Book Cover Design Guide: How to Create a Professional Cover
People judge books by their covers within seconds. Readers do not engage with the content on the first page, and their perception of your book is formed by the cover. This is why professional book cover design is so important. Most book authors significantly underestimate the importance of book cover design, but it has a significant impact on sales. An unattractive book cover design puts off potential readers no matter how good the content is. Creating effective book cover design involves balancing aesthetics and commercial features. This guide to book cover design will provide you with essential information and advice to get started with book cover design, whether you design your book cover yourself or you turn to professional book cover design companies.
Why Your Book Cover Design Matters More Than You Know
An effective book cover design serves as one of the most powerful tools for selling books. The same manuscript, presented on different covers, finds different audiences. If the book cover design does not find the right readers, no matter how great the content of the book is, the book will not sell. Experts cite multiple studies demonstrating the influence of the book cover on the number of sales. First impressions are critical, and the visual appearance of the book conveys much information to the reader about the content of the book. A professionally designed book cover tells the reader that you have invested effort in making him buy your book. At the same time, an amateurish-looking cover scares readers away.
What Your Genre and Target Audience Say About Your Book Cover Design
Before creating a book cover design, an author needs to know how to get the message across. It is this information that the reader perceives first when studying the book cover. The information is different for different genres of books. A thriller cover needs to be mysterious and tense; a contemporary romance cover needs to appeal to the target audience of women who like to read about romance. Memoirs have a different cover design, which emphasizes the personality of the protagonist shown on the cover. Science fiction book cover design incorporates futuristic motifs. In each genre, the audience expects certain things from the cover design. A professional book cover design expert knows the conventions of genre-specific cover design and can find effective solutions within the framework of these conventions.
At the same time, for each book, the cover design should be unique and identify the book on the shelf. To find individuality, it is necessary to know the norms and be able to deviate from them. It is vital to base the book cover design on genre conventions and the reading force of the target audience. The way you write the book and the image you want to convey to the reader via book cover design determine what your book cover should look like. An effective book cover design for a paranormal romance novel for women is completely different from an equivalent design for children’s literature.
Essential Principles of Book Cover Design
For a long time, experts in the field of book design have been trying to systematize and agree on the basic principles of book cover design. Although there are no hard and fast rules for book cover design, there are certain principles that are applicable to any book cover design.
Visual hierarchy
Visual hierarchy in book cover design determines what catches the eye and how exactly the reader perceives the book. When developing a concept for book cover design, it is essential to define what the most important element should be. This element deserves the most attention; therefore, it should be the focal point of the cover. The focal point should be the biggest or most protruding element in terms of scale. To achieve visual hierarchy in book cover design, the designer can use the principle of contrast.
Focal point
It is related to the previous principle, as the focal point is the most prominent element in the book cover design. Most book covers only have one focal point, the main element. This is done to direct the reader’s eye to it. To do this, the designer can make it bigger or bolder than the other elements on the cover. At the same time, it is wrong to use more than one focal point for book cover design, since this will confuse the reader.
Color harmony
This principle refers to how the colors in the book cover design relate to each other. It is essential to avoid using colors that clash with each other when designing a book cover. Different colors evoke different associations in the human psyche, so the color scheme of a book cover design is highly contextual. Each genre has its own conventional color scheme that should be used when designing book covers.
Balance and composition
Although there are no strict guidelines, experts recommend observing certain conventions when designing book covers. For example, when designing book covers, designers follow the principle of asymmetry since this makes the design look lively. However, this rule is not absolute, because the composition of the book cover design should reflect the theme and context of the book.
Typography in Book Cover Design
Typography on the book cover is one of the most essential elements of the book cover design. The choice of typeface directly reflects the message the designer wants to get across to the reader. Choosing the right fonts for your book cover design is important, as the reader judges the book by the font used on the cover. If the designer selects the traditional serif typeface, this conveys to the reader that he is getting a classical book. At the same time, modern fonts create a sense of innovation and modernism. The choice of fonts in book cover design should also be based on the target audience of the book. For example, it is not recommended to use decorative typefaces on the book cover if the audience reads the book to fall asleep, as the fonts will be difficult to read.
The Importance of Color in Your Book Cover Design
The colors used in your book cover design play a vital role in conveying your message to the consumer. Each color has psychological associations; therefore, the designer should be especially careful when selecting a color palette for the book cover design. The basic psychological effects of color on the human psyche are as follows:
Color Psychological associations
Red: Love and rage
Blue: Trust and calmness
Yellow Optimism
Purple: Luxury and mystery
Green Nature
Orange Energy
The designer must determine what associations the book cover should evoke and select the color palette according to these associations. It is also essential to study the color scheme that is standard for the genre in which the book is written. In addition to the choice of colors, the saturation and brightness of the colors should be studied, since the colors affect the perception of the book cover design. A high level of saturation and brightness gives youthfulness and freshness; a low level of saturation and brightness makes the cover look more mature. It is also important to understand that the principles of color contrast apply to the book cover design as well, so it is essential to study them when designing a book cover.
Choosing and Using Images for Book Cover Design
The cover design can be divided into two categories: covers with photographs and covers with illustrative images. When designing a book cover with photographs, it is essential to use high-quality images. The quality of the photograph is paramount, as it directly affects the quality of the book cover design. If the author is not an amateur photographer, he should turn to a professional photographer when taking photos for the book cover. When purchasing photos for the book cover design, the author should choose photos from professional photographers, as the quality of the image is of great importance.
When designing a book cover, it is essential to study the relationship between text and images since these two elements compete for the reader’s attention. This is especially important when using photographs, as they can overwhelm the text on the cover of the book. Most often, to do this, designers use special effects when superimposing color on a photographic image. These effects allow the designer to separate the text from the background, ensuring that the reader reads exactly what needs to be seen on the book cover. This is one of the most important aspects of a quality book cover design.
Common Mistakes in Book Cover Design
Getting to know the most common mistakes when designing a book cover will help you avoid them when designing your book cover. Some of the most common mistakes in book cover design include:
Too many elements
Many novice designers try to create interesting and unique book cover designs by adding too many elements to the covers. However, this method rarely works and usually causes the cover to look cluttered. Elements should not be used on the book cover if they are not necessary for the concept of the book cover design. At the same time, an effective book cover design uses minimal necessary elements to find an effective solution.
Too small text
One of the most common mistakes in book cover design is the use of text that is too small to be read on the cover of a real book or its reduced version on the online store. When designing a book cover, the designer must ensure that the text on the cover is readable to the reader at any distance.
Incorrect color scheme
One of the mistakes that beginner designers make when choosing a color scheme for a book cover is choosing colors that clash with each other. When creating a book cover design, it is necessary to use the principles of color harmony. The designer should also remember that colors affect the genre of a book, as certain colors are standard for specific genres.
Too much deviation from genre conventions
Although it is important to develop an original and unique concept for the book cover design, it is not recommended to deviate too much from genre conventions. Designers should know that these conventions help readers identify books by genre, which is why they should not be completely abandoned. A professional book cover design expert knows the conventions of the genre and can work within their framework when creating an original concept for the book cover design.
Using too many typefaces
Most often, using more than two typefaces on a book cover makes it look unprofessional. It is important to remember that the principles of visual hierarchy and contrast are also applied when designing a book cover. These principles dictate that only those elements should be used on the book cover that convey the idea and make the text on the cover readable. If the designer wants to use more than one typeface in the book cover design, he needs to choose them so that they are readable against the background and contrast with each other. Most often, designers choose one typeface for the main title and a second, different typeface for the subtitle and the author’s name.
Filters that make your cover design look unprofessional
The use of image filters when designing a book cover is a beginner mistake that makes book cover design look unprofessional. Designers should turn to the knowledge of color harmony, contrast, and visual hierarchy when creating a book cover instead of using ready-made filters. All these principles together ensure that the book cover design looks great on any background and attracts the attention of the reader.
Front, Spine, and Back Cover Design
Many book designers and authors ignore the spine when designing the book cover. However, the spine is one of the three essential parts of the book cover, along with the book’s front and back covers. The spine is the part of the book cover that is visible when a book is displayed on a shelf. Because of this, the spine contains the name of the book and the author’s name, which is why it is essential to choose the right font when designing the spine of the book. Authors should always ensure that their book’s title and author's name can be read on the spine of the book, even when the book is closed. The design of the spine should harmonize with the design of the front and back covers of the book.
The front cover, spine, and back cover of the book should blend together so that the visual appearance harmonizes with each other. The visual appearance of the three parts of the book cover can be completely different, but they should share similarities and be in the same color scheme.
DIY Design vs. Professional Designers
Many authors choose the option of designing the book cover themselves, which is a viable option given the large number of book cover design software available. When comparing DIY book cover design with professional book cover design services, each option has its advantages and disadvantages. The option for DIY book cover design is appropriate in the case when the author has the skills and knowledge of visual design to some extent.
Professional book cover design services allow you to choose the option that suits your budget. Designers who specialize in book cover design vary in experience, so it is important to choose a competent specialist who will deliver a project that meets all your expectations. In addition, authors should be aware that book cover design services offer completely different levels of services when designing a book cover for print and online platforms.
Design for Different Platforms
The most common mistake when designing a book cover is not considering the requirements for designing for different platforms. When designing for different platforms, the author should keep in mind that the design needs to look good in print and online. The front, spine, and back cover design should also be designed considering the requirements for each platform. A professional book cover design service takes care of all the details when designing the book for different platforms.
Book cover design for print has specific requirements, such as a resolution of 300 DPI and certain dimensions, including the size of the spine. E-book covers have their own requirements since they are viewed on screens with a specific display format. Failure to observe the requirements when designing the book cover for print leads to the impossibility of printing the designed cover.