In this third edition of the SPF Book Lab, SPF friends Stuart Bache, Bryan Cohen and Jennie Nash put on their white coats and safety glasses to help paranormal romance author Gretchen S.B. improve her cover, book description and narrative structure.

This week’s highlights include:

• Suggestions from Stuart Bache about cover design

• Including tips on colour, title placement and size

• Tips on the different ways genres deal with figures on a cover

• Thinking like the buyer when designing a cover

• Using an emotional hook, rather than a plot-based one, for the blurb

• Focusing on the stakes in the book description

• Avoiding the dreaded info dump in the first pages of your book

• Repurposing the information within an info dump

• An explanation of the importance of being ‘story present’

• What ‘show don’t tell’ really means

Resources mentioned in this episode:

PATREON: Self Publishing Formula Podcast’s Patreon page

WEBINAR: Free webinar about book cover design

HANDOUT: All the before and after information on Gretchen’s book

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