note, bullet points should each start with an active verb to further continue the energy and momentum of your marketing message. Julie's bullets start with "Distinguish," "Understand," and "Transform," and on the website, "Enhance."
Great book covers use visual chunks of copy to draw in the reader. Bullets are the place to highlight the most compelling benefits of your book in an at-a-glance format. See the bullet points on The Pathway to Love when you click the image (right) from the softcover print version of The Pathway to Love.On Julie's website home page, those three back cover bullets take center stage. As Julie has also done, you can then tweak your back cover copy to suit the needs of an individual website page-
-whether you are promoting your ebook, book, or overall brand and expertise. In this case, Julie added a fourth bullet that mentions "relationships at work," a significant part of her expertise and the kind of consulting and speaking she wants to attract more of. As you look at other pages on Julie's website, you will continue to see other parts of her back cover copy.
On a tactical note, bullet points should each start with an active verb to further continue the energy and momentum of your marketing message. Julie's bullets start with "Distinguish," "Understand," and "Transform," and on the website, "Enhance."
Get High-Profile Testimonials
The impact of testimonials is more about who is saying something about your book than what they are saying. Again, you want to create your back cover in various, high-visibility chunks. Testimonials do not need to be long to support your book, but they have to be by experts your audience recognizes, trusts, and respects. Julie has just two, but one of them is by Bernie Siegel, MD, and the other is from a highly credentialed expert in her field, an MD, PhD from UCLA and company president. See more in our article on how to get and select book cover testimonials.
Ebook Cover Design
There are many good things to say about Julie Orlov's ebook cover design. The main point is that from the color--the soft green, clean white, and bright spot of red in that heart--to the simple image of the orchid, and font style, it has been designed with Julie's core audience in mind. Women buy the vast majority of books. Even for books that are written for men, it is women that buy the books for the men in their lives--husbands, sons, fathers, partners, etc.
As you can see in Julie's YouTube videos, men attended and spoke very highly about her book launch event. But for books on relationships especially, women are the core audience of readers and buyers, and this cover reaches out to them on this topic with a sense of beauty, lightness, and promise. The marketing copy is fresh and authoritative. The overall effect is that Julie's book cover positions her as a trustworthy authority on her topic with a lot to offer her readers.
There are many good things to say about Julie Orlov's ebook cover design. The main point is that from the color--the soft green, clean white, and bright spot of red in that heart--to the simple image of the orchid, and font style, it has been designed with Julie's core audience in mind. Women buy the vast majority of books. Even for books that are written for men, it is women that buy the books for the men in their lives--husbands, sons, fathers, partners, etc.
As you can see in Julie's YouTube videos, men attended and spoke very highly about her book launch event. But for books on relationships especially, women are the core audience of readers and buyers, and this cover reaches out to them on this topic with a sense of beauty, lightness, and promise. The marketing copy is fresh and authoritative. The overall effect is that Julie's book cover positions her as a trustworthy authority on her topic with a lot to offer her readers.
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Think about entering your ebook in Dan Poynter's Global Ebook Awards. There are dozens of award categories. Check out 10 Reasons to Enter on YouTube.
Subscribe to this blog and learn more about what goes into developing a great book cover. See examples, including those we develop for our clients, and get tips you can use throughout all your book marketing. For help developing your book cover, book website, personal or business brand, and more, contact us at info@WriteToYourMarket.com.
© 2011, Susan Kendrick, Write To Your Market, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
