What Makes a Good Cover Design: Judging A Book By Its Cover
The famous idiom is “Never judge a book by its cover,” however, regardless of how realistic it might be in an impractical sense, the reality of the vast book industry is that most readers indeed use the cover to decide on whether they should purchase the book or not.
With several books for readers to make a selection from, the very first “sales pitch” is the cover. If the cover does not immediately catch the readers attention, it will definitely be passed over for something more riveting on either side.
The “Big Question” now is, how do you make an ideal cover design? We have taken the time to outline a few tips that will help you design the perfect cover for your book.
Uniqueness
An ideal book cover stands out from other books in a given a category. Whilst it should not be exclusively left out of the field for the audience, it has to establish itself as something distinct on the shelves. This can be realized through style and expertise in addition to playing up the “hook” of the book cover. “Hook” here simply means something that makes the book different. For example, there might be a long list of detective stories in the globe, however, if yours is the only one that talks about a drug addict who is trying to solve the murder case of his best friend that certainly is something that has to be played up.
Integration of type and art
A perfect book cover is also a compatible marriage of art and type. They should be organized and work jointly to fully accompaniment each other and establish a robust cohesion. They should not create a detachment (unless deliberate) or be repetitious. After all, art which simply reflects the words in the title of the book may not add any useful information and may even end up feeling monotonous, pedestrian, or on-the-nose.
Immediacy
An ideal book cover greatly allures individuals at first sight. It is competing with hundreds of other covers in a highly crowded marketplace and has got only seconds to grab the attention of a potential before they are captured by another title. To achieve this, a book cover has to focus on the ultimate enthralling idea instead of trying to incorporate every little detail. It also has to have the ability to hold up to small sizes. Ultimately, since several books are shelved in a spine-out manner in stores, most covers are seen as online thumbnails in sites such as Amazon and IndieBound. If you have made a mistake and failed in this, then no doubt you have lost the largest part of your audience.
Would you pick this up?
It is always vital to ask yourself the question, “Would I honestly pick up this book?” This does not necessarily imply that the content has to impress you, but it implies that you have made a striking and enthralling cover, that will make will gravitate towards in the store even if you were not interested in its genre. This may look obvious, however, it is startling how most of us forget about it, in a hurry to delight clients.
It communicates a variety of things
A perfect book cover puts across a lot of information very fast. To achieve immense success, it has to communicate:
The genre
Whether the genre is fantasy, Crime of Coming-of-age, a good cover design has to convey it so that the marketplace comprehends it immediately.
The audience
Who is the book meant for? Whether it is for teens or adults, any good cover design has to address and be ideal for its intended audience.
The tone
A good and ideal cover must always try to convey the tone of the book.
What the book is about?
Whilst a book cover does not need to be fully specific, it has to at least allude to the story to come out in some very important way.
Conclusion
Coming up with a successful book cover takes a lot of work, but if you embrace the well-outlined tips above then, you will stop missing out on potential sales. Your book covers will always give you an upper hand over your competitors.