Are there any free sites for testing beta 'book cover' designs?

Question

The LONG road to publishing a novel is nearing an end. But writing a novel is actually only the beginning; editing, formatting, compiling and marketing the novel makes the initial task of writing seem easy at times. But I am the type who enjoys the creative aspect of each stage and refuse to hire 'professionals'. I like that I am forced to learn each step instead of paying experts and learning nothing other than how to pay for their knowledge.

Book cover design is a HUGE aspect in the process of marketing and some believe it may in fact be more important to sales than the actual novel it represents:

When the consumer is deciding whether or not to buy, design may be more important than the text. The consumer is subconsciously informed about the quality of the text by the appearance of the book, so the design is of critical importance. Consumers judge the book by its cover and by its interior design. For the book to grow legs and enjoy sustained sales, favorable reviews and word of mouth are important. For this, the text must be great. But we don’t reach this stage without first having a beautifully designed book. http://articles.ibpa-online.org/article/look-like-pro-collection-viewpoints-critical-yet-challenging-topic-book-design/ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/book-cover-design-indies_n_3354504.html

There are plenty of posts that describe how simply changing the book cover design significantly increased the sales of a novel. And the blurb on the back cover is the second most important hook for a reader:

You pick up a book because the cover or title looks interesting. The next thing you do is read the back blurb, or if you are online, you read the first excerpt which is usually the same thing. https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/11/16/how-to-write-back-blurb-for-your-book/

I found one site http://ratebookcover.com, but I am not sure if it is actually legitimate. I found a group in Goodreads that looked promising, but it was only for published books and not covers in development.

So given the importance of the cover and the lack of income from most struggling writers, is there a site where authors can get opinions on their book covers without the often predatory services of many book cover designers?

Answer 1

This is not particularly an answer but may be close.

The cover is indeed incredibly important. I have duplicates of a couple books, with different covers, and absolutely cringe when I see the bad cover, even though the text is identical to the other copy.

Here are some covers from the book Lolita, which has been redesigned any number of times. (Some covers in this google image search are other titles; most are Lolita.)

Compare any two of them, you probably have a different response between them.

To answer your question, no, I am not aware of a website that helps with cover design. You can use your beta readers of course, and there are online critique groups (I just joined a few and writers in general look to be a helpful group.)

Here is the advice I received at a seminar - Don't try to do it yourself, it will look amateurish. Hire someone reputable. I can dig up a name I was given, if you are interested, someone in Texas. Cost is about 1200 dollars. I haven't vetted it yet.

But additionally: (Not that you asked...) There is a debate about whether or not the inclusion of people in your cover image makes a difference. There is research to suggest that this may be the case. Here is a blog post to get you started, about what specific elements may affect the buyer on the other end. I generally don't like poorly drawn people (which is often what I see, the proportions are often off) but, the well-drawn suggestion of people attracts me to titles. (Faces are the worst, so hard to get right, and maybe at odds with the reader's imagination, plus ... diversity!).

I personally find the top right image above to be the most compelling one for Lolita. No faces, but clearly a person, a child, black and white, somehow a threatening feel.

This is not really an answer, certainly not to your question, but was more than a comment. I upvoted your question because although it isn't a writing question per se, it is part of the process of getting writing into the hands of readers.

Answer 2

I'd say others do have a point about not doing everything yourself, more often than not it does comes off as having a lower quality. In terms of hiring professionals (there's no need for single quotes, if you have to use them, the person in question isn't a professional) it's more a matter of knowing where your strengths and weaknesses lie, and how YOU value YOUR time. You may find there are better cost-benefits and ROI (Return On Investment) with a cover designed by someone in the design industry, rather than if you made the cover yourself to save a bit of money (I would recommend checking out the Book Cover Design area on Reedsy)

All that being said, I have a bit of a background in graphic/web design so I tend do as much of my own cover design as I can get away with (And I would still outsource some of my covers depending on the theme and look I'm going for).

Recently I discovered the site http://helpmechooseacover.com/ where you can get feedback on your covers. You can also source you're beta readers as others have mentioned, join cover design Facebook groups and if you have a website (which you should), push traffic toward that for feedback as well.

Hope this helps.