Susan Kendrick and Graham Van Dixhorn are partners at Write To Your Market, Inc. They specialize in developing the total book cover brand, from titles and subtitles to the back cover marketing copy. Their clients regularly win major book awards such as the Ben Franklin, IPPY, Foreword Magazine, and DIY. Graham and Susan also provide a wealth of book cover how-to’s on their blog, BookCoverCoaching.com.

Susan contacted us about helping to judge several of our awards categories, but we decided jointly to give her and Graham the opportunity to judge a new category that you can enter separately: Best eBook Cover.

And, instead of waiting until near the end of registration to submit your ebook, if you are already nominated, you can email it in right away and get it critiqued and possibly featured (if you are exemplifying Susan’s and Graham’s ideal ebook cover) on their blog. You could be a Finalist in just a few days! Please wait for the full announcement in a few days regarding the opening of the new category.

In the meantime, Susan has provided a short PDF on how to create a great ebook cover just for nominees. Dan gives it high marks and it’s YOURS if you are nominated now. If you are receiving this announcement by email, it should be attached; nominees should look for the email to receive it soon. The three checklists included in the PDF will also serve as the criteria for how covers in this Best eBook Cover award category will be judged.

You should also know that Susan loves to use the Kindle to read and her favorite book is “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. She says, “This book is equal parts great storytelling, research, running lore, and an inside look at the advent and product marketing of the running shoe and launch of a whole new industry. In other words, it satisfies many of my professional and personal interests at once. It is a great read-again book, and I am always happy to have it with me. Plus, I love both the book and the cover!”

Graham enjoys reading on the PC and says his favorite ebook is “All Marketers are Liars: The Power of Telling Captivating Stories in a Low-Trust World” by Seth Godin. “It starts with a clever and attention-getting title, and a subtitle that delivers the key benefit in a context with which people can identify. It’s a great slice of humane reality on a topic about which people have many negative biases. It both exposes the problem and delivers a real-world solution,” he says of the book.

We hope that you can see the value of having a dedicated team to handle just the ebook covers for feedback and judging—and they have a blog to showcase your ebook’s fantastic cover! More third party links = higher search engine ranking for us and you = more clicks and more buys!