Drum roll please!

As promised last week, here is the first reveal of the book cover for Beware the Falling Avocados.

Observant readers of this blog will know that this will be my second book: a sequel to In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree which I published three years ago (how time flies!) You may spot a bit of a theme: both are memoir, both are about our time in Zambia, both titles allude to slightly exotic trees.

First impressions last. Although no-one should judge a book by its cover, undoubtedly we do, which is why the cover of any book is so important. I have given talks showing examples of really bad covers: I do wonder how it affected their sales. The cover talks of the book – its style, its location, its genre, its readership. The cover is the primary selling point, before anyone looks at the blurb or reads the first page.

I was so delighted with the work that Andrew at designforwriters.com did for my first book that I had no hesitation in asking him to produce the cover for Avocados. Unsurprisingly it continues with the theme… so you can buy both books and they’ll look superb together on your bookshelf!

Here it is:

I am smitten once again. It has obvious resonance with my first book (tree, multi-coloured leaves, font) but also has the attribute of avocados: a few falling to the ground, and the overall green-yellow colouring scheme combined with some dusty African orange.

As last time, I received a long list of questions from Andrew about the book: its characters, setting, themes, key incidents, etc. It was a little easier second time through as (a) I knew what to expect and (b) so did he! After the first draft we battled a little over the avocados and whether it looked sufficiently green, but after he offered me a completely different option (just avocados!) it was clear that his original vision was the best.

This just proves to me the value of spending money on a book cover design. My attempts would result in a mash-up of avocados and trees and be sickly green. It would have jarred with my original book. And it probably wouldn’t have suited both a print book and the thumbnail image for Amazon/online sales.

Isn’t it irritating when the experts you employ are actually good at their job?

Thank you Andrew and designforwriters.com. I cannot praise you enough.

Over the coming days, I expect to re-colour my blog and pictures on social media as I introduce the new book. Watch my leaves turn green and brown!

 

Next week: more about the mechanics of self-publishing a book.