Over on Writer’s Atelier’s blog I talked about the top 3 tips for Brilliant Book covers and for those of you wanting to dig deeper, here are six bonus tips!
[for the Top 3 Tips for Brilliant Book Covers visit their blog here]
- Brand Your Covers – to you and your series (if applicable)
If you book is the first in a series, getting the first cover right is critical. Book one will set the tone and brand for all the books in the series. Knowing this from the start will help you choose text placement, images, typography, illustrations, and any other elements your designer presents to you for consideration. When readers see these repeated elements in future books in the series, recognition will strike, and they will immediately know its familiar and connect it to your series.
The same is true for branding your books to your author brand. I’ll get into author branding in another post at another time, but this is essentially how you present yourself as an author to your audience. Your author brand should be consistent on your website and all social media platforms.
The dominant genre you write in will influence your author brand as well as your book cover brands. Using similar elements in your author branding and in your book cover designs will help readers connect your books to you as an author as well as connect books within a series.
When a reader picks up a book you want to the immediately think, this looks like my favorite author’s book.
- What is your theme – light, dark, happy, sad
Just like your story has a theme, your cover design should too. And what better place to find inspiration for the cover design theme than your own writing.
The cover should communicate to your potential audience what your book is about, but don’t overwhelm them with everything. Book covers are small, especially when viewing them on electronic devices. Adding too much to the cover can drown out the message and have the opposite effect on readers.
Use the limited space on book covers wisely. Choose one main element to be the focal point that communicates the most relevant information you want the readers to know.
- Font matters – choose typefaces carefully and wisely
Typography can make or break your book’s cover design. You can have the best background image but if the font choice is wrong, you can completely lose the impact of the design. While the background image should evoke feelings, typefaces give personality to a design. There are a lot of custom font choices out there that can add serious flare to your cover’s design. However, head caution. Just because you can do or use something doesn’t mean you should.
The last thing you want is for the typeface to clutter your cover. You also don’t want it to be lost to the background art. There is a delicate balance of font size, special effects, and artistic elements to add to the typeface to make sure it draws the readers eye in, works with the brand, and adds the personality you’re aiming to capture.
I recommend limiting your font choices to two, one serif and one sans serif typeface for some visual contrast and harmony. Choose fonts that are easy to read and offer versatility in size and use. Make sure at least one font will work great for your book cover blurb as well as your author name or tagline. Save the really special typefaces for your book’s title.
A note on serif versus sans serif: Serif typefaces have historically been credited with increasing both the readability and reading speed of long passages of text because they help the eye travel across a line (this is why the print inside your book is most likely in a serif typeface) whereas sans serif typefaces are often (not always) a better choice for headings and larger titles. Keep this in mind as you’re choosing your cover’s typeface and how and where to use them.
- Focal points – draw the reader in with a single element
What’s most important? Should you stress your series title, book title, author name or background image. You can’t stress everything.
A good rule of thumb is your book title should be the largest and the series title or tagline the smallest. Your author name should fall somewhere in between. Unless your Stephen King, you author name should never be the largest text on your cover. I don’t care who you are or how popular you are, make your title the most prominent feature on the cover.
Yes, you want readers to see your name, especially your loyal fans. But new readers don’t care who you are yet. They want stories first and a great title is the first thing to draw them in, not an unknown author’s name.
After your title hooks the reader in, the background image should be the second thing the bring them in deeper with a single focal point creating that emotional gut reaction we’re looking for. That’s how you get them to pick it up or click on the link to learn more. Just remember, they aren’t going to want to learn more about your book if your cover hasn’t already hooked them.
- Don’t overcrowd the cover – don’t confuse readers or make them guess what your book is about
If your book cover has too many images, typefaces, and other information, it creates visual noise and confusion. Using too many elements or too much text creates competition for the reader’s attention, and they don’t know what to look at first. The reader will ultimately walk away because they can’t figure out at a glance what’s the core message of the cover.
Avoid too many colors, images, use of more than two fonts, quotes that compete with the author’s name or title of the book, outlines, gradients, and many drop shadows. You can have an extremely artistic cover that’s still simplistic in nature.
Remember, a crowded design will render it impossible to pick out the important stuff. Leave plenty of blank space (otherwise known as white space) and use it to guide the readers eye from one focal point to the next.
Readers aren’t ready to invest in your book yet. They’re not committed until they purchase the book. When browsing, it’s your cover’s job to entice them to want to learn more and pick it up. They’re not ready to invest in you yet, so don’t make them concentrate too hard on trying to make sense of your cover design. Save that for the pages within.
Your cover design should persuade them to invest. Don’t make readers work hard for it. Make is simple and easy for them to decide to give your work a try.
- Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
When in doubt, or with lack of experience, keep the design simple. Simple can be good. Your book doesn’t have to have a complex cover design to sell. It just needs to meet the key points discussed in this article and the companion article posted here.
A simple cover means everyone can grasp your message without working too hard to get it. And if you’re an author on a budget, start simple. Many cover designers can create simple covers that meet all these conditions for authors on a budget. Remember you can always hire a professional designer later to rebrand your books for you to give your covers the pop you really want. Just make sure the first cover is still a great cover!
To hire me to create your next great cover, click here to learn more.
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