Marketing 101: Cover Reveals Done Right

Let’s talk about something most authors really love to do, and that’s a cover reveal.

The What:
Cover reveals tend to happen when an author has a new book coming out and wants to build some pre-launch excitement by revealing the new book’s cover. Cover reveals can be extravagant events involving bloggers and giveaways, to simple reveals where the author shares the cover across social. However you choose to do it, there are some tips to maximizing your efforts and justifying the time and resources that go into revealing covers in a big way.

The When:
There are a lot of things an author can be doing pre-launch that can make a big impact on their launch day. While cover reveals are exciting, especially for the author, there are other important things an author might want to spend their time or resources on, especially if those are limited. Like sending eARCS, recruiting bloggers to read and review, etc. If done right, a cover reveal can make an impact, but if done incorrectly, they can fall flat.

Here’s how you can make sure your cover reveals really make a difference:

1. When you can reveal the cover along with a pre-order link to your book. Having 20 bloggers reveal the cover is great exposure, but what happens later to all those people who saw your cover? Most likely they forget about it. Unless you can get them to immediately act, in this case pre-order or purchase, then the likelihood of them seeing the book out later to buy it then is pretty slim and you’ve lost the opportunity to get those people to buy.

2. When you can reveal the cover along with getting people to subscribe to your mailing list. After buying the book, one of the best things you can do – and something an author should be continuously working on growing – is their mailing list. If you have 20 bloggers revealing your cover, you want a chance to get the book once it’s out in front of those people again, and you can do this by getting them to subscribe to your mailing list at the same time as the cover reveal.

3. When you can reveal the cover first to your newsletter subscribers or your street/launch team. This is simply to show your appreciation to those who have followed and supported you. Seeing the cover first can make those readers feel special, and they should as they’ve been there for you when you’ve needed them to be. This isn’t to get them to buy, not yet, but to show that they are important and special to you and should be rewarded with something cool.

The How:
Revealing the cover is more than just sharing a jpeg of your book cover. Assuming readers will look up the book or you after seeing the cover is a nice thing to think will happen, but pretty unlikely. The truth is, people are more motivated to learn more by clicking a link than opening a browser, typing in a name, and searching for you or your book. So include your cover, any pre-order links, your website URL or social links, and/or your mailing list. Another good thing is to share a few teasers along with the cover to entice readers to want to know more. Link back to a free chapter or two on your blog.

So we hope you’ve learned a little more about cover reveals, and how to do them better. Make sure you’re using them to capture an audience so you can interest them in buying your book later when it comes out. Don’t put all your time and resources into getting your cover shared and out there with no better motive than sharing it. Use your time smartly.

You can also share your cover with Aurora! Every Wednesday we promote authors by showing pictures of them and holding their book in our free author promo for #WriterWednesday. Take a photo of yourself holding your book, then email it to us. We’ll help you show off that beautiful new cover. More on #WriterWednesday and our other free author promotions, here.

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