Use your face. That's why God gave it to you.
Why you should always use your face for the cover of your book.
I remember the heady days where the word research was not a euphemism for Google so let’s be up front here.
If you Google the late Dr. Wayne Dyer you’ll find a motivational speaker born in Detroit. He died in Maui as rich as a pharaoh so it’s safe to assume Buddy made some pretty solid choices along the way.
One of those was including his face on the cover of his first book, the brilliantly titled Your Erroneous Zones.
On the surface the book promised (and delivered) a step-by-step process to remedy the reflexive human tendency toward self-sabotage.
But here’s what the cover really told the world: just because you are spectacularly, irredeemably bald, there are still fortunes to be made. That’s why Dr. Dyer’s shoulder-length forehead became something of an imprimatur for his 30 or so books.
Leukemia got him in 2015. In his 75 years, Dr. Wayne Dyer helped a lot of people, sold a lot of books, financed a couple of ex-wives and became a FAO, Friend of Oprah, to boot.
I usually get two questions when people talk to me about writing a book.
How long should my book be? I like them bright and tight, between 20,000 and 30,000 words.
Should I include my face on the cover?
I point to Dr. Wayne Dyer and say: “Hell, yes.”
This puts me in opposition to current publishers who disdain faces on their covers. All the hot business or non-fiction titles, 10X IS EASIER THAN 2X, Nuclear Habits, Quit, get by quite nicely without the writer going all Dr. Wayne Dyer.
We do judge a book by its cover. In the second or two it takes to examine a face, we seek to confirm our buying choice. We want the people on the cover to look like the people they say they are and Dr. Wayne does…or did. Warm plush sweater, neutral assuaging background
Consider Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng’s cover.
The title, Unapologetic Leadership, operates in absolute alignment with Dr K’s countenance.
There is no attempt to impress. He is self-assured and direct. This is a handsome, young, professional man on a mission. Deal with it.
Would you want this guy as your doctor? Uh…yes. Could you see him on a board? Only if you wanted to get shit done.
Ron Foxcroft’s cover for The 40 Ways Of The Fox says as much but in a totally different way.
Obviously, Ron is a referee.
That means that unlike Dr. Kyermanteng, he spends much of his time around people playing games, not adjudicating health care policy or making life and death decisions…unless you consider whether to call a double dribble life-threatening.
This is an older guy who likely enjoys life and probably has more than enough to say about it.
Would he be the right guy to work your high school game? Absolutely. Could you see him on a board? Sure, but he’d have to lose the stripes.
This is a first book for both. They needed, as did Dr. Wayne Dyer, to get their face out and they did.
You are the face of your business. A cover without your photo speaks to an idea, not the source of that idea.
So put your face on your book and choose art that reflects who you are.
God gave you that face for a reason. Use it.