Cover Design
Cover design is an important aspect, it's on the same level as reviews and your bestest friend's opinion. It can make or break a sale when someone is perusing the vast quantity of literature out there. The design does not simply cover the appearance of the book, but also elements such as front and back matter. These are you tools you use to substantiate why a reader should bother looking at your work.
Elements covered in this section:
Elements covered in this section:
- Appearance
Appearance
Okay, so you've written this awesome short, novella, novel, collections of profanic rantings, and you want someone to read it. You know it's great, you've spent many a restless night proof-reading, line editing, sacrificing goats to your artistic endeavour. You have one problem though, you want someone to actually pull themselves away from gawking at pictures of cats, and read this thing.
By nature, we judge something on appearances before we decide to dig deeper, people, products, whatever, first impressions count a lot. It's a disparaging truth, but a truth nonetheless, and you just have to roll with it. As of yet, when someone browses your work, there is not a bat signal that marks the night sky, disseminating information on a potential reader so you can run to their location, grab their head like a piece of fruit, and prattle on about why this is the best decision they'll ever make.
Here are some elements to consider when designing your cover.
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Design
Listen, I understand you may not be a designer, and have a loose grasp of how the microwave functions, but the fact is, if you've spent your time working on your book, then you must have the determination to go that little bit further.
Go and download yourself some image manipulation software, here are some free ones.
Paint.Net
Gimp
And for the love of all that is good, learn to use them, there are myriad tutorials out there, it just requires some time and effort.
You can spend money on a designer, and they will do a good job, it's just that it's going to cost you (most of the time).
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The Front Cover
So you know how to use the software, you can cut out your friend's head and superimpose it onto that of a baby or feral animal. You now have to ruminate on what you want your front cover to look like, font and title are not important yet, you have to think of an image.
What a good cover image should do:
MOOD
First and foremost, look to other successful author's works that you've read and look at the front cover, notice how usually there is an image that represents a significant element of the plot or theme? That wasn't a drunken mistake brought about by bashing their head against the keyboard, the designer meant to do that.
This image could be a significant plot item, e.g. the all powerful sword of courtship dead centre of the image.
The image could be the protagonist, a significant location, a compilation of images that convey the feel of the work.
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GENRE
Genre is fairly simple, you've most probably read/seen work and you know what colour schemes, identifying objects/theme dominate their covers. If it's horror, there's usually a lot of dark tones, romance, usually a lot of bright colours, bare chested dudes and an over-abundance of red.
This needs to tie in with the mood, people need to look at the cover and instantly know what genre they're looking at without having to read the blurb or the first few pages.
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CATCHING ATTENTION
So that stuff above is all well and good, but how do you differentiate your cover from all the others out there?
First of all, and I cannot say this enough, DO NOT RESORT TO CLICHÉ.
I understand if you're writing erotica or what-have-you and you are required by law to put a woman or man on there. I can live with that, but I'm talking about going deeper (zing).
When you've researched covers, you'll see a pattern, it's undeniable, now, you don't want to fall in line with this, rehashing the same image, play with it, subvert it. You see, a person may read a bad book with a certain cover, lets say a guy holding a sword aloft in a barren wasteland. That's stored away in their mind, and then the image is associated with bad writing, putting someone off your book before they've even looked inside.
Make sure it's designed well. If you're starting out, you're not going to be the best, and that's fine, keep it simple, try some tutorials out, sometimes less is more and a nice image with a nice font is easier on the eyes than a visual torrent of bad graphics. Avoid bevel and emboss like the plague if you do not know how to use it properly, this is bane of cover designing and can instantly ruin a cover.
A great site for free stock images/brushes/photos: Deviant Art
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FONT
Font is important as it too has the ability to set the general mood of the book. You all know what a horror font looks like if you picture it in your head.
Fonts are a great way of jazzing up your cover with little to no effort, here are some resources.
1001FreeFonts
DAFont
Ensure that you're font is not too garish and avoid these fonts at all cost:
There are much better free ones out there that will achieve your visual goals.
If you stare at a book, you'll notice that the majority of the time, the author's name is larger than the book title, and also in a different, cleaner font. This is because the author's name usually carries more weight for a prospective reader than the title. If your favourite author wrote a book called, "Tripping Balls in an Airplane Bathroom: Part Deux; My Face has turned to jelly, oh my god, kill me now stewardess" you may be slightly put off. However, if you see it's by them, you're more inclined to buy.
Remember, you're selling yourself more than you're selling the specific title.
Author's names usually occupy the bottom of the book page, while the title usually hovers around the top but the title is more flexible than the author name, that should stay consistent throughout all you publish.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
COVERS I LIKE
These are some covers that make me need the toilet on an emotional level.
By nature, we judge something on appearances before we decide to dig deeper, people, products, whatever, first impressions count a lot. It's a disparaging truth, but a truth nonetheless, and you just have to roll with it. As of yet, when someone browses your work, there is not a bat signal that marks the night sky, disseminating information on a potential reader so you can run to their location, grab their head like a piece of fruit, and prattle on about why this is the best decision they'll ever make.
Here are some elements to consider when designing your cover.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Design
Listen, I understand you may not be a designer, and have a loose grasp of how the microwave functions, but the fact is, if you've spent your time working on your book, then you must have the determination to go that little bit further.
Go and download yourself some image manipulation software, here are some free ones.
Paint.Net
Gimp
And for the love of all that is good, learn to use them, there are myriad tutorials out there, it just requires some time and effort.
You can spend money on a designer, and they will do a good job, it's just that it's going to cost you (most of the time).
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The Front Cover
So you know how to use the software, you can cut out your friend's head and superimpose it onto that of a baby or feral animal. You now have to ruminate on what you want your front cover to look like, font and title are not important yet, you have to think of an image.
What a good cover image should do:
- Establish the mood of the book
- Establish the genre of the book
- Catch the reader's eye
MOOD
First and foremost, look to other successful author's works that you've read and look at the front cover, notice how usually there is an image that represents a significant element of the plot or theme? That wasn't a drunken mistake brought about by bashing their head against the keyboard, the designer meant to do that.
This image could be a significant plot item, e.g. the all powerful sword of courtship dead centre of the image.
The image could be the protagonist, a significant location, a compilation of images that convey the feel of the work.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
GENRE
Genre is fairly simple, you've most probably read/seen work and you know what colour schemes, identifying objects/theme dominate their covers. If it's horror, there's usually a lot of dark tones, romance, usually a lot of bright colours, bare chested dudes and an over-abundance of red.
This needs to tie in with the mood, people need to look at the cover and instantly know what genre they're looking at without having to read the blurb or the first few pages.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
CATCHING ATTENTION
So that stuff above is all well and good, but how do you differentiate your cover from all the others out there?
First of all, and I cannot say this enough, DO NOT RESORT TO CLICHÉ.
I understand if you're writing erotica or what-have-you and you are required by law to put a woman or man on there. I can live with that, but I'm talking about going deeper (zing).
When you've researched covers, you'll see a pattern, it's undeniable, now, you don't want to fall in line with this, rehashing the same image, play with it, subvert it. You see, a person may read a bad book with a certain cover, lets say a guy holding a sword aloft in a barren wasteland. That's stored away in their mind, and then the image is associated with bad writing, putting someone off your book before they've even looked inside.
Make sure it's designed well. If you're starting out, you're not going to be the best, and that's fine, keep it simple, try some tutorials out, sometimes less is more and a nice image with a nice font is easier on the eyes than a visual torrent of bad graphics. Avoid bevel and emboss like the plague if you do not know how to use it properly, this is bane of cover designing and can instantly ruin a cover.
A great site for free stock images/brushes/photos: Deviant Art
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
FONT
Font is important as it too has the ability to set the general mood of the book. You all know what a horror font looks like if you picture it in your head.
Fonts are a great way of jazzing up your cover with little to no effort, here are some resources.
1001FreeFonts
DAFont
Ensure that you're font is not too garish and avoid these fonts at all cost:
- Comic Sans
- Papyrus
- Impact
There are much better free ones out there that will achieve your visual goals.
If you stare at a book, you'll notice that the majority of the time, the author's name is larger than the book title, and also in a different, cleaner font. This is because the author's name usually carries more weight for a prospective reader than the title. If your favourite author wrote a book called, "Tripping Balls in an Airplane Bathroom: Part Deux; My Face has turned to jelly, oh my god, kill me now stewardess" you may be slightly put off. However, if you see it's by them, you're more inclined to buy.
Remember, you're selling yourself more than you're selling the specific title.
Author's names usually occupy the bottom of the book page, while the title usually hovers around the top but the title is more flexible than the author name, that should stay consistent throughout all you publish.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
COVERS I LIKE
These are some covers that make me need the toilet on an emotional level.
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BOOM--badass.
So what does this tell us?
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Same author up in the hiz-ee
The cover design for Brent Weeks' book are always simple and smooth, the info is conveyed with a minimalist touch, but it's enough to drag you in. |
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A slightly more abstract cover.
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