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  • by Matthew Bayan

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover? Get Real.


Yes, we all know that as writers we want our work judged by its literary quality. Yes, we know that publishers rarely consult us on what they decide to put in a cover. Yes, we lament the short-sightedness of the reading public in not delving into the text to see our genius.

Grow up.

The facts are that covers DO matter and more than 2/3 of a buyer's decision to even consider a book comes from the cover; the second factor by which 3/4 of buyers make a decision is the first page. That's right. Roughly 75% of book buying decisions are made from reading only the first page. 25% are made on the first line alone.

So, boil that down. Cover and first page.

Unless you're self-publishing, you may not have input into the design of a cover, but you do have total control over your first page. Forget about back-story, forget about prologues. Get to the inciting incident. Pull the reader into your story.

You only have a page to do it.

(Buying statistics above courtesy of Simon & Schuster.)

And check out these novels. Just click on a cover to go to Amazon.

Reviewer and NYT bestselling author, David Corbett called The Firecracker King "a wicked, marvelous book."

Sci-fi legend and NYT bestseller, A.C. Crispin, called TIME JUMPER “a mindblowing fantasy thriller.”


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