Create Your Book Cover Writing Exercise

Lari Bishop, the Managing Editor at Greenleaf Book Group, shared an exercise at Austin Publishing University that is designed to help you think about your book as a complete product, even before you start writing it. The exercise was originally developed by author and consultant Kevin Daum. Here is the exercise:

1. Fold a piece of paper so that it looks like a book jacket (legal size paper works best, but anything will do).
2. On the front, write the title and subtitle.
3. On the inside flap write your elevator speech for the book. Keep it to 3 sentences max. 
4. On the back, write 2 endorsements/blurbs for the book--what you would want people to say about it.
5. On the inside back flap, describe why you are the person to write the book. 
6. On the inside of the jacket, describe how you are going to structure the book to make it compelling to readers.

Try this exercise and see if it helps you think about the book in a way that lets you address not only how well its written, but who would be interested in reading it and why they would believe you are the best person to deliver it. 

Happy Writing!