Writing a brilliant manuscript is not the only concern for an author aiming for the success of their book. They must also recognize the significance of a striking book cover and its role in ensuring the success of their work.
Creating an impressive book cover may seem challenging, but with the right approach, finalizing the best option can be a fun and rewarding experience.
Here are some top tips for designing a brilliant book cover.
1- Make it Readable
Feel free to unleash your creativity when designing a book cover, but do not forget essential elements like the title. You would not want readers to struggle to read the title. Instead of making a confusing first impression, you need to ensure your book title is clear and legible.
Make sure to use a legible font and ensure that it is large enough, especially for online buyers. Remember that things tend to appear smaller on screen than they do in person. Therefore, it is important to choose the right font size to keep it readable.
2- Convey the Emotions
One of the most important things you will realize after you discover the best book covers is that all of them are focused on conveying emotions, not details. If you find yourself focusing too much on the details, take a step back and think.
These details may matter greatly to you as the author, but the reader may find them unnecessary. Instead of giving them solvable clues through your book cover, you must focus on piquing their curiosity. This way, they are likely to be intrigued and put your book in the cart.
3- Use Quality Pictures
If you have made up your mind to use pictures on your book cover, you cannot let your guard down when it comes to quality. While adding a picture to your book cover may sound like a simple process, it can have its own challenges and requirements.
Make sure that you choose a picture that conveys the emotions of your book. For example, a horror book’s cover must have similar color palettes, which include grays, blacks, whites, and browns. You can also add a picture with contrasting colors to catch the reader’s eye.
In addition, make sure that you use high-quality pictures. Otherwise, the potential readers may perceive a book with low-quality back covers to be cheap and not worth their time.
4- Pick the Right Colors
The colors you choose for your book cover make a significant difference in how the readers perceive it. Different color schemes have a different impact on the readers and can convey the genre of your book even before they read the title.
For example, red and black are prominent colors used in horror books all around the world and attract the relevant readers. This classic combination evokes a sense of danger, blood, and darkness, promising the readers an intense and graphic horror.
Similarly, every genre has its unique color schemes. Using these color schemes can evoke universal emotions among the readers, leading to a strong book cover.
5- Use Contrast
Knowing the art of using light and dark colors the right way can add a layer of professionalism and attractiveness to your book covers. From charcoal and yellow to raspberry and blue, using the best contrast on your book cover can make it stand out.
It may take a lot of trials for you to figure out which contrasts work the best for your book cover. You can use the vignette effect to highlight the contrast even more.
While adding contrast and vignette effect around the corner, make sure that you do not overdo things. Remember to avoid bevel and drop shadow at all costs. It may make your book cover immature and unprofessional.
6- Put an Emphasis
Even if you try to add minimal text to your book cover, many authors and readers can agree that it is still a lot. Looking at so many important details, deciding what to emphasize can be a bigger challenge than you may have thought.
Since you cannot stress everything, the ideal approach is to stress the title and hook the reader’s interest with interesting images or illustrations. The cover should hook their hearts and make them want to add the book to their cart for more details.
In addition, you can also identify the themes, characters, or central ideas of the book and create a cover design that reflects them.
7- Keep it Simple
Many authors can agree that they want to share as much information on the book cover as they can. They feel that every bit of information on the book cover can convince the reader to add the book to their cart. However, it may have opposite effects.
The cover should offer readers just a glimpse into the story and spark their curiosity instead of giving it all away. While oversharing on the book cover can be tempting, you must avoid making things cluttered at all costs.
Too much information on the cover will overwhelm the reader and surely fail to grab their attention. Instead of focusing on the information you can add to the book cover, you can turn your attention to the elements that actually matter, such as typography, imagery, and contrast.
8- Establish Visual Hierarchy
When designing a cover, it is important to guide the viewer’s eye through the composition by establishing a clear visual hierarchy. Think of them as tour guides who are about to make the viewers fall in love with what they see.
You can achieve this through strategic use of size, color, and placement to emphasize key elements such as the title or imagery. This way, you can effectively direct the viewer’s attention and create a sense of balance within the overall design.
It can take some attempts for you to finalize the best book hierarchy and alignment for your book cover. You must not settle for the first design you see. Instead, it is better to conduct A/B testing to identify what resonates best with the target audience.