Julie Broad (Book Launchers) explains when authors should put their face on a non-fiction book cover and gives three decision criteria: 1) genre/category conventions (do bestsellers in that category use faces?), 2) recognizability to the target reader (is the author known to the intended audience?), and 3) whether the photo sells the book (creates curiosity, demonstrates the book’s benefit/hook, or fits the brand). She illustrates using examples (David Allen, Katrin [CrossFit], Imani Roberts), recommends split-testing covers and using paid tests (Google Ads, PickFu) rather than asking friends, and advises monitoring Amazon ads click-through to decide on cover changes after launch.
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For some people, when they picture becoming an author, they think of putting their face on the COVID of a book like this book or even this book. But there are three things about those two books that make it 100% reasonable and even expected that the author's faces are on the COVID If you're about to put your picture on the COVID of a book or you're wondering if it's appropriate to do so, then this video is absolutely for you. Hey there, I'm Julie the book broad from Book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing team helping you write, publish and promote a nonfiction book that will help you have a huge impact on your readers. And done right will also help you grow your brand, build your business and make you money. The best part? You get to keep all rights and royalties. Yeah, all right. Fitz Kohler wrote me with some super kind words and said hi Julie, I love your videos and I've been watching them non stop as I've gone through my book writing process. Your advice is golden and I love your delivery. You suggest not to put a photo on the COVID because most of your audience isn't famous. Noted. I'm actually a bit of a celebrity in my field. What pointers do you have for someone who does have a level of fame? My book is a memoir. Oh wee. I love questions from you, my YouTube family, and I especially love them when it's clear someone has watched my videos but just needs a little more. So Fitz, this is for you. In videos on book covers, I've talked about how a unless you're famous, your face won't help you sell books. This is still largely true. So how do you know when it's appropriate for you to put your face on the COVID of your book? I have three criteria for you to consider to help you decide. Number one, what genre is your book in or most likely to be in? What are the books you'll be competing with look like? If you're in a category where nobody else puts their mugshot on the front, then putting your photo on the COVID is probably not a good idea. Let's take a quick look so you can see what I mean. Perhaps you've written a self help book on stress management and living a life with more happiness. To see if the books that are selling best in that category have faces on the COVID go to Amazon, click on Bestsellers or Books and your category. Then take a look. Where do you see a face? Ask yourself if this book is showing up in the right place. In this case, David Allen is there and it is the only one that has a face. It is in the right category. And I suppose the publisher would argue that David Allen is widely recognized as the world's leading expert on personal and organizational productivity. Whew, that's a mouthful. But I personally don't think his face is selling the book. If I were the publisher, I would do a split test of his face on the COVID versus a new edgy cover. Regardless, there is one person who has his face on the COVID and he is a multi book best selling author. Compare that to the genre of memoir though. Seeing someone's face on the COVID in memoir category is very common. But take a look at this and tell me what you see. Almost all of the faces here are instantly recognizable, so don't just go my book is a memoir. My face should be on the COVID Drill down further into the category of book you think you'll be in History versus Leaders, for example, or notable people and see is a face still common on that cover? Who is your ideal reader and will that reader instantly recognize you? Well, the wider public won't know who you are. You didn't write your book to sell to everyone, so so will the person you want to buy your book instantly go, oh, that's so and so? I wonder what her book is about. If so, then your image will help you sell the book. For example, a face like Katrin, David's daughter, would not be recognizable to the general public, but in CrossFit she's known, so but in the CrossFit community she's a known name, so her face on the COVID is perfect. If she only wants to sell books to people familiar with the CrossFit community and CrossFit games. If she's hoping to expand her reach past the CrossFit community, this may not be ideal. But she does have criteria number three going for her. So criteria number three Will the picture sell the book in some other way? If the picture creates curiosity, sells a benefit, fits with the title and hook of the book and you have an appealing look, the picture could still work. I'm not talking about some funny realtor pose, and I'm sorry I pick on realtors for their funny pictures, but I spent nearly 20 years investing in real estate and I've looked at a lot of realtor business cards and ads and bus benches. There's just something so awkward about so many of their images. Anyway, I'm trying to talk about what Katrin did and that is she's doing a rope climb and she is an attractive woman so combined that really helps to get attention. If you have a picture of yourself in uniform doing the very thing you're talking about in the book, or the image is some other way appropriate to create curiosity or sell the benefit or concept, then it still can work. Check out what Imani Roberts did. This is him on the COVID although you can't see his face. But I think it works really well because this is his brand. It's about mixing business and DJing and it's different. But you may want to test out a couple of different covers and see what responses you get. I'd recommend running some ads to see which gets more clicks using Google Ads or using a service called Pickfu. These are paid services, but I don't actually recommend you do the free thing of asking your audience and network and friends and family. Because guess what? They know, like and trust you and inevitably will tell you the COVID that has your picture on it is best. And that's not a true test of what will sell, because you're writing your book to reach the people who don't currently know, like, and trust you. So you need to see if strangers would choose that cover. So for Fitz and anyone else like her wondering if her celebrity status in a smaller circle is enough to put her face on the COVID the answer is maybe it can work. There's never a right or wrong answer to book marketing, but be willing to change after launch if it's not working. And once your book launches, a great way to tell that your cover isn't working is with Amazon ads. If your ads are getting shown but not getting click through, that means your keywords are working, but the visual aspects are not. So try a new cover. Thanks for the great question, Fitz. If you have a question, go ahead and post it in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet book launcher swag like our oh so Soft Journal and our Noboringbooks mug. But before you do that, make sure you've subscribed to the channel and turn those notifications on so you find out when a new video comes out. We release new videos every Tuesday and Friday, except in the summer when we take a short break. You're pretty lovely to spend time with. Would you like to spend a bit more time together? Because I sure would. I think this video right here on the five Things that Make a Marketable Nonfiction Book would be a great one for you to watch. But if you've seen that already, YouTube thinks that you're going to really enjoy this video right here. Either way, I sure can't wait to see you on the next video.
