Elana M Johnson - Writing Killer Cover Copy (Indie Inspiration for Self-Publishers Book 2)

H ello! Im Elana Johnson, a multiple USA Today bestselling author, Amazon bestselling author, Kindle All-Star Author, and have been making six-figures with my writing since 2016.

I taught at my first writing conference in 2009, and helping other authors along their journey is something Im passionate about. Its something Ive been recognized for, and its something I hope to be able to keep doing.

I started writing in 2007, and the first Kindle device was introduced in November of that same year. Self-publishing was not the thing it is now, all these years later.

If you had written a book and you wanted it published, there were several places online to look for information on small publishers that took unagented submissions, as well as literary agents.

Id written a book, and I wanted it published, so I waded into the information that was available, and I started hanging out where writers hang out. There were two places at the timeQueryTracker had (and still does have) an excellent forum. And MySpace.

Thats right. MySpace.

Some of you might not even remember MySpace, but I do! I had a profile there, and it was full of all my awesome book stuff.

I distinctly remember a conversation I had at another forum-like website started by the founder of QueryTracker, RallyStorm. Basically RallyStorm is Reddit now, but not done by the same person.

Anyway, we had a writers forum there, and I remember asking if I needed to join Facebook in 2009. Facebook had been around for a few years, but it had just come on the scene for writers and businesses.

I joined, of course. Ive pretty much joined anything and everything out there!

Aaaand, Ive digressed.

The reason I started telling you all of this is because I jumped into learning how to get an agent and get a publisher. I became an admin at QueryTracker and I, along with a few other ladies, rejuvenated their defunct blog and wrote for them for years.

One of my most popular skills was how to write a query letter. This is the first form of communication you have with an agent or a publisher. It basically does two things: Tells them how awesome your book is and entices them to request to read more.

Ive taken those skills and that knowledge and that goal for the query letter and translated it to writing killer cover copy (also known as blurbs) for my Indie publishing.

Think about it. Your blurb on your sales page needs to tell readers how awesome your book is and entice them to request to read it. They request by buying it or downloading it in Kindle Unlimited.

If you lose them at any point, the answer is no. Agents and editors dont request. Readers dont buy.

So our job as authors writing cover copy/blurbsand Ill use those two terms interchangeably throughout this bookis to entice readers to one-click buy. Right now. Drop everything theyre doing, forget to pick up the kids, burn dinner, and buy our book.

Not only buy it now, but read it right now.

Forget about that other book they have on their Kindle, theyve not got yours!

Thats the dream, isnt it?

Well, lets go make the dream happen!

Okay, wait. More backstory, AKA its time to be you and stop apologizing for it:

Ive been in the business through ups, downs, curves, pits, and more. I started in traditional publishing and have had four literary agents sell my work from here to France, in audio, paper, and ebook formats.

Ive written for Hallmark. Ive worked with editors from four publishing houses. Ive had big deals and highs, and low lows and slumps.

Through it all, I kept writing.

I entered the self-publishing scene in 2014 as a screw it way to tell my publisher theyd be upset they passed on my book. No lie. As if they cared. LOL.

But I cared, and I wanted to write what I wanted to write.

Go back and read that line again. In todays marketplace, its all about writing to market. I do thatand I dont. I write what I want to write. This was a lesson I learned in 2013, when Simon & Schuster wanted a book similar to the young adult dystopian trilogy Id already sold to them. So I gave them that. And they passed on it becauseit was TOO similar to the YA dystopian trilogy Id already sold to them.

I was like, SCREW IT. Some of you might use more colorful language.

But that defining moment in my career turned me to self-publishing, and I now only write what I want to write.

I believe there are a lot of ingredients for success in Indie Publishing. Reading this book might be one of them for you.

Ultimately, youll see a lot of people out there with very loud voices saying that you have to do X, Y, and Z to be successful. But thats their version of success, that follows their work ethic and their personality and their home life, and their their their.

Whats yours?

I think I can write what I want to write and write to market. I think I can cover my book well. I think I can write killer cover copy for it. Ad copy. Newsletter copy. All of it.

Isnt that what writers do? We write?

Why is blurb writing so much harder than novel writing?

Heres a secret: Its not.

Its all in your head.

And today, youre going to get out of your head and inside mine. Wait. That doesnt sound right. Haha!

Its pretty freaky in here. But I think one of the reasons Im able to move fluidly from one thing to another, seemingly without any hitches, is because of two things:

1. I am continually learning. I read a lot of articles. I read a lot of Facebook groups. I lurk quietly, always absorbing. Im like that sponge sitting next to the sink Nope. Nope, Im not that. ;)
2. I take what I learn, and I adapt it to fitme. Yep. Just me. I tried revising that sentence. Fit my style. Fit my personality. Fit my budget. Yes, yes, and yes.

I do all of that. Ive taken a dozen courses on advertising for Indie Authors. Ive read dozens of books. I know what I know, but what scares me is what I dont know. I simply dont know what I dont know.

But I believe I can learn.

And when I do, Im going to take the information provided, and Im going to make it fit ME. My style of writing. My genre. My price point. My budget. My personality. My marketing system. All of me. Me, me, me.

I think sometimes, too many people try to do what someone else has done with success, and they end up failing. Or thinking that what that person told them to do was Bad Advice. Or that theres somehow a unicorn out there in them thar woods, and they just cant find it.

(I actually believe there is a unicorn, and no, I havent found it yet.)

Back in the traditional publishing days, I had a good friend named Beth Revis. Some of you might know her. She was writing YA science fiction, and so was I. Our books sold to major publishers about the same time.

I basically stalked Beth. There, I admitted it. I signed up for her newsletter. I went to her website. I read her blog. Anything Beth was doing, I wanted to do too. We were in the same genre. Our books came out within months of each other. Everything looked so good on paper.

The truth was, and I learned very quickly, I couldnt be Beth.

She is a wonderful, fantastic person I still listen to on IG TV.