I know some of you reading the title would probably answer, “Yes, my face is worth money!” Really? How much? For discussion purposes we are talking about whether an authors’ face is worth money in the book publishing industry. Putting one’s face on a book cover is a long standing debate between book publishing professionals and self-published authors. The truth of the matter though, is that there should be no debate. The question that book publishing professionals, aka: Bookstore Managers, Publishing company CEO’s, Book Buyers, Book Clubs, Distributors, etc. want to know is exactly this: Is your face worth money?
Now, most authors believe they are a celebrity in their own minds and that’s great. Having confidence and high self-esteem in this difficult and sometimes cut throat industry is a positive thing but it is not nearly enough to get your book inside of a book store or sold through book clubs.As every publishing professional will tell you, books often defy science – they evoke emotion, memory. They tell stories.Many publishing professionals use phrases like “distinctive,” “stand-out,” “elegant,” “beautiful,” or “surprising” to describe an effective cover. Keep in mind that most readers go to the bookstore looking for some kind of benefit. For non-fiction readers, that benefit is often education and for fiction readers, that benefit is often for an entertaining and/or emotional benefit.
The cover, for all buyers both professional and customer base graphs the story – when you see the title and the image you should have a flash of emotion or curiosity; you should have a sense of an upcoming and great story. As soon as that happens, the customer is engaged. Part of a book’s appeal is the unstated promise that a book will exercise the reader’s own imagination. It’s different from seeing a movie, where we know that the hero looks like. Reading is much more subjective and intuitive, so part of what makes a cover really work for a book-buyer is its ability to lure the reader in.
Lately, there has been a surge of authors putting their faces on their book covers and slapping some text around it. They aren’t thinking about the customer base or as stated earlier, they think they are celebrities with cute faces and people will buy their books. The fact is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. The authors who put their faces on their book covers thinking it will sell are thinking one dimensional, when customers and book buyers buy based on several dimensions as stated above. The author thinks of themselves. They think about how good they think they look or how good they think they can make themselves look by pushing a few buttons to either lighten or darken their look. They don’t think about the customer, they don’t think about where their book could end up and they don’t think about the book publishing professional who is the gate keeper to the book club, the book store or getting a traditional publishing contract. The author that puts their face on a book cover does NOT think about the future.
Let’s be honest here: No one on a national scale knows about you, no one is talking about you, no one is tweeting about your book, you get very little interaction on your Facebook pages and no book clubs are sharing your book. You didn’t get folks excited about your book while you were writing it and you waited until after it was done to tell people about it. This is obscurity and it’s what authors need to focus on overcoming in a competitive marketplace. Also, let’s talk about beauty. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What is cute or beautiful to you may very well be ugly and hideous to the next person. To put your face on a book cover when you are not well known and possibly well-defined as beautiful in the eyes of society is just not smart. Beauty sells books, it sells magazine and it sells movies. Sex and beauty sell. If a customer thinks you are ugly, you can kiss that sale goodbye. They will not be seen with a book with an ugly person on a book. They just won’t.
When a book publishing professional decides on what books to put in their bookstore or book club, they are looking at whether or not your book will sell. They are looking at Will this stand out on a crowded shelf? [i.e., is it distinctive?] Is the cover’s message clear? Will this engage our buyers emotionally? When your face is on a cover and nobody outside of your inner circle knows your name on top of what is NOT happening as described above, the answer is NO to all of those and your book will not be in their book clubs or on their shelves.
Before you go into, “Well what about a model on the cover?” There is a difference between a model on a book cover and your face on a book cover and you know it, so let’s kill that discussion right now. Scroll down the aisles of a bookstore or through the website of a book club and you will see FAMOUS people with their covers on a book as the ones that are being sold. Non-famous people did not and do not make the cut.
So, let’s sum it up here: Is your face worth money other than in your own mind? Not likely. Can you make your face worth money? Yes, with hard work, determination, a professional book cover NOT showing your face and great writing. As much as you would like to put your face on a cover, after reading this article, if you don’t have a major fan base, can’t answer yes to the above questions, then save yourself the dismal embarrassment of poor sales and DO NOT PUT YOUR FACE ON A COVER because IT IS NOT WORTH ANY MONEY!
Until the next blog!