Cover Reveals and Convenience
At SFF Insiders we love a good cover reveal. Our Team’s experience helping authors with reveals has been incredibly uplifting and simply a lot of fun. Having published over forty reveals this year at the time this writing we decided to share what we have learned and what we have come to believe about what makes a “good cover reveal”.
E.L. Lyons, author of ‘Starlight Jewel: Gifts of the Auldtree’ & SFF Insider Blog Team Member, recently shared her thoughts about reveals, included below. Following E.L.’s eloquent take you will find our thoughts about reveals.
The goal is to provide encouragement, speak to etiquette, and give author’s points to consider for running a smooth and successful reveal. Hopefully, some of the stress involved in the process can be minimized as well.
This post was a collaborative effort between E.L. Lyons and BlueSmoke. Enjoy E.L.’s thoughts and then plunge into the more ham-handed material that follows.
A lot of authors who are less bold when it comes to marketing equate “whenever it’s convenient” with not putting pressure on anyone and making things easier for others.
Except sometimes “at your convenience” is not actually convenient information for the other parties. Cover reveals are one of those times. Especially cover reveals where multiple bloggers have offered to assist or you have asked them to assist.
The sentiment is coming from a good place: not wanting people to feel obligated or like we’re entitled to their time or assistance. And this is a good sentiment to have when it comes to things like review requests. But you shouldn’t apply it to all things book related, especially when you are coordinating with others.
Blogs thrive when people go to them. They tease the cover on Twitter or Instagram, but when you click the link, you bring them traffic. So if all the bloggers post at the same time, then they all have the same chance of getting that traffic that helps them succeed and help more authors.
If you give everyone a time, you are helping everyone. Giving a time is helpful and considerate, not imposing. And if you don’t give a time or don’t give everyone the same time, you put certain blogs at a disadvantage because readers will have already seen the cover elsewhere and little to no traffic will go to whoever posts last.
You may have in mind that staggering reveal posts is good for marketing, and in a way, you’re right! However, these reveal posts will be naturally staggered throughout the day as people share and retweet them. Especially with a blog like SFFI with members from all over the world, after the main post goes up, other blog members will retweet and/or repost throughout the day whenever they see the reveal is up. And often, Twitter will show people posts from hours or even days before.
It’s also worth noting that even if authors request a specific time and all the bloggers involved agree to it, some bloggers may jump the gun and post early. This is inconsiderate to everyone involved, and while authors may not know how traffic impacts book blogs, other book bloggers absolutely do. You might consider not giving future reveal opportunities to those who agree to something and then ignore the agreement in order to get an engagement advantage on others in the community.
You shouldn’t be hesitant to ask blogs like SFFI to do your cover reveal. Your cover reveal can be mutually beneficial and bring traffic to our blog and others if you plan it well and give the same times (being sure to include a time zone) to everyone involved.
I hope this encourages you to reach out and be straightforward when coordinating with bloggers. There is no reason to be hesitant or to feel like you’re inconveniencing anyone. This is a community, and we’d love for you to be a part of it!
The ‘too long didn’t read’:
Seek commitments for the reveal well in advance. 3-4 weeks at a minimum.
If you are exclusively working with one revealer, please let them know.
Choose a date and time, explicitly communicate it to all reveal participants.
“Whatever works for you.” Is not appropriate. Set expectations.
Do not change the date and time.
Artwork, photos, links, blurbs, credits & additional promotional materials should be ready and made available to the reveal participants as early as possible.
On your social media, promote, re-post & shout out the content posted by the reveal participants.
Your cover should not be available to the general public prior to the reveal.
Leverage the timing of your reveal for a greater purpose:
Pre-orders
ARC sign ups
Newsletter sign ups
Kickstarter promotion
Before you ask:
Don’t be afraid to ask.
You are offering free content.
No one is doing you a favor.
You and the reveal participants benefit from the relationship.
Choose a date and time for the reveal.
Have your artwork and any additional promotional materials ready weeks or even months in advance of your anticipated reveal date. Be ready to make it easily available to participants.
Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc
(Note: Most of us love doing this stuff and are happy to participate. You can also be appreciative of our efforts. But don’t feel like it’s a favor. We want to help.)
Choose a date and time and stick with it:
Explicitly inform reveal team participants of the time zone, date and time. Consider this a high priority and your responsibility to communicate.
The critical point is that everyone understands that no one will post before the designated start time.
Once you start signing people up, making changes is frustrating for all involved. You may even lose a few if you do so.
Larger accounts or websites may have limited availability, reach out to those first as they may influence your choice of reveal date.
If you want posts to be staggered through the day, ask reveal participants if they are willing to post later. Have them commit to a specific time if possible.
The benefits of Staggering vs. Blitzing are debatable. Some will be amendable to stagger while others will want to be out of the gates with the crowd. Take what you can get.
Lock the imposter syndrome in the closet:
For the social media platforms that you share with reveal team members consider it an obligation to comment on and quote post their posts.
Be appreciative, happy, excited… generate energy.
Lock the imposter syndrome in the closet for the day and commit to being an all-star, embrace it. The team loves it and doing so greatly benefits engagement for your reveal. It is a win for everyone.
Promote the bloggers & vloggers web content with your own social media posts. If you have a web page, add links to their content. The back link on your webpage can assist in their SEO.
Leverage:
A cover reveal is a marketing opportunity that can contribute to a strong launch of your book. Take advantage of the reveal event to influence the achievement of wider goals. Consider coordinating its timing with:
Advance Review Copy (ARC) signups
Pre-orders
Newsletter signups
Kickstarter promotion
Anything else you can imagine. Set a goal.
Doing many of these things requires dealing with third parties who deliver the ARCs, are selling your book, or setting up a Kickstarter. Add these to your calendar early and nail them down.
You can set up a preorder with Amazon with a place holder cover prior to the reveal and update it in coordination with the reveal as best you can.
Joseph John Lee, author of recently released ‘Upscaled’ and SFF Insiders Blog Team Member points out that it is a fairly simple process to change the cover using the KDP Dashbaord.
Step 1: Go into the KDP Dashboard, and by the [...] button, click on "Edit eBook Content"
Step 2: Go the Kindle eBook Cover section and click on "Upload your cover file"
Step 3: Click "Save Content" at the bottom of the screen
Joe indicated that it could take up to a few hours to be reflected on the product page but is usually there by day’s end. Some of our other SFF Insider authors did note they experienced longer lag times into the next day.
It is okay if the change from place holder to actual cover is a bit delayed or even slightly ahead of the reveal. Try to limit having your cover out in the wild to the shortest time span possible. Don’t publicize the link and cover prior to the reveal.
If the cover is public and making the rounds on social media prior to the reveal, you could have some back out of the reveal.
This is by no means a comprehensive take on everything reveal related. It is our fond hope that the takeaways highlighted will help an author feel more confident about the process and the event itself. All the points discussed are presented because they have come up in some form or another during our efforts.
Below are some examples of our recent reveals.
