The back cover has undergone a transformation. Not long ago the recipe for the back cover was straightforward: title and illustration repeated from the front cover, testimonials from people who recommend the book, the author's photo with perhaps a brief introduction, and the bar code.
Today the back cover of best-selling quality paperback books may display a single body of book-selling text. Or a single graphic element. Testimonials are still popular, but benefits offered by the book often take center stage. The author's photo is not always placed on the back cover, and "about the author" information even less often.
The fundamental change in back cover design is that today's back covers focus exclusively on selling the book.
Why so much attention to the back cover?
Publishing experts tell us that a book spends at least 25 percent of its life on its face, back side up. A person choosing a book from a display rack will spend roughly 40 percent of the evaluation time looking at the back cover.
We urge self-publishing authors to use back cover space above all to display the benefits the book offers. Phrase the benefits in positive terms such as "Learn how to turn your career around," or "7 tips to a splendid vacation," "This book tells you what you should know, but probably don't, about the garden vegetables you buy at the grocery store," or "Follow Brandy as her body freezes to -200 degrees Fahrenheit and wakes up twenty years later, alive and full of desire.
Testimonials
We still recommend the use of testimonials--brief statements by people with credible links to the content of your book--on the back cover. The statements can be in praise of the book (best) or can be expressions of confidence in or support of the author or the author's cause. A testimonial signed simply "Joe Smith" has little weight compared with one that says, "Joseph R. Smith, Chairman, International Committee to Prevent Protein Deficiency Disease," if your book is about protein deficiency diseases or international health problems.
Send the "galleys" or pre-print pages of your book to people when you ask them for a testimonial. Don't wait until the cover design and the interior pages are complete. If the person you seek is extremely busy you may offer to write the testimonial or call the person and use quotes from your conversation. However you obtain the quote, be sure the person sees the quote and approves of it in writing before you print the book!
An easy (and perfectly legal) way to link your book with people of fame and fortune is to include a short quote by a celebrity or person of literary or historical note on your cover. Shakespeare, George W. Bush, Candace Bergman, or Albert Einstein may have said just the words you need to underscore your main point. Keep your quote brief, and be sure your attribution is absolutely accurate in every respect.
More about covers
Because your book's cover is so important to the marketing success of your book, we discuss the elements of your cover in three sections--
For more information about your cover's design, go to--
Cover
Back cover
Spine