You really can judge a book by its cover—in fact, that’s the point. With thousands of books for shoppers to peruse, your book has to stand out.
In a single second, a brilliant book cover compels us to pause and give the book a second glance. Before we explore the back cover copy, the endorsements, or the first page, the COVER has to inspire the right levels of curiosity and feeling to even motivate us to pick it up. That’s a lot of pressure for one second.
The cover is a book’s number one marketing tool and should be chosen with as much care as every word written inside it.
With the rise of e-books, stellar cover designs are a must—AND more imperatively, compelling thumbnails. Odds are most readers will see your book online or on a tablet before they see it in a store. Without an eye-catching thumbnail, online sales don’t happen.
As an indie author, you have three options: a professional designer, crowdsourcing, or DIY. Despite their own relative pros and cons, YOU know your book the best, and YOU have control over final product. Do right by your book. Start the design process informed and with the root of your book’s message at the forefront of your mind.
You want to make an immediate emotional impression with your book cover, and that requires some book-soul-searching:
- Consider the main message
You have just a second to convey what your book is about visually. The genre, ambiance, and context of your book should be crystal clear upon one glance. Certain genres have cover images tropes that immediately clue us in just by the types of images on the cover. Pick up a book with a cover that’s fun and bright—you know you’ve got chick lit. See a cover full of passion and sinewy muscles? Romance, hands down. You don’t want your book to convey that it’s a thriller when it’s a memoir. While you want your book cover to follow the guidelines of your genre, your cover still needs to STAND OUT!
- Think like a reader
What emotional appeal would drive a reader to pick up your book? Passion, inspiration, fear, advice, or thrill?
A good cover speaks to a reader through typography, color palate, and imagery. Images and illustrations account for color, texture, and mood; and font styles manipulate the impact of words. Do your research to figure out what elements bring these feelings to life. Think colors, for example: blue is calming. Black foreboding. Red is full of energy.
- Search for symbolism
Just because your book is about finances doesn’t mean you need to have money falling all over the cover. Dig deeper and find the real message. Rather than portray a specific scene or character, think of ways to represent them without giving the story away.
Take into consideration the tone, writing style, time period, type of conflict, characteristics of your protagonist, and key scenes when brainstorming a unique cover design.
- Clear away the clutter
Minimalistic covers at eye-catching because they’re simple, bold and iconic. Zero directly in on one idea and a limited amount of images, colors, and fonts. Any more than that, you get clutter and confusion. A simple cover takes just as much design work—if not more—than a busy one. Rather than get lost in too much imagery and color, allow the title and author to stand out. On that note, make sure the title big and easy to read (no crazy fonts). It still has to be legible at thumbnail size.
- Aim for quality
Does the quality of your cover compare to those at Barnes and Noble, for instance? If it stands out as amateurish, the reader will assume the writing doesn’t cut it either. This is especially key if you are taking the design into your own hands. Invest in the right design program and high-resolution stock images, consider multiple concepts, and execute multiple designs to pick the best one.
