For Story Secrets from Scripture, my recently published book, I created a front cover for use in the print and ebook versions. As printed books also have a back cover, I needed to come up with a design. Below is the full cover for the book.

Story Secrets from Scripture is about how to develop and deliver children’s stories for worship, vacation Bible school, and Bible study. The book covers how to find personal stories, assign teaching points, and tell these stories in front of a live audience.

Three Key Parts of a Book Cover

When potential readers are looking for books in a physical bookstore, like Barnes and Nobles or Books-A-Million, the first viewable element is the spine, which typically includes the title, author’s last name, and publisher. Readers intrigued by the title will like pull out the book and view the the front cover. Finally, if still curious, readers will view the back cover. Each step reveals more detail about the book. For this reason, it is critical to have key pieces of information on the back cover.

Elements of the Back Cover

In preparation for my cover, I studied random non-fiction back covers at my local bookstore to identify common elements. Most of them had these elements:

• Review pull quotes – One or more brief quotes from reviews or endorsements.
• One-phrase summary – An intriguing one-phrase summary of the book.
• Overview – Two to three short paragraphs about the book.
• Take-aways – Four to six bullet points of what readers will gain from the book.
• Author bio – A brief (one to two sentences) bio of the author or authors, pictures optional.

For the take-aways, books introduced the lists in various ways:

• Shows you how to …
• You’ll find …
• Readers will learn …
• Learn how to …
• Including …

Story Secrets from Scripture

For Story Secrets from Scripture, I included three elements: summary, take-aways, and author bio.

SUMMARY: In Story Secrets from Scripture you will discover why structure in stories is important, how Jesus effectively used parable story teaching, and how you can too.

Numerous parables of Jesus and examples of personal stories are included. While an entire library of books exists on understanding story structure, writing screenplays, and how to improve public speaking by telling stories, Story Secrets from Scripture was specifically written to bring you the essential information you need to refresh your story telling techniques or get started for the first time on the exciting journey of telling children’s stories.

TAKE-AWAYS: After reading this book you will be able to:

• Use a simple five-part structure to plan any story
• Apply Bible-based approaches to introducing/concluding a story
• Find personal experiences to adapt for use as teaching stories
• Know how to effectively use props, handouts, and slides

BIO: Douglas G. Pratt is a life-long learner who resides with his wife and daughter near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Doug writes frequently about more effective ways to communicate and learn.