Nonfiction Book Launching Secrets: The Cover Reveal

In the fiction world, cover reveals are common. In nonfiction, not so much. (At least, in my experience.)

First, what is a cover reveal?

It’s basically an event in which the author unveils the cover of a book before it’s published. Typically, it happens shortly after the book is available on preorder.

It’s pretty simple, actually. The cover is posted somewhere, usually on a blog, and sometimes, the book description is included along with links to preorder.

Then, authors share the post with their subscriber list and social media fans.

Authors will sometimes take this a step further and orchestrate a blog tour around the cover reveal, which basically involves having other fiction blogs post the cover and promote the book on their social networks.

Does it work?

Well, I just did my own cover reveal for the audiobook release of It Began With a Lie (which you can see here, if you would like an example.)

And I guess I’d say the answer depends on your definition of “work.”

Does it lead to a bunch of preorders? Maybe. If a reader is following the author and sees a new book is available, she absolutely will go check it out and maybe preorder.

If a reader is brand new to the author, she might be intrigued enough to check out more of his or her books.

But, even if a new reader doesn’t head over and immediately preorder the book, it doesn’t mean the effort was wasted. There are an awful lot of authors selling books right now, and I do think readers (like all customers) need to see a book a few times before they finally buy it.

A cover reveal can act as one of those touches.

That being said, I personally don’t know if it’s worth the time and energy to contact other bloggers and set up a blog tour to promote a cover reveal.

BUT doing a little cover reveal on your own blog? Absolutely.

(Quite honestly, I’m not sure why nonfiction authors generally don’t do this.)

To me, it’s quick and easy. Simply create the blog post by posting your cover, the date its being released, and the book description, and email your subscribers.

Then, you can move to phase two and offer a bonus gift for preordering (if you so desire).

The bottom line is that readers are going to buy and read your book when they’re ready. It might take them seeing it 10 times … maybe twenty.

Or, perhaps it will strike a chord with a reader right from the start during a cover reveal, and he or she purchases right then.

Either way, the more ways you have to promote your book, the better your sales.