Hello, and welcome to Nadi Abdi’s blog on Writing, Reading, and Politics. I’m your hostess, Nadi Abdi, author of Power of the People: The Demon Cleaner book one.

Today, we’re talking about book covers. As I learn more about marketing, I’ve learned how important the book cover is as the first piece of marketing in your campaign. I’ve also learned the mistake I’ve made with my original cover for Power of the People.

Apart from the title, choosing a book cover is maybe the most important marketing choice you’re going to make. This is what everyone’s going to see everywhere. This will be everyone’s first interaction with your work. So, you want something that’s going to give a sense of what your story is about, but also resonate with your audience. How do you do that?

I don’t know, but I’m going to tell you what I’ve done so far.

One year, at San Diego Comic Con, I was wandering the hall, looking at comic books and graphic novels. when I stumbled upon a Batman comic. The cover was the Batman symbol in the sky and the Joker on the ground, his back to the audience, but holding a playing card at an angle so you could see the joker on the card. I felt that so much. I don’t even know what issue that was, but I felt that cover.

Since then, I realized I have an affinity for covers where the focus is on symbols of the main characters rather than the showing the characters themselves. When I design the cover of power of the people, I want it to create a sense that these 2 factions, the demon cleaners and the demon Knights, loom heavily over the city. the symbol for the cleaners is bigger than the symbol for the nights because the cleaners are more powerful. however, there are more knights which is what their symbol represents. Then there’s a lot of imagery with regards to the layout of the city.

But the point is, there are no people on the cover. Is the cover relevant to the story? Yes. Does it resonate with my audience? Honestly, I don’t think so. My audience is still growing. but I have been learning a lot about marketing.  What I’ve done to understand is that the Batman cover worked because people already know what those symbols represent. Meanwhile, I’m a new author. My story is new. There’s nothing on the cover that gives any idea what kind of story this is.  I write primarily for Black women fantasy fans. Black women and older teens who are looking for Black-led fantasy reads may bypass my novel, assuming it’s written by a white author (a valid assumption as 70% of authors in America are white) and bypass my work. 

I recently hired an artist to make a new cover with a character. I feel confident that she’ll get me closer to my audience. Will the new cover be the magic element that allows me to quit my job and write full-time? Probably not. Will it make marketing easier? Yes. And hopefully, it’ll be the most expensive part of my marketing efforts. 

Put a lot of thought into your book cover. It’s going to be all over everything you do. All over your social media, your bookmarks, your videos, your t-shirts, your pages. Before people ever read the synopsis, they’re going to see that. Make sure it’s something you’re proud of and that it represents your story. We don’t know what will resonate with or inspire people. We just do the best we can.

But also, if it’s not getting you the results you want, change it. The more I learn about marketing, the more I see how my original cover was a hindrance. Though I love it, I’m proud of it, and elements of it were used in my new cover, it wasn’t doing anything to attract my target audience. I don’t know what the results of this cover will be, but I know it will give readers more of a clue about what’s under the cover than the original. 

All I gotta do now is rewrite the blurb. Wish me luck! 

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Come back next week. We’ll discuss more about writing, reading, publishing, and everything in between. I’m Nadi Abdi. See you then.

Read more by Nadi Abdi

The Demon Cleaner: Blog, Substack

Black Women in Fantasy: Blog, Substack

Nadi Abdi on Writing, Reading, and Politics: Blog, Substack