Makeover Monday: Anatoli



Whew! Last week's post on 3D book graphics was my most read ever. By 3909%, so like wow, man. I'll find some more graphics goodness for future posts.

Today's Makeover Monday is yet another hockey romance teaser: Anatoli by Kat Mizera. This sacrificial lamb came to me after a Facebook group discussion about how much text needed to be included in a teaser. Some argued for enough text to give a sense of the book, but most said that less is better. Don't forget that while you're looking at the teaser on your laptop or large computer screen, some people may be looking on their phones.

Remember when you make your teaser you have to change hats. In our writer hats we are in love with words and we believe words can do anything. We believe more words are better. But once we put on our designer hats we have to see words as part of a bigger whole: words, image, design. For a small space, be a haiku poet: pare your words down to their essential essence.

What can a teaser do for you? If it's good, it will interest someone enough so that they will click on your link. Then your blurb or Look Inside will have to do the rest of the work. And many people won't even read your teaser. They'll glance at it and it will give them an impression. Maybe that will pay off when they see the book again later.

Here's Kat's original teaser. She freely admits it needs work, so if I criticize it I won't have to worry about getting mugged with a hockey stick in a dark alley. Also, she lives in Florida which is as far from Vancouver as you can get and still be in North America. I feel quite safe.

First off, there is too much text. If you want a teaser with a lot of text, you'll have to use a background photo that's very plain. In this case, I have tried, but I still can't read parts of the last sentence. (Although it's safe to assume it's about sex.) Secondly, the book title and author name are too small. You could see this teaser and not know the book.

Makeover time. When making a teaser, look at the cover of your book. You can either feature the actual book on the teaser, or use elements that will remind the reader of the book when they are shopping. Here is Kat's book:


Back to the teaser. Let's cut out that mysterious last line. In addition, I'm going to pop the title, which is the most important takeaway. The very best thing would be to use the same font in the cover, but I don't have it so I'll use something similar. I'll do the same for her author name font. In addition, each series title is distinguished by colour. I'll use Anatoli Pink here. Every part of the design should have a purpose. I'm also switching from a sans serif to a serif font, which means the letters have little flourishes at the end. It's not a big deal, but in my view, sans serif fonts are more casual.

The teaser looks better now. Easier to read and I've emphasized words so that even if you don't read it all, your impression is that it's a sexy, adult romance. I've spaced it so that her words are on the woman's side of the photo and his are on the man's side. Integrate image and words wherever possible.



But what if we go with even less text? Now I've cut the lines down to the one that communicates adult romance, sexy times, and someone speaks Russian. In addition, to really pop the text, I used shadowing. To shadow in Canva, copy your text, change the colour to black and under More, go to Arrange and put the black text behind the coloured one. You'll have to play with positioning until you can see only a bit of shadow. I've done the same for the title where the shadow is more obvious.


We can debate the length of text needed, but even if you whizzed by this teaser, it would still communicate a lot about the book at one glance. In my opinion, this is the strongest teaser.

Remember that teasers are only one part of your marketing strategy. Combined with blurbs, ads, and promotions, they create multiple reminders of your book which will ultimately lead to sales.

Ideas to steal:
Less text and a good visual. Or more text and less visual. Not both.
Use shadows to emphasize your text, especially over an image.
Create links between your cover and your teaser.

Questions? Disagreements? Want to arrange to meet me in a dark alley? Comment below. 
Next Monday, we talk about how to choose the right photo. And where to get free ones!

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