Today, I watched a podcast about marketing books. It was one of those podcasts that runs for an hour but delivers about one minute of actual value. Mostly a waste of time — so I’m not going to link to it or even mention its name.
The host — a self-proclaimed expert on book marketing — argued that authors need to shift their perspective. Instead of making decisions based on what they personally like, they should make decisions based on what sells.
In particular, he talked about book covers and said something along the lines of:
Don’t choose a book cover because you like it. Choose it because it makes potential readers buy your book.
Sure, I understand that approach. Once you’ve written a book, you want people to read it — and that means you want it to sell. So yes, making decisions from the perspective of potential buyers makes sense.
I don’t consider myself an expert on this topic at all, so don’t get me wrong. But the question that immediately came to my mind was this: Would I be proud of a book that I designed purely to sell — if I wouldn’t even want to buy it myself?
And my answer is no.
Maybe that’s the poor man’s answer — the answer of an author who has sold fewer than 1,000 copies so far. Maybe it’s the answer of a hobby writer. But it’s my honest answer, and I don’t think it will ever change.
After I hit the publish button on Amazon, I want to feel proud of what I’ve created. I want to look at my book and say:
Awesome idea. Stunning story. Beautiful cover. Great job.
Ideally, you achieve both as an author: you write a story for yourself that others love as well. But if I have to choose between a book that I love (and only a few readers do) and a book that many readers love but I don’t, I’m naive enough to choose the first.
If that means I’ll never “make it” — then so be it.
