Last updated on October 29th, 2021
Authors work hard to write books. But they also want to make sure that their books reach out to masses and sell in increasing numbers of copies. Therefore, book cover design has an important role to play in catching the book lovers eye. If the cover is attractive and unique, it will surely lure the potential customers to pick it up from the selves.
A unique book cover design catches the attention of the potential buyers. A well-designed book cover arises curiosity about the content inside. The design elements such as impressive images, use of colors, typefaces, etc. give a hint about the content of a book.
Most customers will think of buying a book from a bookstore if they find its cover design interesting and engaging. Note that there are hundreds of books in a bookstore or a library. Therefore, an impressive cover can entice a reader to pick your book from the shelf to find out more about its content.
A potential buyer will judge a book by its cover design. If the design is simple, unique, and memorable, then, chances are that customers will think of buying the book. An impressive cover almost compels people to spend some additional time with the book of their choice.
However, book cover design is not an easy work to do even for the professionals. An inexperienced graphic designer will make some common mistakes. But make sure that your book cover is near perfect with an ideal use of design concept and design elements.
Here Are 15 Key Points To Consider About Book Cover Design
Table of Contents
- Get Some Insight Of The Content
- Keep It Simple
- Avoid Overdoing The Design
- Think Before Using Personal Photo
- Make It Scalable Also
- Avoid Giving Too Much Information
- Follow The Guidelines
- Reveal The Hook
- Know The Publishing Techniques
- Create An Interesting And Entertaining Design
- Use The Color Theme Carefully
- Pick Right Typography
- Stick To Your Main Message
- Avoid Cliches
- Use Social Media To Get Opinions
01.Get Some Insight Of The Content
Before starting work on your book cover design, make sure to have some knowledge about content of the book. After all, the cover is nothing but a reflection of what is there in the book.
What is the story, information or any other type of content. Get an essence of the content. This is important to select a right design concept by graphic design services. Most importantly, your choice of fonts, images, symbols, colors etc, elements will solely depend on your understanding of the content.
02. Keep It Simple
We have seen many book covers which are a complex design. People do not have time to understand any hidden meaning in those designs. They simply skip the book and move to the next book in the shelf or library if the design is too complex.
It would be good to keep the cover a simple design. It will be even better if you can follow minimalistic design principles, meaning that you keep only those elements that are enough to convey a message or content of the book.
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03. Avoid Overdoing The Design
Some excited graphic designers will go overboard to create fancy book cover designs. In their enthusiasm, they incorporate lucid imagery and flashy fonts. Their intention is to grab the attention. But such attempts only result in a directionless design and do more harm to the cause of the book. So, do not overdo the design elements.
04. Think Before Using Personal Photo
If the book is an autobiography, using a photo of the person comes to the mind first. However, that is not a good book cover idea always. If the autobiography is about a person who is not known very well to all the people, avoid using that person’s photo on the cover.
Use the photograph of the person only when he or she is a well known personality. People will then pick the book just by seeing the photo.
05. Make It Scalable Also
In these days, books are sold online as well. Your book is most likely to be sold through Amazon, where book covers appear in thumbnail sizes. This means that your cover design should be such that it does not lose its details when it is scaled down. Most of the people shop books using their smartphones. So, it is important that your book cover appears impressive to the online buyers.
06. Avoid Giving Too Much Information
Sometimes authors ask the designers to add more information on the cover. That is a mistake in most of the cases. You should not be revealing your story with all the details in the cover. It is better to leave a lot to the imagination of the readers. So, try to create a book cover that reflects the content in such a way that it gives only a hint of the story.
07. Follow The Guidelines
When designing your book cover, there are some rules you should keep in mind. For example, your cover image should be of high resolution of 300 PPI [DPI] at least. Another thing to consider is the copyright rules.
The images you use on the cover should not violate copyrights of the original user, or you may be in a legal trouble. There are other such technicalities you should be aware of when designing your book cover.
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08. Reveal The Hook
Every story has a hook that keeps the reader engaged and interested. The designer should be incorporating the hook on the cover. There is no need to reveal the entire premise of the story. It is better to reveal only the hook in the cover design.
Sometimes, the covers that depend on safe images become boring designs. Instead, it is always better to reveal only a little bit of the story and be objective. This way, you can catch the attention of the potential customers. Such use of book cover even helps authors to build their name as a brand identity in the market and amid readers.
09. Know The Publishing Techniques
As a book cover designer, you should have some knowledge of book publishing techniques. Sometimes, an inkling of the techniques will help in creating the design from the publishing point of view. Find out if the book will be circulated and sold electronically or through physical publication.
A cover design for ebook may be different from that of physical book. Know if the book is meant for kindle reading. These different publishing methods have their own impact on book cover designs.
10. Create An Interesting And Entertaining Design
Make sure that your book cover design is capable of engaging your potential customers. Visual appeal of the design should be impressive, which is a big factor in drawing your audience’s attention. It should be saying something to the viewers in terms of colors etc elements. The designs ability to make a rapport with the viewers matters a lot.
11. Use The Color Theme Carefully
Make sure that the color scheme you choose for your book cover design is in line with your book story. This is because each color has its own message for the viewers. People get this message consciously or subconsciously whenever they see the colors in a graphic design.
So, choose a color theme that matches with story of the book. Modern graphic designers understand that each color has a specific basic meaning. For example, red will evoke the feelings of aggression, passion, and love. In fact, right color scheme is vital to all graphic designs such as brochure design for conveying a message.
12. Pick Right Typography
There is always at least some use of typography in book cover design. Name of the book and the author is there in the cover. Pick a right typeface that is capable giving a personality to the book cover. Remember that while colors evoke feelings and emotions, typeface add personality to a graphic design. You will use typeface for the title, a tagline, and author’s name.
13. Stick To Your Main Message
Your book cover design must be a message to the target readers. So, first write down the message in a few sentences in a clear language. Then, make sure that your design concept or theme, colors, typefaces, and other elements all convey that message.
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14. Avoid Cliches
It should be a unique and memorable book cover. By using cliched elements and stock images, you will only ruin the prospects of the cover. Avoid creating a routine cover that readers have already seen many times around in libraries and bookshelves.
The design must catch the eye at the first glance. That will happen only when your design theme and use of colors etc is unique and not cliched.
15. Use Social Media To Get Opinions
Make good use of social media when you need people’s opinion on your cover design. Sometimes, viewing your cover design from people’s perspective is a good idea as you may think improving the design.
So, put your cover design on your social media page and request people or your followers about what they think. This way, you have an idea of how readers will response to the design in a bookshelf.
So, these are the key things you must adhere to when creating your book cover design. But if you are looking for many new design concepts for your book cover, crowdsourcing is a good idea. You can send your book cover design work to crowdsourcing site Designhill.
This is a leading platform where hundreds of book cover designers come to look for work. They will be working on your book cover design contest that you launch at the site.
You will get dozens of new cover design concepts from as many designers. What is more, cost of getting a winning cover design for your book at Designhill is affordable within your small budget.
Conclusion
Your book cover design is an important factor in drawing your potential customers’ attention to your book in a shop or library. The design should speak about the content inside of the book. Elements of fonts, typefaces, images, symbols, etc used in the book should all be reflecting the subject matter of the book.