And not the kind where Duke yells to Bo, "Cover me, Bo!"
Covers sell 70%–80% of books. Sometimes with back cover marketing copy, but typically without any reading of the body of the book whatsoever. That's why reviews, covers, and marketing copy matter so much—most book purchase decisions are made based on the foregoing factors and word of mouth, and not based on the text of the book itself.
Unless you are a graphic designer, some sort of graphic artist (if you're not sure, you probably aren't), or have experience with cover design at a professional level, pay someone to create your cover for you.
7. If You Can't Write Perfect Copy, Hire Someone Who Can
I don't profess to understand copywriters and copywriting—they're almost as foreign to me as the way that the brains of graphic designers work.
Don't write a book description and copy littered with typos and grammatical errors (see the last part of #2). That's really marketing advice rather than writing advice. Think about it—would you really want to read a book for which the most important marketing prose is riddled with errors?
8. Stop It with the Bizarre and Nonsensical Dialogue Tags
Use "said" for all dialogue tags unless you have a really good reason for doing otherwise.
An example of a bad tag:
"Well, I'd like to see you without your knickers on, that's for sure," Ian smiled.
An example of a good tag:
"Well, I'd like to see you without your knickers on, that's for sure," Ian said.
"Well, I'd like to see you without your knickers on, that's for sure," Ian leeringly / grinningly / smilingly said.
No, that's not a joke. I've seen it. If you want to add something like that, then make your dialogue more enticing instead. Dialogue tags are roughly equivalent to "show, don't tell" for prose overall. Don't tell us "leeringly." Let us know that the guy's lips pulled back from his teeth until his teeth blinded the barfly and his gums were the crimson of half-dried blood. Or something, anything, other than "leeringly."
Other tips in this multipart post (and a few others):
Cheers.
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