The issue with covers, backs, etc. is that you’re limited to a template. You have almost no flexibility. Which means it’s very hard to get anything better than average. It also means you’re book is very unlikely to stand out from the crowd.

Although most people don’t like to admit it, a book is generally judged by it’s cover. Which is why you should spend a significant amount of time on both the cover and the back of the book. Most buying decisions are made on these two pages. Once you achieve some success, then people will buy your book through word of mouth references and such, but initially you need to attract people to your book.

As well, the other thing you have to remember is that the average POD book sells less than 300 copies (with 60% being purchased from the author) as measured by iUniverse. Why is that? I agree it’s not one single thing, but the cover is a big part.

Read your article with interest, but I am still a bit confused….between self publishing and POD. I had 2 books published by Xulon Press and I found their service to be good. They designed both the back and front cover, which was excellent. You can judge for yourself by checking out my books L-S-D & Mind-Field of Success or Defeat on Amazon.com or other online retailers.

Thank you!

You’ll find the book is loaded with great advice. I can’t say enough. Being a blogger for several years, and being quite involved in this world, I still learned a lot!

One of the common misconceptions of publishing houses is that they’ll provide you with a lot of marketing muscle. The reality is that unless you’re already a big name (a sure thing) like Stephen King, then they’ll barely help you out. You’ll end up doing 99% of the marketing, and you’ll have to spend your own money.

A lot of people believe that once you’re done your book it’s over, and you let the publishing companies take over and market the book. This is far from the truth. And it’s not in the interest of the big publishing houses to correct this misconception

And thank you about the ebook. It’s great to hear you enjoyed it! If you liked it then you’ll definitely like this book as well. This is the advice of 40 great bloggers.

I expect I’ll buy a copy, as I’ve just recently started up my company blog and I’ll be interested to get a lot of different viewpoints on blogging as the owner of a small business. I also enjoyed your website traffic ebook – thanks for that.