2022 TITLES AND BOOK COVER DESIGN MINI CHALLENGE

This challenge is split into two parts. You do not have to take part in both. Please read the rules and instructions very carefully. Get in touch if you have any questions.

First, we’d just like to say that the ability to come up with great titles and professional book cover designs is not a prerequisite for a writer. If you get a book traditionally published, it’s quite possible that the title of your book will change before publication. It’s also highly unlikely you’ll get to contribute much, if anything, to the design of the cover. Titles and book covers are marketing tools, and marketing is a very different skill to storytelling. The greatest thing about getting traditionally published is having an incredible team of experts to work with. If you’re lucky enough to get a publishing deal, you should listen to the expertise of the people who know about marketing. That doesn’t mean you can’t contribute any thoughts, but don’t try to hold on to a bad title just because you’re the one who came up with it. And don’t try to dictate the design of the cover because you spent hours picturing what it was going to look like when you should have actually been writing!

So, if writers often don’t come up with their own titles and almost never their own book covers, why are we doing a title and book cover design challenge?

Great question!

We still believe that being able to choose great titles and design professional book covers is an incredibly important skill for writers in the modern landscape of publishing. Self-publishing is becoming an ever more viable route to success, which means that the marketing side of publishing is becoming more of a concern for the writer themselves than it once was. If you do decide to go the self-publishing route, you can choose to pay someone to design a cover for you, but not everyone has the money when they’re just starting out. If you plan on self-publishing, but you can’t afford to pay book cover designers, you simply must learn how to create a professional looking cover yourself. Far too often we see writers self-publish their books with an unprofessional cover, hoping that no one will notice or that it won’t matter. Unfortunately, when it comes time to put your book on Amazon the title, the cover (and the blurb) are the only things that matter anymore. Publishing a book with a bad cover is like turning up to a blind date in unwashed clothes and with bad breath, hoping your sparkling personality will make up for it! If the cover of your book doesn’t look professional, you’re unlikely to sell many books. And it doesn’t matter how good your story is or how much promotion of the book you do.

Your book cover doesn’t have to be an incredible work of art, it just needs to look professional and match the genre or style of the story within. If you’re self-publishing a book and the cover doesn’t meet those criteria, you mustn’t go ahead and publish simply because you’re in a hurry to get the book out there. By doing this, you are seriously hindering your ability to sell books. It really is worth taking the time to create a decent cover. Canva has hundreds of professional looking book cover templates that you can customise and use, so there really are no excuses for bad book covers anymore.

Titles are also important for self-publishing. Perhaps not quite as important as the cover, but almost. A good title is intriguing, memorable, easy to find online, and informs the reader of the tone or genre of the book. Being able to come up with great titles is also important for short story writers. It is worth noting that titles are less important for short stories than they are for books. This is because getting someone to buy a book is harder than getting someone to click on a link to read a short story. However, If you post links to your stories online, a really great title can mean more clicks, and fabulous titles can even help your stories catch the eye of editors and publishers.

At the end of the day, how well a book sells is not only down to how good the story is. Titles and book covers can be a massive component to your success as a writer, which is why we bring you… our titles and book cover design challenge!

Alternative Story Titles Challenge

Prize: £100

Entry: free

Closes: 23:59 (UK time) 5th December, 2022

RULES:

For this part of the challenge, we’ve picked three short stories written by fellow Globe Soup members.

To be in with a chance of winning the £100 prize, you’ll need to come up with at least one alternative title for at least one of these stories.

For each story, you can submit up to five alternative titles.

Each alternative title is one entry into the contest, meaning you can submit 1 -15 entries in total.

You must have all your alternative titles ready before submitting. You must submit all your entries for the alternative title challenge at the same time.

Unlike most of our other contests, you cannot resubmit. Please check your entry carefully before submitting.

JUDGING:

When the contest closes, we’ll choose a selection of our favourite titles for each story. The members of our Love Writing Group will vote for their favourite title for each, then a final round of judging in the group will determine the overall winner. If exactly the same title was submitted by more than one person (and that title wins the challenge), the prize will either be split between the participants who came up with the title, or their names will be put into a draw. This will be at Globe Soup’s discretion.

Voting will begin on the 19th December, in our Love Writing Group.

HOW TO ENTER:

1. First, check out this blog post for tips on how to come up with great titles. There are also plenty of resources online to help you with this challenge.

2. Next, you’ll need to read each story in its entirety. You may even need to read them through a few times. Look for words or phrases that jump out at you as you read. You can often pull the title of a story right out of the story itself. Consider the genre of the story, think about the themes. Look for interesting character names or places mentioned in the text. Make lists of words that spring to mind when you think about the story. Consider each character, list their traits.

3. Now, you can start coming up with your alternative titles. Never lose sight of the genre of the story you’re working on. A great title is only a great title if it fits with the genre and tone.

4. If you can’t think of a good alternative title for one of the stories, that’s fine. To be in with a chance of winning the prize, you just need one alternative title for one of the stories.

5. You might find that you come up with several possible titles. No problem, you can submit up to five alternative titles for each story.

6. When you’re ready to submit your alternative titles, click the ‘submit Alternative Titles’ button. You must submit all your alternative titles for all the stories at the same time. You cannot resubmit, so check your entry carefully!