When it comes to marketing a book, the book cover is a book’s primary direct selling tool. It speaks out to a potential buyer and reflects the quality of the content within. The fact is that we all buy books to read it afterward, and thus hardly have any ideas on the value of the content contained within. If a book cover design is creative, relevant, attractive and interesting, readers would at least browse through the content. What can you do for a book cover to make it interesting?

1. Use keywords that appeal
Your title has to hit the nail on its head. It should jump off the book cover and appeal to your buyers. It should solve a problem that the buyer is facing. To do this, you’ve got to conduct a research on what people like and want. What are the words that draw attention well? For example, if you are writing a book on Internet Marketing, words like “make money online”, “riches” or “wealth”, will appeal to the entrepreneurial target market. Set up a focus group, or ask a few friends on their opinion of the title options you have. You may be surprised at what great ideas others may have for you.

2. Relevant design elements
The design of your book cover needs to call out to the reader. It needs magnetism and relevance to your target market. Visually appealing book covers, with color combinations that match well and even photography, are often effective. The more outstanding your book is, the better its chances of being browsed.

3. Get creative help
Get the services of a graphic designer to work on your book cover. Review past work to get a feel of his or her style, against your personal preferences. While creative designers do an excellent job of making your cover outstanding, they may run the risk of getting off-track in the message of your book. Run samples provided through friends and associates before making a decision on the right cover to use.

4. The spine – of great importance but often neglected
Is your book too thin? Can the words be read when the book is displayed on its side on the bookshelf? The thickness of your book goes hand in hand with the internal book layout design. It is ideal that your book should not be too thin, as this would also lower the perceived value of your book. However, you shouldn’t enlarge the font of your content in an effort to thicken your book either. As for the spine, it speaks to the book browser when the front can’t be seen. Therefore it has to creative and communicative as well. Make sure that the font used on the spine is readable, and that the browser does not have to try to hard to read the text.

5. The back of the book
Much of book marketing involves making the best of your resources. There are many authors who fail to utilize the back of the book to their advantage. Have you ever picked up a book that does not say a thing about the content on its cover? Do you realize that many people turn the book around to its back to get a synopsis of it’s content? If you can’t do it yourself, hire a copywriter to work on your back cover. As a rule of thumb, try to include the core messages within your book, who needs to read the book, and also your personal credentials.

Finally, if you want to market a book properly, you probably need to put yourself in the shoes of the reader. Only then would you be able to identify the best ways to get through to them, through your book.

Samantha Tang, previously a Managing Editor for a publishing company, published 7 books within a short span of 2 years. An avid marketer, she ran events and implemented intensive book marketing strategies to get these books to the local bestseller list several times in a row. She now shares her experiences at Market-a-book.com, a book marketing strategy resource site. Discover ingenious ways to sell your e-book online here, and even get it published! Learn how you can author a book professionally, even if you don’t write well. This article is an excerpt from a downloadable FREE e-book entitled Write Your Own E-book. Get this e-book now and learn practical ways on how you can make big bucks by selling your OWN ebook!

Creating eBook covers for internet marketers is big business on the internet. If you sell downloadable products online then you must have a graphic representation of that e-product.

The graphic representation or “e-Cover” is the only thing on your website that makes your product real. It is the only thing that makes your product unique.

You can describe your product all you want but if you want your visitors to buy it, they have to see it visually.Contrary to public opinion, creating an ebook cover is really easy.Only two step and you’re done!

Step 1 – You need a template

I see templates being sold online for up to $99.00 and I can’t believe people are paying for it.

Maybe they don’t know about the Amazing Box Cover Tutorial – http://www.AmazingBoxCovers.com – a tutorial that takes you step-by-step and through the ebook cover creation process.

Do not make the mistake of buying pre-designed blank JPEG ebook cover templates. You will never get a beautiful ebook cover out of it.

What you need is the original file that created the JPEG eBook cover template.Download the Amazing Box Cover Tutorial – http://www.AmazingBoxCovers.com and you will get 12 pre-designed templates that you can use over and over again.

Step 2 – You need a flat file

The flat file is just a regular graphic design of your ebook cover. This is the easy part and almost anyone can do it. The amazing box cover tutorial show you how to do it step-by-step.

The complicated part is to merge the template and the flat file together. And make it look “amazing”.All little tips and tricks you need to create flawless ebook covers are available on the amazing Box Cover tutorial.

All the beautiful ebook covers you see online are nothing but a 3D illusion that fools your eyes into thinking that you are looking at a book cover.

This 3D illusion can cost you quite a few bucks if you don’t know how to do it.

Once you have your template, it’s just a matter of laying your flat file on top of it.You can create your own ebook covers in 5 minutes flat once you get the hang of it.

You can use the same flat file to create your header graphic as well, it is good idea to have a matching header  graphic and ebook cover. It makes you site look really professional.

Here is the best advice I can give you.

Before you go out and spend your money on expensive eBook Cover design programs and expensive templates that overcharge and “under deliver“, you owe to yourself to at least find out how it’s done.

I promise you, you will never pay anyone to do it for you ever again once you read the 30-page Amazing Box Cover Tutorial.SP, Woodring is an internet marketer, and author of the Amazing Box Cover Tutorial.If you want to discover how to create amazing eBook Covers,Box Covers, Cd Covers, even Header Graphics for your site, then please visit his website at http://www.AmazingBoxCovers.com

Ebook covers are make or break.

If your ebook cover looks cheap, your readers will think that your product is cheap quality and they will be less likely to buy it.

You could cut corners and design your ebook cover yourself. But it will probably show through in the design and ultimately in your sales (or lack of them).

And let’s face it, most of us flunked art when we at school. So a home-made ebook cover design will show up as exactly that.

That’s fine if your whole site looks like it was put together by your 7 year old child.

But I’m assuming that you want your ebook cover graphic to look good. That you want it to look professional. Something that you’d be proud to have on the cover of a real book.

There are software programs available that claim to help you create professional ebook cover graphics. The ones I’ve tried might live up to that claim in the hands of an experienced user. But in the hands of a casual user like me… All I did was waste a few hours.

So for most people, it will be a case of getting a professional ebook cover created professionally.

In the scheme of things, this is a one off cost from as little as $30 on a freelance site, up to $100 or so from a professional graphic designer. So a few dollars and a few days later, you’ll have your ebook cover created so that you stand the best chance of getting sales for your masterpiece.

Don’t let yourself or your product down - make sure that you give it the best possible chance of selling by getting the best possible cover designed for your money.

Check out my review of the ebook cover creation service that I use when I want my ebooks to look the best they can.

“E-Cover is as much important as the content of your product”

When making a statement like the above, it’s always debatable. Some marketers will say that they can write a thousand words without a single graphic and make tons of money.

It’s undeniable that it can be done, but what I want to add here is that if you have an e-cover to your digital product, a few things will happen.

1. People will visualize your product better even if you know that your product is digital and it can’t be hold in hand.

For example, your ebook will just be another ebook if it’s in pdf format, but if you have a beautiful graphic of the ebook, people will associate the product with the picture, text, color and size of the graphic of your ebook.

2. People will remember your product much longer.

When people see the e-cover, they’ll say, “oh! that’s Online Profits Made Simple ebook” because I’ve seen it before.

Compare that to reading in between lines of sea of words. You might get lost and still can’t find the title of the ebook.

3. People will be more interested in the product, and that helps sales.

Imagine creating a CD e-cover to your video product professionally. The CD cover looks nice and it seems so real that only professionals can produce quality product such as what you have.

Now, you know that your online video could be a simple Camtasia recording and uploaded to your web server. It’s like most marketers are doing out there.

But, because of the graphic, your potential buyers will see that your product is much more professionally done and they are willing to buy the products with high quality.

Of course, at the same time, your product really has to be high quality product.

The next question that you want to ask is where to get these e-covers done. Obviously, not everyone (including me) is creative enough and has the expertise to design an ecover.

The answer is to hire graphic designers to do the ecover for you.

If you think hiring a graphic designer for your e-cover is expensive, then do your research on the internet again and you’d be surprised to see some designers are willing to design an ecover for less than $50.

Zamri Nanyan believes that anyone can make money online successfully, provided they have proper business mindset and persistent action. For more great business tips, go to http://www.zamrinanyan.com and subscribe to his “Online Profit” e-course for FREE.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” That saying may be ages old but its message is just as vital today as when it was first uttered. Simply put, a single image can often communicate what might take you one thousand words (more or less) to say or write.

You have already spent the time putting together an ebook or software package that you want to market on the Internet. You have chosen the right words for your title and any other text you might use on the book cover.

Now you have to carefully design your cover to best represent your book or software. You have to find the right graphic(s) that will support the title and enhance the perceived value of your ebook.

There are two common forms of graphics: clip art and stock photos.  Take some time exploring sites providing stock photos and clip art. It can be a lot of fun.  First of all, what is clip art? There are many differing opinions out there. Some call it “ready-made art” because sometimes clip art can include photos, pictures, or complete illustrations. But, for the sake of this article, we are defining clip art to mean: All ready-made pieces of digital art, such as illustrations, borders and line drawings that are used as graphic elements in a document. They can be either raster images (jpeg, tiff, bmp, gif) or vector images (eps, wmf, ai). They can be black and white, or color.

Regardless of what you call it, clip art should be used sparingly in quality ebook covers or software boxes. The fact is, clip art can range in quality from rough drawings to refined images. But, clip art is never mistaken for high quality paintings or photos. It is not intended to be the only or the primary image in a larger work (like an ebook cover).

Perhaps the best rule of thumb is: If you are not sure if you should use a piece of clip art in your document (ebook cover, box cover), don’t use it. If you are not careful, the wrong choice of clip art can imply a lack of quality.

The above statements notwithstanding, clip art can, if used properly, be an effective element in a quality ebook cover. Where do you find graphics? Without a doubt, there are many sites where you can get images and photos you can use. There are literally hundreds of Web sites where you can find clip art of all types and quality. Just search online for “free clip art”, “free images”, or “free graphics.”  Some may require that you sign up for a free membership.

Just be sure that you are allowed to use any clip art you find, and that it is of high quality.  It is very important that you carefully read the “Terms of Use” before using any image. Some sites may only allow use of their images for personal use. Others allow commercial use. Still other sites let each contributor of the images determine what kinds of usage will be allowed. When paying a fee for an image, the fee usually grants you permission to use the image freely in any way that you wish.

When using an image for your ebook cover, make sure it is okay to use in a commercial situation, and check to see if you have to pay for that use, or if there are other requirements like giving the author/photographer credit for the image. You can also purchase large collections of clip art on CD sets in computer stores or on the Internet.

Good luck in your search for the right images. Finding the right picture will make your efforts worthwhile. It will increase sales of your ebook or software. If you find yourself a little lost trying to find the right images and design of your cover, then perhaps  you should consider hiring an experienced graphic designer to produce the cover for you.

Boost your ebook sales with quality 3D ebook covers!FREE 34+ clipart and photo resources.Quality custom design of Web graphics http://www.QualityEbookCovers.com.

Choosing the right fonts is an important decision you will have to make when designing a quality ebook cover. You will want to choose a font that is readable and appropriate for your audience.

The following general information about fonts will help you to make the right choice:

Size: An ebook cover image is usually a rather small image. Therefore, you have to be sure that the font you use will be readable on the small image. A lot of fonts just don’t work well at very small sizes.

Weight: The term “weight” refers to the thickness of the elements that make up each character in a font. Most fonts have a regular version and a bold version. The bold version has greater weight because the letters are thicker. A bolded font stands out more, even at smaller sizes. Some fonts also offer a “heavy” and a “black” version that is even thicker than the bold version. Arial black, Helvetica black, and Impact are just some examples of popular fonts that are used to create titles and headlines. These fonts also work well for ebook covers.

If you look at book or article titles, you will notice that they tend to be “heavier” and larger in size than any of the other text. This is because the author wants to emphasize the title/subtitle.

Serif vs. Sans Serif: Take a look at the letters in the Helvetica font and Times New Roman font. Helvetica is a sans serif font, while Times New Roman is a serif font. The difference is the extra flourish at the ends of each line in each character in a serif font. The term serif refers to these flourishes. Compare the letter “I” in both of the fonts mentioned above and you will easily see the difference.

Sans serif fonts tend to be more readable when used in titles, subtitles, captions and headlines. They also tend to be more readable at the smaller font sizes. Serif fonts, on the other hand work better where there is a large amount of text (a paragraph or more).

Appropriateness: It’s important that you choose a font that is appropriate for your audience. For instance, if your book is targeted for women, choose a more feminine font. If your book’s focus is children, then it would be appropriate to choose a font that conveys a sense of playfulness. However, regardless of age and gender, if your subject is serious then you would want a font that conveys a serious tone.

Keep in mind that there are no hard and fast rules in this area of font selection. What seems appropriate for a masculine subject in one situation may not be so in another situation. The point here is simply to pay attention to what message and feeling you’re communicating with your selected font.

Here are some more font tips for ebook covers:

• Use one or two fonts. Never use more than three different fonts. Better yet, use different weights of the same font. For example, use Arial Black for the title and Arial Bold for the subtitle.

• Don’t use too much text on your cover. It won’t be readable anyway. The less text you use, the larger and more readable your text will be. You may want to consider using a shortened version of your actual book title for the cover image.

• Use the largest, boldest font for the book title, a smaller size for the subtitle, and even smaller sizes for author name and any additional text.

• Use text colors that contrast with your background to make your title stand out. However, make sure that the color of your text does not clash with the background color. Depending on your background colors, red, white and yellow often work well.

• You can bold, italicize, or underline words and phrases for emphasis. Use italics and underline sparingly. If overdone, you’ll loose the affect and reduce the readability.

• You can make your text stand out with special type effects such as drop shadows and outlines, but use these effects sparingly.

• Use capitals only for short headings. Sentences or paragraphs in all capitals letters are hard to read. For longer headings, use upper/lower case.

• Consider placing the author’s name and the web site URL as a watermark on the cover graphic to make it harder for people to steal your images.

• Put your book title on the spine of large book and box images.

There are literally thousands of fonts to choose from. Build a small collection of fonts that work well for ebook cover design. This collection will probably include the standards like Impact, Arial Black, Arial Bold, Helvetica Black, Helvetica Bold, Times New Roman, Garamond and other fonts you like that are readable and practical in smaller sizes.

Like just about all rules, most font rules can be broken. The bottom line is, if your prospects can not read your book title, or if your ebook cover conveys a message that is not appropriate to your subject, then your choice of font can result in a loss of sales (or free downloads).

Boost your ebook sales with quality 3D ebook covers! FREE 34+ clipart and photo resources. Quality custom design of Web graphics http://www.QualityEbookCovers.com.

Color can have a profound impact on your prospective buyers. The wrong colors can negatively impact your sales, while the right colors can trigger positive emotions motivating your visitors to buy from you.

Color can affect how we feel and influence what we think. In general, bright bold colors tend to stir us up, while the softer pastel colors calm and relax us. Responses to colors can vary by age, gender and cultural background.

Colors will affect how a potential buyer reacts to your ebook. Carefully select your color scheme for your ebook cover. Here are some guidelines to help you make good color choices. Bear in mind that these are guidelines, and that there are no hard and fast rules. Just use common sense.

• Consider your audience. For example, if your ebook primarily targets men, then you will want to use strong, bold colors. If your target audience is women, then choose soft, pastel colors. If your focus is on children, choose bright, vibrant colors.

• Choose colors that are appropriate for your book’s topic. For example, green may work well for books about starting a home business, making money, and reducing debt.

• Use colors that match or complement the color scheme of your web site.

• Keep the number of colors down to two or three, and no more. This does not include photographs which can have a whole range of colors.

• When using photographs on your ebook cover, use colors that complement the primary color in the picture.

• Make sure that all of the colors you use work well together and do not clash.

• Communicate your message with easy-to-read text. Use colors for your text that contrast with the background color so your text is readable. For example, a dark font on a light background is easy to read.

• Consider the mood you want to create. Remember that emotions trigger sales. People buy what they want - not what they need. The list below will show you how colors can affect us in different ways.

Red – Action, energy, strength, passion, fire, heat, power, attention-getting. Can also mean love and romance. A strong masculine color. Red is a good color for a call-to-action. Red is cheerfulness, excitement, and warmth. Pink is a soft version of red. It is most associated with romance, calming affect; a feminine color.

Blue – Confidence, travel, freedom, truth, professionalism, wealth and power. Also tranquility, dependable, acceptance, patience, understanding, cooperation, comfort, loyalty and security. It is one of the most calming colors and is associated with the sky and the sea, intelligence, reassurance, and trust. Blue has also been known to be an appetite suppressant, so it would not be good for cookbooks or recipes but you can consider it for diet books.

Green – Money, wealth, prosperity, calm, health, food, nature, hope, growth, freshness, soothing, sharing, and responsiveness. Green symbolizes spring, renewal, and fertility.

Orange – Health and vitality, autumn, youthfulness, fire, steadfastness, courage, confidence, friendliness, cheerfulness, warmth, excitement and energy. Has been known to stimulate the appetite. Vibrant and warm, orange is associated with autumn and the earth.

Yellow – Light, purity, understanding, caution, brightness, intelligence, joy, organization, Spring. Yellow often represents sunshine, warmth, light, energy and happiness.

Purple – Dignity, sophistication, creativity, spirituality and mystery. Deep purple is associated with royalty and richness, while lavender is associated with romance and nostalgia.

Brown – Credibility, stability, the hearth, home, the earth, wood, comfort and strength. Brown can be used as a neutral or a warm color.

Black – Space, night, authority, dramatic, classy, committed, serious, power, elegance, and sophistication.

White – Purity, peace, perfection, fresh, easy, cleanliness, goodness, and spirituality. Worth noting here, white represents life and marriage in Western cultures, but it represents death and sorrow in Eastern cultures.

Grey – A conservative color, symbolizing security, maturity and reliability.

Take advantage of the impact color can have on your ebook sales and choose colors that will create positive responses.

Boost your ebook sales with quality 3D ebook covers! FREE 34+ clipart and photo resources. Quality custom design of Web graphics http://www.QualityEbookCovers.com.

Secret #5: How to build steady sales for years to come with eBook Directories!

Aho,

Are you making this mistake in your business?

Are you to busy to submit to more than a handful of eBook directories? Or worse yet, are you to busy to submit to even one!

Stop! By all means take a minute to read this short and to the point article. It will help you to build steady sales for years to come.

Before we begin, here is what you need to put together before you start going to the directories.

1. Great eBook Cover

This is a MUST! In order to promote correctly you

must have a great eBook cover. In this case, the

cover does sell the eBook.

2. 3 descriptions of varying lengths written out into

a text editor like notepad. Begin with 2 to 4

sentences and build to several paragraphs.

3. A list of 10 keywords.

Now, let’s take a look at these separately.

First, a great eBook cover. Now there are eBook cover makers on the Internet that you can buy to make a great looking cover. You can also use some of the drawing programs that are out there. If making your own ebook cover is daunting to you, just relax and use this method: Buy one from a professional eBook cover maker.

In this article I do not have enough room to help you with the eBook Cover Programs. Simply go to a search engine and look them up.

(Note: I will have an extensive list of eBook Cover Programs in my upcoming eBook: EBook Marketing Secrets Revealed. Please see the end of this article for information.)

However, I can help you with a custom cover. Here is a wonderful cover creator for you:

http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?bdolphin/coverart

Just copy and paste the above URL into your browser and away you go! Have fun!

Ok, now where were we. Oh yes…

Second, writing 3 descriptions about your eBook. This is an essential step and must not be taken lightly. You will need these descriptions when you go to enter your eBook into the eBook Directories.

The reason I have you write 3 of varying lengths is to accommodate the different directory layouts.

Third, make a list of ten keywords. This is very important. I suggest you go to some of the directories first and type in some keywords you think you’d like to use and see what the results will be. This will show you what others are looking under and what other eBooks will be listed. This way you can narrow down your ten best keywords.

In addition to your list of three descriptions and keywords add the following to you file: your title, your name, email address and website URL.

Ok, now let’s move forward.

eBook directories will increase both your short term and long term sales. It all depends on the directory itself. Some directories have a large audience that shops regularly, this will increase your long term sales. Other directories have large spurts of sales and of course this will increase your short-term traffic.

eBook directories are not just good for sales, they make excellent research helpers as well. When I was first beginning my first eBook I went to a dozen or more eBook Directories and researched via keywords the different topics my eBook would carry. This gave me a great idea of what was already on the market and where there were possible niche markets.

In addition, I found hundreds of eBooks to download for free. This is the biggest help I had in getting over the Internet learning curve. I also learned from those eBooks how to write an eBook and how not to write an eBook. It becomes oh so clear when you use this type of research.

Today there are so many people submitting to the eBook directories you need to become familiar with the many different types of directories before you begin listing.

First there are still some directories that are free to list in. Then there are those that charge a fee to list unless you don’t mind waiting 30 days or more in which case the listing becomes free again. Still others ask you to add a link to your website before they will add you to their directory. You must decide which avenues you wish to walk down and then head for those types of directories.

Many of the directories today utilize submission guidelines. When you see this make sure you take the time to read them. They are invaluable! The more you know about a particular eBook directory the better your chances of gaining a good listing.

Here are three eBook Directories to get you started.

http://www.ebookdirectory.com/index.html

http://www.ebookjungle.com/submit.php

http://www.wisdomebooks.com/add.html

Well that’s it for today!

Happy listing!

Blessings Bluedolphin Crow

Bluedolphin Crow Ph.D. is the author of an eBook called: eBook-Marketing-Secrets-Revealed! Rreserve your copy go to: http://www.ebook-marketing-secrets-revealed.com

Dear Reader,

If you’re wondering or thinking a way that you could boost your sales immediately.

If you’re wondering how you could boost your sales by 30% or more.

If you’re are wondering how you could create your own professional ebook cover, than this maybe the most important article that you will read today.

Recently I have been researching about how to convert document into PDF for free. Although I know the method already, but I want research to see if there is one that is similar.

I couldn’t find one online, maybe I didn’t search hard enough, so I went to Ebay to see if I could find one.

I came across this interesting auction that sell somethind called “Easy PDF toolkit”. This thing really got my attention, I mean, the ecover is professional looking, the salescopy is good.

But I still hesitate, I kept on looking, still, can’t find any. The image of the ebook cover “Easy PDF toolkit” is still in my mind reminding me that there is still one more choice for me to choose.

So I go and and look again, spend a few minutes there looking at the discription, the whole things is quite good, good packaging, good looking ecover, and of course good salescopy.

Finally I gave up and I bought it.

What I want to tell you is that a good ebook cover could make a whole lot difference.

If you want to know more about how big that an ebook cover could influence you sales, how you could create your own professional ebook cover, visit www.instantebookprofit.com, join our newsletter there, not only will you know the answer you want to know, you will also have a chance to get the biggest secret that people are asking for just to join our free newsletter.

Titus Cheng, author of the ebook “Secret of creating PDF ebook without spending money on any software”, http://www.instantebookprofit.com.