Your novel needs a sexy concept

Sure, a classic plot line may make a novel perfectly readable, but it won't necessarily be enough to make people pick (or click) it. (The seven main story plots in literature, as summarised in The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker, are overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy, and rebirth). A bestseller needs a winning concept. Consider this:

Think of your book's sales blurb. Or what would be on the movie poster? Sarah Lotz signed a six-figure deal with UK publishers Hodder and Stoughton for her novel The Three and another book. The Three's tagline reads, 'Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he's right?'

Daydream about a fascinating world. British author Sally Green signed up for a creative writing course a few years ago, and hit on a concept which led to a bidding war for her first novel, a supernatural young adult thriller about witches living in contemporary Britain. Twilight producers acquired the film rights to her trilogy. 'I became obsessed,' she told Woman and Home. 'I wrote and wrote, and spent 24 hours a day thinking about it: I was weeding, I was cooking but, in my head, I was living this story, which was about witches and set in the same witchy world that became the setting for my book Half Bad.'

Gather the ingredients. Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black (now a film, in which Daniel Ratcliffe starred after his stint as Harry Potter), told the UK press how she'd been reading ghost stories and wondering why there were so few full-length ones. 'I wanted to see if I could do it and began listing what seemed essential ingredients: a ghost, human, not monstrous; haunted places, especially a house; mists, a thin, moaning wind and, for me, ancient churches and graveyards which are traditional settings.' Characters appeared: 'I did not really have a plot at this stage, but one morning the woman in black arrived in my mind. Within six weeks, using pen and paper, The Woman in Black wrote itself, as if by magic'.

Look out for unusual objects. Jessie Burton's debut novel The Miniaturist is set in 17th century Amsterdam, in which a wealthy merchant who refuses to sleep with his young wife, Petronella Oortman, buys her a miniature version of their townhouse as a wedding gift. Soon, it becomes clear that the characters' lives are being influenced by the movements of their replicas within the cabinet. An actual cabinet in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, once owned by a Petronella Oortman, sparked the concept for the mystery novel.

Find the cocktail that excites you. Brainstorm a list of all the topics you like to think and write about, anything from chocolate to taxidermy. Keep a file or box into which you regularly throw magazine clippings and notes, such as that riveting story you overheard at the hairdresser and jotted down for its plot material potential. Then close the lid, put it away, and let it simmer.

Listen to your body. It'll signal you when The Concept arrives. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Joanne Rowling recalled the moment she hit on the Harry Potter concept: 'I wrote compulsively but I'd never really found the right thing. And then I was on a train – I was 25 – and it came: boy doesn't know he's a wizard, goes to wizarding school, bang, bang, bang! And that was it. I don't think I've ever felt so excited.'

Catriona Ross is the creator of The Peacock Book Project: write the novel of your dreams (www.peacockproject.net). Her books are available in the Kindle Store: Little Diamond Eye, The Presence of Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel, The Love Book, Writing for Magazines: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, and The Happy Life Handbook.

10 Expert Tips on Designing a Book Cover

Award-winning illustrator and designer Joey Hi-Fi (yes, it's a stage name) was interviewed on radio about the secrets of book cover design. The creator of the cover art for Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig and Lauren Beukes' Zoo City and Moxyland shared this advice:

Make sure your cover stands out on the shelf. Your book is competing with every other title in its genre, and looks count.  

The cover should reflect the book as far as possible: its mood, plot and genre. If you use a book designer, ask him or her to read the synopsis and first few chapters (or, ideally, the whole book) before starting.

Use a photograph. Unless you're a photographer yourself, commission a talented photographer friend to shoot your cover. (Or try istockphoto.com for royalty-free and low-priced photos.) It's best to own the rights to your cover image/s, as reusage will be free for international editions.

An eye-catching cover can be created simply with typefaces and colour or an illustration. If you go this more arty route, commission a professional designer or a friend with good design skills.

Design with the best-case scenario in mind. A cover can add to the keepsake value of a book; ensure yours is good-looking enough to be used in a hardcover collector's edition, for example.

For an e-book edition, your cover image should meet the requirements for the Kindle screen: JPEG or TIFF format, 2820 pixels on the shortest side and 4500 pixels on the longest side for best quality; maximum image file size 5MB. Minimum dimensions for covers are 625 x 1000 pixels.

Don't neglect the spine and back cover. Your book may be stacked on a book store shelf with only its spine visible; some prospective buyers turn straight to the back cover to size up a book.

Feed into current trends in your genre. New South African science fiction, for instance, has its own edgy look. If you're writing in a new genre, establish a look that reflects your book's tone and content.

But don't blend in! It's worth being boldly creative. Joey's Blackbirds cover won The Ranting Dragon's Cover Battle for 2012 (cue free publicity).

Find a signature style. The 'look and feel' should be consistent across all your books' covers, reflecting your brand as an author. Consistency is vital in a series of books (consider the stark, instantly recognisable Fifty Shades of Grey covers.)

Catriona Ross is the creator of The Peacock Book Project: write the novel of your dreams (www.peacockproject.net). Her books are available in the Kindle Store: Little Diamond Eye, The Presence of Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel, The Love Book, Writing for Magazines: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, and The Happy Life Handbook.