Not only are there a plethora of books out there, there's hella authors out there as well. As a reader with almost 2,500 books in her Kindle library, I'm sometimes overwhelmed on what books I should be reading. It's as if as soon as I add a book to my TBR, five more books drop that I want to read. And although I feel as if I read a fairly large amount of books, I also feel as if I'm not reading enough. So, I have to incorporate some sort of process of elimination to decide what books to read. In this blog post I'm going to give you five reasons that could prevent me, or other readers, from even picking up a book. If you are an established author, with an established audience, none of these items may apply to you. But if you are struggling to find your target audience, keep scrolling.
1. Your cover
I know we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes it's hard not to. Whether you're using a cover designer or designing your cover yourself, you should always use a cover that is eye-catching, and if possible, different. If the cover looks low budget, I'm more than likely going to steer clear of it. My newest pet peeve is the cartoonish AI images. My mind immediately goes to Disney/Pixar and I have to really like the author to even consider reading a book that feature those images on the cover. I know in this industry, it's easy to get caught up in trends and what everyone else is doing, but originality is your best bet. If you need recommendations on cover designers, here's a list of a few I recommend:
2. Your pen name
The pen name you are currently using may be perfect for your target audience, but if you're looking to branch out, it could possibly pose a problem. It could be too long, not catchy enough, or just simply ugly. I'm no branding expert, but I can tell you that an author's pen name has definitely made me steer clear of a book. Now if your pen name is your government name, please disregard. LMAO.
3. The synopsis
If the synopsis is too long, or too short, I'm immediately turned off. I know a lot of authors struggle with writing a synopsis and I get it. After writing and entire book, who wants to have to recap it? But if I see a few words or a merely a sentence, and it's an author I'm not familiar with, I'm leaving that book right on Amazon. The other end of the spectrum is the synopsis having three or more paragraphs. If the synopsis has just as many words as the actual book, there's two things that could happen. I skim the synopsis and find the parts that stand out, or I could not download the book. Again, if it's an author I'm not familiar with, the latter is probably my best option.
If you struggle with writing your synopsis, here is a short list of people that offer synopsis writing services:
4. Nobody's talking about your books
Word of mouth will always be the best promotion. It's something about seeing other readers talk about a book that makes people want to read it. Now of course, everyone won't like "hyped books" but it definitely garners enough attention to make them consider downloading. Or, downloading and ultimately DNF'ing. Every download won't be from a person in your target audience, but it'll definitely bring you one step closer to finding them.
5. Your social media presence
Social media is at the center of everything. From keeping up with family members, to your favorite celebrities, social media is virtually a one stop shop. When I first got my Facebook page, I wanted to be friends with every author I loved, but that was yearrsssss ago. So, there wasn't as many authors that was accessible. Now, I feel every author on the planet has some form of social media account. And it's easy to get caught up in so many things on there. Religion, celebrities, politics, and a bunch of other touchy subjects. It's imperative to have an author page and personal page. Readers may love you and your books and hate your personal views. When an author is too active on social media, that can be a turn off, especially if your content isn't engaging. The flip side of the coin is a non-existent social media presence. There are authors out there that drop their links and dip. Again, if you have an established fan base, that's all you need to do. But if you are looking to gain more readers, you need to at least promote and market your books. It's been several books that I've added to my TBR and completely forget about them. Not only because no other reader is talking about your books, but YOU aren't even talking about your books. Even if you only log on to promote, try to do it at least once a week so readers won't forget about you.
I hope this shed light, or at least helped you in some way. Sometimes I feel as if there is a disconnect between readers and authors. This is me trying to help bridge that gap and offering a bit of insight. Let me know if this was helpful in the comments.