"It isn't selling" is not a diagnosis. It is four different problems wearing the same symptom, and the fix for one makes no difference to the other three.
Score every line honestly — the version of this exercise where you rate your own cover a 5 tells you nothing. Then fix the lowest scores first, working down the Priority Stack rather than across this page.
Diagnostic score
20 lines, 100 pointsScore each line from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Fix the lowest scores first — they are where the cheapest gains are.
Discoverability
- Cover signals the genre correctly at thumbnail size
- Title is clear and searchable
- Keywords are relevant, and were researched rather than guessed
- Categories are narrow enough to rank in
- Book description opens with a hook, not with setup
Quality
- Professional editing completed
- Formatting is clean on an actual device, not just in the preview
- Cover holds up next to the current bestsellers in the category
- First chapter hooks a reader who owes you nothing
- Reviews mention quality positively
Market
- Pricing is competitive for the genre
- Launch timing was appropriate
- Target audience was defined before publication, not after
- Marketing reached that audience specifically
- The genre has an active, buying readership
Promotion
- An author platform exists and is active
- Reviews are still being generated, not just launch-week ones
- Marketing effort is consistent rather than episodic
- Community engagement is authentic
- Word of mouth is occurring without you prompting it
Total0 / 100
0 of 20 lines scored
If the diagnosis points at the fundamentals rather than at promotion, When Something Isn't Working covers the order to fix them in.