The author says:
Real estate investing, where to find good deals, etc… The silent market is all the deals that are not on the market. fyi-The photo was of myself on Santa Monica Beach, CA.
Nathan says:
I think the biggest problem here is that it simply doesn’t look like a how-to book. There’s a soft, spiritual vibe here, more appropriate to a personal memoir, or maybe a self-help book. With that photograph, even the tagline seems like it’s some sort of New Age-y quip — “The best real estate deals are the ones which you find inside yourself, meditate upon this.”
The best thing you can do is to look at real-estate how-to books and learn how the consumers of such books are used to being marketed to. You don’t have to go for slavish imitation, but you do have to include enough expected elements on the cover that your target audience will understand that this book is for them, instead of being accidentally mis-shelved in the wrong section at Barnes & Noble.
Perform a Google search on this image to see why it doesn’t work for a how-to book about real estate.
It’s a good looking cover … for a different book.
I agree with Nathan and B.L.
It’s text slapped on a random picture… Nothing about this is good. (the picture as a picture is good but not as a cover)
This should be a picture of whatever the silent market is. Like if that refers to newspaper obituaries, to scoff up the homes of the recently deceased, show us that, show some clue to what your pitch is. And do it in an enticing, interesting way.
I think the first problem is that it looks more like a self-help New Age cover, like Nathan said. For a real estate book, add some real estate — if there are secret deals to be found, make it secluded. A twin-rut driveway leading past trees to a partial mansion in the woods would scream “secret real estate deals.”
Unless you’re selling beachfront property, the sunset shot with waves is misleading. And even then, you’d want a porch railing and some wooden chairs in view, at the very least.
Now, the font. Real estate magazines and books (I work at a certain large hardware store chain) tend toward serif fonts. Think Times New Roman, Palatino Linotype, or Georgia for the basic look. BUT, they also tend to have stylish letters that swoop across the picture. If you’re a little more Internet savvy, Google “font downloads” and don’t be afraid to experiment a little, but make sure it isn’t curled and swooshed into unreadability. The best way is to shrink (a copy of!) the picture down to about 200 px across and see if it’s passably clear.
Disclosure: This submitter is a client; we’re making books for him, and I asked him to submit here, to get the best cover.
As my bailiwick tends to be fonts, I’d be delighted to kibitz about that, but not until we get a suitable image.
I concur that between the title and the image, it’s not, to me, screaming “Hey, stupid! I’m a book on how to make a killing in real estate, buy me!”
I wanted to add: I spent 10 minutes rummaging around Amazon, at books about “real estate investing” and other categories, and the bottom line is, covers are either all text, or, if images, images of houses, or portions of houses, or dollar signs. That’s pretty much it. I didn’t see any covers that had that relaxed vibe of life on the beach.
Did you guys instantly think “Real Estate” when you read the title of the book? The Silent Market?
My first impression of the image was that of a book about dealing with divorce. My second after reading the text was “Oops, they used the wrong image.”
I thought it was supposed to be some type of thriller, even after reading the name and tagline.
I didn’t think it was a how too book at all
I never thought of that! You’re right, I can see how that could be a tagline for a thriller. Hmmmm, a nice idea for a thriller name.
This needs to be redesigned from scratch.
The image is completely inappropriate, for one thing—aside from the fact that it appears to be two different photos of sunsets superimposed, for some unaccountable reason.
I know you were looking for images that depict a relaxed beach lifestyle…but there is nothing in either the title or subtitle to suggest that the book is about beachfront properties. All I see is ocean…and ocean is hardly real estate.
OMG I didn’t even notice there were 2 sunsets… But I think it might be a reflection?
I still think this at least needs to hint at what the secret is, like if this was a book about how to save money grocery shopping, I’d want it to show a huge pile of coupons if that was the secret, or a clock set to five AM if the secret was to go at a specific time. I’d want a clue because I wouldn’t bother buy a book if it was selling something I wouldn’t do but I’d snap it up if I thought it held some clever idea of something I would do, like shop at 5AM
No…it’s two different photos! 😜