About the text on an american book cover

[Christine]

I have a question for those of you who like to read. My thriller "The Poet's Time" will be available in English through Amazon later this month. Right now it's about the cover. On German novels it says at the bottom of the cover what kind of novel it is. So on my novel it says "thriller". Is that the same for American novels?

[pahonu]

37 minutes ago, Christine said:

I have a question for those of you who like to read. My thriller "The Poet's Time" will be available in English through Amazon later this month. Right now it's about the cover. On German novels it says at the bottom of the cover what kind of novel it is. So on my novel it says "thriller". Is that the same for American novels?

That’s not been my experience.  Typically the author’s name is at the bottom.  

Often a short description on the back will describe the novel using words such as thriller or mystery, etc…    

Below that are any reviews from newspapers or literary journals.

Hope that helps.

[Christine]

Thanks for your answer, pahonu.

There is a so-called blurb on German novels, of course, also on the back of the book, but it seems like the front is already a little different between the German and American novels. In German novels, the name of the author is usually written above the title of the book. Under the title, you can often read what kind of novel it is, while the publisher's name is still at the bottom - if it's not a self-published book.

 

[pahonu]

15 minutes ago, Christine said:

Thanks for your answer, pahonu.

There is a so-called blurb on German novels, of course, also on the back of the book, but it seems like the front is already a little different between the German and American novels. In German novels, the name of the author is usually written above the title of the book. Under the title, you can often read what kind of novel it is, while the publisher's name is still at the bottom - if it's not a self-published book.

 

Maybe this might be helpful.  She’s a self-publishing American author and she has lots of suggestions and technical details.

Good luck!

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by pahonu

[Robbie C.]

You'll occasionally see a genre note on the book's spine, but normally that kind of thing's done "behind the scenes" when a book's catalogued (either physically or electronically). Amazon should allow you to select genre when you push it out there, and that's what people will use to determine what kind of book it is.

[Christine]

With Amazon, it's always a bit difficult with these so-called keywords by which the book is cataloged. The novel has already been published in German, also via Amazon. I had entered the right keywords, but still found my novel among the cookbooks. However, other authors had the same problem. I have no idea what the reason is.
But in the video that Pahonu posted, you can see that the author had "A short Story" written small above the title of the one book.
I'm sure you guys have novels on your shelves. What does it look like on the front covers?

 

[pahonu]

I just looked in our books case at about 20 novels and none of them had the genre on the front cover.  That said, I think there would be no problem in following American publishing norms with the title at the top and author at the bottom, BUT with a small subtitle right under the title.  Maybe Robbie has ideas also.
 

I noticed that biographies seem to frequently have a subtitle under the title so Americans are used to that.  I’m thinking of examples like:  

ROBIN WILLIAMS

When the Laughter Stops

or:

DYLAN THOMAS

Poet of His People 

 

Maybe you could do something like:

A POET’S TIME

An Exciting New Thriller

 

 

[Christine]

Thanks for doing the work to compare. My cover designer and I are just finishing the cover now. I think "The Poet's Time" will be on the market by the end of the month at the latest.
At the moment it's taking part in the Selfpublishing Buchpreis competition in Germany. The readers so far are convinced that it will at least end up high up.

[pahonu]

47 minutes ago, Christine said:

Thanks for doing the work to compare. My cover designer and I are just finishing the cover now. I think "The Poet's Time" will be on the market by the end of the month at the latest.
At the moment it's taking part in the Selfpublishing Buchpreis competition in Germany. The readers so far are convinced that it will at least end up high up.

Best of luck on book sales!

[Christine]

vor 4 Minuten schrieb pahonu:

Best of luck on book sales!

Thank you. 

[Robbie C.]

You'll occasionally see a genre tag on the cover of a novel, but it's more common with series stuff (the Longmire books, for example, tend to have 'a Longmire Mystery' under the main title). Genre isn't really the same thing as keyword, either. Amazon's handling of genre, frankly, seems to be terrible. They seem to hide it in "Department," which it's not, and Mystery and Thriller exists apart from Fiction & Literature (which it shouldn't). It looks like they use it as a marketing ploy more than anything, and you can also cross-categorize things.

You could always go with a subtitle like "the debut thriller by Christine."