Imagination: Book Titles and cover art

After doing the heavy lifting of writing a book, one would think that designing the cover and picking a title would be the easy part of publishing, right? Au contraire! My experience has been that it can be daunting to make those key selections because they are so critical to the final product. But I’m excited to share that the cover for Devious Web has now been finalized and I couldn’t be more pleased with the end result!

I’m a big fan of the Netflix series Mad Men and the stylized graphics used in the series theme. With that inspiration in mind and after a variety of cover concepts were developed by both SparkPress and an independent designer, the final cover is in keeping with my style preference for clean lines and an impactful design. The cover also visually conveys the book’s central theme, and hopefully will be intriguing to potential readers like yourself.

The title was selected earlier in my publishing journey. The fun part of picking a title is it’s the icing on the cake after all the writing and editing, capturing the essence of the book and conveying it to readers in a succinct way. I found that brainstorming ideas and soliciting opinions – from both individuals and ChatGPT AI – surfaced lots of possibilities for titles that could capture the attention of readers.

The bad part is that some great titles are already ‘taken’. It can be frustrating trying to find a title in a particular genre that isn’t already searchable online as a movie or book title. At one point I thought I had found the ideal title only to discover it was overused by other mystery and thriller fiction writers.

I’m now confident that Devious Web is the perfect title to convey the storyline of my book!

But the true test for the cover design and title will be whether my book stands out sufficiently to be picked up and taken home by those selecting a novel from the front table of a bookstore where Devious Web might be surrounded by other perhaps more established authors’ books. And whether, on Amazon or Goodreads, online browsers are compelled to stop and read the title and synopsis – and whether browsing leads to buying. Time will tell!

What is your reaction to the book cover design? I’d love to hear from you: shelley@shelleygrandy.com.