You’ve Got Mail
What is it about picking up a bottle on the beach that has a mysterious letter inside with your name on it that makes your heart leap for joy and excitement? You can’t wait to unroll the parchment paper and read the message inside.
What is it about some websites that seem to beckon you to enter? Is it the charming name on the website that just seems to roll off your tongue? Is it the style, the colors, and the website’s theme drawing you in? Is it the charming smile from the author that captured your attention? Is it the website’s colors, images, and overall theme that draws you in and makes you feel a spark of joy, laughter, excitement, fun, hospitality, curiosity, trust, and warmth? Is it the carefully chosen words that made you want to click the button and stay and read a little while longer? Is it the story that the brand is communicating to you? Suddenly, you find yourself inside someone’s webbook, reading the content and looking around at all the beautiful products for sale. You have entered this amazing place, and it sparks your curiosity and imagination, and now you are hooked and want to know more. You realize you have developed a bond with this person and his or her brand identity. What is a brand identity? A great brand identity develops the intangibles that drive brand loyalty:- ease
- trust
- comfort
- safety
- affirmation
- value
- expertise
- appreciation
- warmth
The same is true about a brand or a book cover that you pick up at a bookstore. What it is about some brands or books that seem to beckon you to turn the page and linger at the bookstore until you are captured away to another place in your mind where you find a familiar place that gives you rest, trust, curiosity, comfort, warmth, and joy?
In this place, your heart is recharged, and hope is renewed. So what was it? Was it the title of the book, the images that evoked those emotions in you, or the color of the book cover that captured your heart?
The book cover is like the winding road leading up to your little cottage home.
The book cover is like the stone mailbox at the curb of a charming cottage home.
The book cover is like the charming flickering gaslights and the wreath on the front door of a Thomas Kinkade Home.
The book cover is like the smell of burning firewood, the smoke coming from the stone chimney, or the smell of homemade bread baking in the oven as you walk up to the front porch of a friend’s home.
These are just some of the many elements that play into our sense of comfort, curiosity, warmth, joy, laughter, calm, serenity, excitement, and mystery when we pick up a book. Your book cover should create a drawing, mouthwatering interest, so much so that you can’t wait to turn the page and look inside!
Without saying a word, your book cover can trigger all kinds of emotions, but are they the emotions you want to conjure up in your reader? A book cover should offer a warm, inviting message: “Come on in – it is a safe place, and you are welcome here.
I believe the same is true with every blog post, every E-book, or printed book you write. Your first impression has the potential to spark joy, excitement, trust, safety, curiosity, laughter, hope, comfort, and a warm welcome to all your readers.
You don’t want your first impression to create confusion, fear, anxiety, hopelessness, or a feeling of danger and doom in your potential readers when they enter your web page or turn a page in your book.
Take a moment to browse through my premade collection of beachside book covers. Hopefully, you will be inspired to rediscover, recreate, rewrite, and repackage your story and your brand in a beachside setting that will transport your readers to the shore.
Happy Storytelling! Judy
