cover design – Almost An Author

Most people judge a book by its cover. You put years of your work into a book. Therefore, it deserves a cover that does justice with the story you put into it. The cover of a book should be designed to pique the reader’s interest in an instant. The blurb on the back should draw the reader into opening the book and reading what’s inside.

This indicates the cover of your book has to be stunning. It should not only intrigue the readers but also complements the content. If you have finished your book, now is the time to choose the right cover for it. If you are worried that you might end up making the wrong decision, this article is for you.

Today we are going to share some tips with you that help you choose a winning cover for your book. So without further ado, let’s get to the details.

Tips for choosing the right cover for your book:

There are various ways to ensure that your book cover not only stands out but also does justice to the story. Some of them include:

1. Get inspired:

Get inspired with what sells. Go to your favorite bookstore and explore shelf after shelf. Take a pen and notebook with you. Flick through covers and note down what attracts you. More importantly, go through the cover of those books that your intended readers love. Choose those elements that make the covers of these books unique.

Look for the design elements that go with your story:

Go to the bookshelf you want your book to be displayed on and use your designer eye candy to look for the elements that make it stand out. Go through the latest releases to learn about the latest trends in designs and technologies. Design a book cover that goes with pop culture.

Bring innovation by comparing your genre with others:

Most of the books that belong to the same genre have similar book covers. Although main features depend upon the story but most of the time similar colors are used. It’s similar to how different brands use color schemes to craft their identity. However, there is no harm in bringing innovation to your book cover. To make that happen, you should compare your genre with others.

Explore other genres as well. For example, the covers of fantasy books are a mixture of photography and illustration. Crimes thriller covers are often only photographic. Moreover, titles of fantasy books are heavily stylized. On the contrary crime book, covers have crisp san serif fonts.

Explore sub-genres:

You can also explore sub-genres to get more creative ideas. Also, keep the latest design trends in mind. For example, the covers of modern, dark fantasy books are composed of highly realistic illustrations of photography, whereas the traditional ones mostly contain paintings. Some crime mystery novels have illustrated covers.

Keep your target readers in mind:

While choosing a cover for your book, you should also keep the age of the target audience in mind. If your target audience is young children painted cover with an illustrated character will do. One of the best examples is the different design covers of Harry Potter books for children and adults.

Don’t forget the competition winners:

The winners of recent cover design competitions also serve as a great source of inspiration for your book’s cover design. You can also look through the personal lists created by professionals or avid readers of your genre.

Keep the best-sellers within and outside your genre in mind:

Don’t forget the best sellers while adapting to the recent design trends. If you have written something similar to an old bestseller choose an older cover style to go with. To conclude, the cover design of your book should represent its heart and soul. It should suit your story and hook your intended segment of readers.

2. Discover the tone of your book:

Digging deep into the genre helps. However, you need to go a step further to create a cover design that conveys the emotion of your story. You need to identify the overarching feel of your story and the sentiment your story is written to put across.

It might be hard to find the tone of the story. However, once you figure it out, it gets easier to communicate what you want through the cover of your book. You can translate this tone into a visual form and design a stunning and meaningful cover for your book.

3. Look for the right designer to create a cover for your book:

Make a list of your favorite book covers. Choose the ones similar to what you want your book cover to look like. Look up the designers of the book covers you like. Find their website and have a look at their portfolio. Check out their previous work and understand how their design process goes. If you have a publishing house contract, it is part of the publisher’s job to find you a designer. However, to make it a success, you need to actively involve in the process.

4. Keep it simple:

Minimalism is all the rage when it comes to design trends. If you look at some of the best book cover designs, you will find them minimal. However, going for a minimal book design doesn’t mean you have to be boring.

You need to work towards achieving a simple design that is unique in every aspect and effectively conveys the emotion of the story.

5. Your book cover should be thumbnail friendly:

With the advent of technology, reading habits have changed. People interact with book covers differently than they used to. People read e-book more than hardcover. They also shop for books online. Therefore, it is important to create book covers that turn out to be good thumbnail images.

Creating a thumbnail cover requires a minimal design with contrasting colors and fairly large text. The image file should also be of the right size and resolution. It shouldn’t stretch and display correctly on the screen.

6. Go with a step by step approach:

Your story goes through multiple drafts before it takes its final form. The same goes for a book cover. Once you have figured out the basic features of your book cover design, you should consider various design options. Select the option that closely meets how you want your book cover to look and keep tweaking the design until you get what you need.

Emphasize important design elements. Experiment with abstract or realistic design options to make your book cover stand out.

7. It’s time to test your design:

Once you have the final cover design options ready, you need to share them with the world. Get opinions from everyone you know, specifically your intended segment of readers. Request them to choose their favorite out of the final design options. Also, take the design critique seriously. Keep track of the features they like and dislike about your cover design.

Wrapping up!

It takes years to write a book. You put your heart and soul into it and do your best to make sure it makes it to the list of best sellers. However, what most writers don’t realize is it takes much more than a compelling story to captivate your intended audience.

The cover of a book is the first thing that compels readers to pick up a book and start reading it. Therefore, it has to be a classic one. There are various things you can do that ensure that the cover of the book effectively conveys its emotions, personality, and tone. By following the above-mentioned tips you can ensure that your book stands out from the rest.

Elice Max is a A marketing professional with seven years in the industry. Mostly interested in personal branding and emerging trends. Mom to two humans and one Persian cat.

Throughout this series I’ve emphasized one main point—increasing your reach is vital to your writing career. I’ve also shared two ways to grow your reach. In this post, I’d like to proffer a third approach: creating a quality product.

As an authorpreneur, increasing revenue through writing is the driving force behind your efforts. Boost your sales by creating a quality product.

Milton Hershey once famously remarked, “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.” Since most of us have probably eaten, or at least heard about Hershey chocolate, I think it’s safe to assume that he knew what he was talking about.

As Hershey said, a quality product gets people talking. This is true for any product on the market, including books.

Time and again, I encounter clients who may have an exceptional story, but didn’t put enough time and effort into the typesetting, editing, cover design, or other features that subtly appeal to a reader. In the end, their book doesn’t have the impact they expected.

Why this matters

Like it or not, quality sells. And it should. You’re asking people to part with their money and, as such, you should be prepared to give them something that really shines.

On a more practical side, if the product doesn’t look good, consumers are less likely to realize its true value.

Your story may be a real winner, but have you taken the time to verify the accents/dialects of your characters? Are the descriptions of buildings true-to-life for the time period? Is there an appropriately sized gutter and is the text appropriately spaced? Expand your reach by creating a book so good that people want to talk about it.

For example, I recently was tagged on an Instagram post made by a reader who loved In the Shadow of Your Wings (story and cover). She made up a gift basket that featured the book and some other products, then shared it with her followers. Getting people talking about your product is a free way to expand your reach.

How to boost your book’s quality

If you’re an indie author, you want to create a product so good that no one can tell you’ve indie published it. I’m not saying it’ll be perfect. According to an article carried by the University of California Press, a 95% error-free manuscript is the best a human can do. But the mistakes should be minimal and not hinder your opportunity to expand your reach through retail.

Hire a quality editor. If you’re self-editing, use quality control measures such as listening to the audio using Microsoft’s Read Aloud feature, and working backwards through your text. None of these are absolutely foolproof, but they should minimize the number of typos that can easily slip by if you’re already familiar with the text before you begin the editing process.

Invest in a cover-design professional. You can engage the services of a freelancer or contract out with a full-service publisher such as my house, Logos Publications, LLC.

From a production standpoint, it helps to make a publishing checklist if you’re an indie author. Include a section for such as proofreading, checking for homophones, punctuation checks etc. and another for the actual production (typesetting, formatting and the like).

Creating a quality product takes a lot of effort. It isn’t the quick-and-easy “write a book and sell it on Amazon” approach that many think. But in the end you’ll have a book that people will want to talk about, and one that you’ll be proud to call your own. Believe me, nothing in this business is more gratifying than that.

Takeaway: Invest time and effort into creating a solid plot and producing a quality product. That is still the best kind of advertising.

If you’d like an in-depth look at how this can apply to your manuscript, book a call with me online.

JP Robinson gained experience in the marketing field doing promotional work for multi-million dollar medical facilities and non-profit groups over the past decade. He is an international speaker, educator, and prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction.

JP also conducts writing seminars in various parts of the country and heads Logos Publications, LLC, an emerging publishing and book marketing team.

When he isn’t writing or teaching, JP loves spending time with his wonderful wife and children.