Cover Design

We’re admonished to never judge a book by its cover.

This is good advice in our relationships with people. It is bad advice when it comes to selling books.

Covers absolutely matter.

Let’s go with another aphorism – a picture tells a thousand words. A good cover image reveals as much to the reader as the blurb on the back.

A book with an effective, attractive cover is like a nicely wrapped gift. It builds anticipation and expectation in a reader. They hold the book in their hands or view the image on screen and are already imagining the world you have created inside it.

A silhouetted helicopter, for instance, might hint at a military story. An attractive woman in the arms of a man suggests a romance. A cartoonish illustration of a couple might intimate a romantic comedy. You get the drift.

A successful used car dealer once told us he always got his detailers to pay special attention to cleaning and polishing ‘mag’ wheels if they were already fitted to a vehicle. If the car had old factory steel wheels, he’d fit slick new wheel covers to them, or even splash out on new ‘mags’. Why? Because, he said,  “People ‘eat’ with their eyes.”

He was right.

An excellent book cover:

• Catches and pleases the eye with its imagery
• Builds anticipation with good typography
• Gives a hint as to what the reader can expect inside, and
• Is easy to read when at thumbnail size on Amazon or other ebook retailers.

What are the elements that make up a book cover?

A book cover is made up of the following elements:

• A captivating title
• An intriguing subtitle (optional)
• A review quote or endorsement (optional)
• Excellent imagery, and
• Appropriate typography.

Also, in the case of a print cover, the elements include a spine and back.

The spine art must be aligned correctly and able to be read clearly when on a bookshelf among other books, and good back material may include:

• A tagline
• Compelling blurb
• An author bio (almost a must on non-fiction), and
• Endorsements (not always necessary, but nice to have).

A captivating title

A good book title will do two things:

• Intrigue your reader, and
• Give them a hint of what they can expect in the book.

This might be:

• Establishing a conflict (War and Peace; Pride and Prejudice)
• Evoking an intriguing setting (Wuthering Heights; Animal Farm; Mansfield Park)
• Naming the protagonist (Emma; Oliver Twist; The Dressmaker)
• Stating a pivotal event (Murder on the Orient Express; Flight of the Phoenix)

There is a ‘Goldilocks’ element to a good book title which might even come with the theme of your manuscript.

Are subtitles important?

Non-fiction titles benefit from subtitles. The main title gives a punch from the page while the subtitle reveals what the reader will find between the covers.

Here are three examples:

Title: The 4-Hour Workweek

Subtitle: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Title: Good To Great

Subtitle: Why Some Companies Make The Leap and Others Don’t

Title: The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Subtitle: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals

In fiction, the same holds true. A subtitle might:

• Reference the name of a hero: (An Inspector Morris Mystery)
• Ask a question: (How far would you go to save the world?)
• Give you the name of the book series (Ciao Bella #3)
• Give a tease (With friends like these…)

Excellent imagery

The cover imagery is going to be the first thing people notice. And, for most authors, an exclusive image or artwork is going to be cost prohibitive.

But there is good news. There are stock images that can be purchased for a reasonable cost – or there may be historical images which are out of copyright.

You must be sure to hold the rights to the image you use. To crib a photo from the internet, or, worse, to use someone else’s cover with your name and title over the top (yes, that has been known to happen) is morally wrong and illegal.

If you are signed with a publisher, the responsibility of rights and clearances belongs to them. If you are self-publishing, you need to secure those rights.

The majority of professional book covers use more than one image, seamlessly blended together by an artist to create a brand-new work of art (and good covers are art).

Appropriate Typography

This is the part that lets down a large number of self-published works.

There is more to a good book cover than just the image alone. The typography (the styling of the words on the cover) is just as important as the image itself. Authors without a design background struggle with font choice and placement.

If you are planning to create your own cover, be familiar with the look and feel of titles in the same genre as yours. Yes, they may look ‘samey’, but they’re like that because it is a proven formula that works.

If you are made of stern stuff, you might like to look at lousybookcovers.com for their critique of book covers.

Back Material

Blurb – A blurb is an around 100-word teaser which really sells your book. Most authors will tell you that it is often harder to write a good blurb than it is to is to write the manuscript in the first place. In fact, there are entire courses on how to write an effective blurb. In short, it should give snapshot of the plot and the conflict.

Tagline – When it is not used on the front cover, the tagline is used on the back cover to intrigue the reader: “Hate brought them together. Will love tear them apart?”

Author bio – This is often seen on non-fiction titles when the author is using their professional credentials to lend authority to the book.

Endorsements – Only applicable if you are fortunate enough to know a famous author or someone highly credentialed your field who will endorse your book.

How much does a book cover cost?

This can depend.

Many book authors have a standard rate which covers purchase of stock imagery, fonts (and associated rights) and their time on creating the cover.

They will charge for artwork for a print cover and an ebook cover and may give you a discount for purchasing both.

You may be asked for the full payment upfront, or to pay a 50% deposit before work begins. Some editors may accept payment on completion.

How do I know if the cover is going to be good?

Ask to see your cover designer’s portfolio. You’ll be able to tell quickly if they can deliver the style you’re looking for.

What happens next?

The first step for the designer is to get the brief from the author. This should take the form of a questionnaire:

• How many main characters are there?
• What do they look like? Their age, gender, nationality, hair colour, eye colour, distinguishing marks?
• What are their key attributes? Rock stars? Dukes and Duchesses? — You get the idea.
• What is the style of the work? A sweeping romance? A gritty crime drama? A rom-com? An angsty YA coming-of-age? Dystopian?

You might also nominate covers of other titles that go some way to capturing the mood. This is invaluable to your cover artist – as are examples of covers you don’t like.

Before you shoot off all of that information, take a look at those other covers and ask:

• Why did they choose that image?
• Why did the artist use it in that way?
• Why was that typeface used?