In designing book covers we all know that designers use stock images. To me as a designer sometimes it’s hard to find the right image to fit the particular genre. I usually use images from Shutterstock because they have a very large base of high-quality images, but I find it very hard to find there good images from Regency, Victorian, Edwardian, Medieval, Fantasy, Paranormal, Western, Civil War, Highlander, Georgian, Contemporary, Military, Science Fiction, 1920’s Stock Photos. I was thrilled when after a long and arduous search for images in this area I came across a site www.periodimages.com I would warmly recommend to all who are looking for unique pictures in these areas to visit that site. There you can find high-quality images at affordable prices.
New book trends didn’t reflect only on the content and the storyline of books, but also on the typology of the protagonists. There are more and more strong, outstanding, often female characters even in genres like SF, thrillers or detective novels– not only as a supporting role for a hero but as strong, powerful lead characters which, of course, have to be represented on the book covers as such.
From Katniss Everdeen or Hermione to Bella Swan, female characters in bestsellers have been transformed into pretty powerful figures. They are strong, smart, courageous and capable to cope with danger and adventures equally as their male colleagues-sometimes even better. Making a book cover for such a protagonist might be quite a challenge. It is not enough to put just a beautiful or smart, deep-thinking, face, with a gaze lost somewhere in a blurry surrounding or the sky full of stars. That could fit for a romance novel, but stronger protagonists need something more catchy, more intensive. If a book has a well-known character, the book designer may play with symbols using a new approach, new techniques or a new perspective of a well-known story or symbol, making it modern and communicating well with the new audience, especially the young ones. If you put on a cover a glass shoe in gro plan and a blurry girl in a blue dress, the association will certainly be clear, no matter how you name the book or the character. Stephenie Meyer didn’t have to name her character Snow White – it was enough to put a red apple in her hands. Another excellent example of such an approach is the symbol of Mockingjay on the Hunger Games book cover – clear enough to make that book recognizable among thousands of others.
Sequels and remakes of well-known novels are maybe easier to work with, but the same approach can be used even for an indie novel. In making a good book cover, the designer must recognize the character, the scene, the symbol which fits the best on the cover. It should not be too complicated, but a too simple, minimalistic solution is not always the best choice, because it doesn’t really draw enough attention. It’s somehow similar to putting make-up-you must put an accent on one thing. In make-up, you can choose between eyes, lips, cheeks, eyebrows, face contours etc. But you don’t stress more than two parts at the same time if a very dramatic look is not what you are trying to achieve. It is similar in book cover making. If you use very large or specific font than it’s better to represent a symbol on a cover than a complicated scene. If your choice is dramatic colors, don’t exaggerate with effects. If the scene is complex then you should stick to the basic colors. Too many characters on the front page or a college may even look better in graphics or with reverse colors than in a classic approach. Depends on a character and of a book.
This area is very interesting and has many possibilities for development – one’s skills, and of course, one’s imagination.
For a book which would have good sales, lots of readers and positive reviews, it usually isn’t enough to have a great story written. It is certainly the most important thing, but the „package“ also matters, and that’s why every good book needs also a well-designed book cover.
Most of the authors like to let that part of work to professional designers – with a good reason. When the book is written and the publisher is chosen, the next step is choosing a designer which will represent the book on the front page and make it appealing to the future readers. In order to find the right designer for his book cover, an author must do a lot of research. Most of the designers have their websites or blogs with portfolios and book cover samples, so you can learn more about their work and their aesthetics. Most of them use social networks like Facebook or Instagram to promote their work, too. It’s a good idea to check all that – it might take a little bit of time, but you get the first impression of the kind of covers that designer usually works on – and that’s valuable information. You can see what genre that designer usually work on, do you like his style and, of course, is it suitable for your book.
Once when an author chooses a designer whose work appeals to him most, he should contact him to check his availability and prices, and to give him at least general information about the book.
If it’s not possible for a designer to read the entire book, he must at least read the synopsis. A designer must have enough material to work with – that’s why he must know the plot of the book and the main characters. Though, it is maybe not a good idea to make too specific demands right away. Of course, it is very useful for a designer to hear about the author’s vision of his book cover. An author should give enough information about the book to the designer but should be careful not to limit the designer with too many specific demands. Of course, some basic stuff should be agreed before the designer starts his work, but some ideas will appear in the process, and some ideas will be rejected. The authors know well how often they make changes in their original manuscript, and therefore they should know that making of a good book cover is also a creative process which is a lot harder if it’s limited with too specific demands.
The main thing in the cooperation between an author and a designer is sincerity. If the author doesn’t like something about the book cover, he should say so – as precisely as possible, so the designer would know what changes to make. If the author insists on a design which wouldn’t be the best solution for that book, a designer should help him with the advice. If in the end both the author and the designer are satisfied with the book cover, it is certainly the right one.
These days I see that many authors choose very out of date and sloppy, unprofessional book covers that will reflect badly on their sales. Book covers beside that they are art’s they are also marketing tools and advertisements for your book. So I decided to write a text about book cover design secrets that WILL sell you more books. When it comes to designing covers for books, it’s important to use some manipulations or twists to ensure that the books receive attention. This includes various aspects. Let’s get to the most important of them:
1.POP UP AND EYE CATCHING ELEMENT
Whether we like to admit it or not we all judge book by the cover design. That is the first thing that we notice. You need to have strong contrast which is aimed at giving a maximum focus towards a particular portion of the image while the surrounding areas serve to lessen the tone of color used. The key is that the main object or character pop out, to get the attention of potential readers. Also, it’s very tricky to use contrasting in color (colors that are opposites on each other).
2.GIVE THE COVER SPACE TO BREATHE
A lot of authors make mistake when they want to fit everything from the story in the cover. It is not recommended for creating an entire story on the cover design. Readers will browse a ton of small thumbnail covers for only a few seconds before deciding whether to click it or not for more info. Creating a specific scene from your book story makes the thumbnail too busy. Having a simple image that is straightforward that brings out a message or element from your story is a key. If you’re handling with a lot of small elements and details to make sure that they match the book story precisely, it’s too busy already. And if you decide to use lots of elements at least try to choose a design where is the background is blended together with other elements smoothly, not just looking like someone put different images together.
3.CHOOSE THE RIGHT FONT
Choosing the right fonts is an easy way to represent your book genre and draw the right readers, but you can also ruin up by using too many different fonts. You need to pick a more interesting or stylish font for the title but write all the subtext (author name, subtitle, tagline) in clean serif of sans serif fonts. Lots of space between the author name and the title also helps to reduce the amount of clutter covering the page thus giving it adequate attention. Subtitles also serve as arousing interest in the book as they provide additional information about the book and give the reader a little more detail about the story therein. As a result, people can get the idea right from the cover page and as such, they can make better decisions.
These are just some of the book cover design secrets that contribute to better book sales leading to returns for the writers.
The most important thing for a book cover is, of course, the general impression it leaves on a reader (or a future reader, author, the owner of a bookstore who arranges the shop window, the visitor of a website searching for ideas-whoever is your presumed audience). It would be the best if that’s a polished mixture of a picture, photo or graphics, font, highlights, effects and all those details which go on the front cover, which make an appealing, eye-catchy final image that represents the book if the best possible way. Though, achieving such an effect demands a lot of hard work-the more synchronized the title, colors, image, background and fonts used look at the end, the more effort is put to make it seem well-combined, natural and even effortless.
Even a simple research about original book covers and editions of the same book abroad would show some interesting facts about book cover design. Most of the publishers and their designers tend to use the same photo as the original or chose between two or three similar versions. The ones who decide to use more original solutions made the book harder to recognize at first glance, and that’s not always a good idea. Most of them also tend to keep the original title of the book, if it’s in English. However, they usually alter elements of the original book cover design, and that can lead to very interesting solutions. Some insert diagonal cutouts to the book cover, which lead to a more modernist design, others give a more graphical look to the original photo, add sepia tones to the black and white cover photo, lighten it, or add a little bit of red for a more dramatic effect. Others alter the font of the title, its position on the cover or just font size or color. The results can be pretty amazing-we get a dozen good, appealing book covers, and each of them maintains its originality and gave the space to the designer to play with effects.
The similar approach may be used when making a pre-made book cover designs. Adding right, carefully chosen details which address to that specific book to an original idea can change the whole image. If we, for example, have a winter landscape with high pine trees and a cottage in a distance, it can work for a romance, for example. If you sharpen the edges, add a little bit of red or green, and change the basic color of the cover from white to black, and you have a completely different image which makes a totally different impression on a viewer. In that case, you can use an idyllic winter photo as the basic for a suspense novel book cover, or a thriller, and you just altered a couple of elements.
If you choose your details well, they don’t draw too much attention, but complete the whole book cover and make it interesting, appealing and unique. That’s why choosing those small parts of a book cover may take more time than creating an original idea, but if it’s done properly, it helps a good book cover to become an excellent one.
