We always say that you can’t judge a book by its cover but it’s obvious a lot of us do. As a writer for many years, the only thing slowing me down from publishing more, even as an ebook, is deciding on the cover and being able to pay the creator.
I have an awesome artist I work with regularly and his prices are something I can afford though it’s sometimes hard to justify the investment when it’s for a short story. Realizing the more books I make available to my fans the better, I do occasionally splurge and hire who I need when I can. What makes it more difficult is knowing how many people have their books available for free download as authors do need to make money to be able to pay out money.
For myself and many other authors I know, it’s not about the money at all – it’s about the love of writing and finding readers which is all fine and good but publishing a book costs money. Being able to make it the best possible read for all who desire to pick it up requires an editor, cover artist and, for children’s books, an illustrator. Some say it takes a village to raise a child and they do it for the love of humanity, I say it takes a community to publish a book and most of us do it for the love of literacy; that just doesn’t pay the bills.
When offering a book for even $0.99 a lot of readers need to make the purchase to support the artists involved and encourage them to publish another. I admit, my kindle is filled with tons of freebies and I know how much the author and their team has put into it. So instead of paying them monetarily I do ensure I promote, review and write about it when it’s a good book. As an author, I ask you to do the same for any book you read – whether it cost you money or not.
Each review, every sale, every tweet about a book shows the author, editor, illustrator, cover creator that you are invested and support their efforts in following their passion.
So never judge a book by its cover alone – respect it for all who are involved with pouring their heart and soul on a page when there are other things they are obligated to do. Find something you love to do and understand how much time you want to invest in that while other priorities are preventing you and then you’ll know why we authors ask for your help.
Thanks for reading, buying and reviewing!
Sarah Butland
author of Life Imitated
