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Cover Design

Basics of Cover Design

 

Thank you to Creative Minds Press for providing the content for this FAQ.

You know a good cover when you see it—but as you’ll shortly discover, it’s not so easy to accomplish.

In this increasingly visual age, where few have the time to look beyond the facade, you need to have a killer cover that screams “professional” and “interesting” and “worth your time and hard-earned cash!”

That immediately eliminates any line-drawn illustration. Sketches and etchings were nice for 19th century books, but they don’t make it in the 21st. Be careful about a 2-color cover as well. Often, they just come out looking poor.

If you want a fully illustrated cover (4 colors), be aware that these fronts tell booksellers that it’s for children and young adults (YA). For tips on what the market expects, go to your local bookstore and look at all your competition. What’s everyone else doing?


“Clip art” that came with your computer isn’t going to make a good cover, no matter how many times you neighbor tells you it looks nice. You need to have a good, professional-looking design. In all likelihood, that means that you need a professional cover designer. Yes, it will cost money. If you don’t spend the bucks to get a good-looking cover, you might just as well not publish. However, if you have a background in art, graphics or design, you should learn how to put together a cover in the book design software Quark or InDesign yourself. Especially if you plan on doing more than just one book.

You must think like a businessperson. Although writing the book is an art, getting the boxes of books out of your garage is strictly business... and everything about the book package is about business. (Please see our page about creating Marketing Plans.)

Make sure your image is the idea of the book distilled down to it’s essence. It helps to have your cover designer read the book. A different perspective is helpful. Listen carefully to their ideas. You may learn something about your own book!

The font for the title and author’s name should be the same—and it should be the same as the title page inside the book. One of Barnes and Noble’s Small Press Department’s first “triage” steps for an incoming evaluation is to check for a different font on the title page than the cover. Choose a sans-serif font (without the little curlicues)—you want to be able to read the title from ten feet away, or on a thumbnail-sized picture on the internet (which should suggest to you that shorter titles are better).


Make sure the back cover matter (“blurbs” from enthusiastic early readers or professionals in the field, reviews of previous books, the synopsis, an author bio, and author picture) is in black type on a very light background. Often a “text box” is used; a lighter box transposed over the overall background for the cover. This is the most readable format. You can use white type on a very dark background, but older (over forty) readers will find this a bit of a challenge. Define your audience!

Always proofread everything! The worst thing you can do is put out a book with misspellings on the cover. Have friends proof it, too. Don’t depend on your cover designer; they can miss things. They are visually oriented—not word oriented!

Unless the book has been reviewed by the likes of Stephen King or any of those other “big name” authors, resist the temptation to put your best blurb on the front. Don’t clutter the front with un-necessary text. Just the cover image, title and your name are sufficient. Let the sales job happen on the back cover

The spine should NOT have any recommendations on it (“Read this book!” or some such). That just screams amateur. When lain on it’s side, cover facing up, the spine should show the title and author’s name in letters running from left to right, top to bottom. In some cases, the title can read across the spine (if it’s a thicker book). Few, such as Dan Poynter’s The Self Publishing Manual, run the lettering from top to bottom “stacked.” It works for Dan, I’d advise you to skip that. The publishing company’s name or logo goes at the bottom across the spine. Never omit this as it tips off booksellers that this is self-published!

This is a very short primer on cover design and there’s LOTS more to know. Hiring a professional designer and/or a book-packaging consultant can give your book a compelling “pick me up!” appeal that will lead to sales!



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Thank you to Creative Minds Press for providing the content for this FAQ.

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