Everyone with a new book or ebook wants it to stand out and attract readers. It’s the main reason for choosing a book cover design in the first place! But how do you manage that? How to make your book cover stand out?
Unfortunately, many of us have bad book covers on our hands (or computers). The covers haven’t helped sell books and are now sitting there collecting virtual dust. No one will ever see them if you release your self-published book to the wild without showing what makes it special.
In this article you will understand more about what makes a good book cover. Even more, you will learn how to make your next book stand out!
How To Make Your Book Cover Stand Out?
Your Book Cover Is Your Packaging
The first important thing to keep in mind is that your book cover is your book’s packaging. A well-selling product on a shelf in a shop, is placed in packaging that is attractive to its intended buyer. When you are thinking of how to make your book cover stand out, view it as designing this attractive packaging that your reader can’t resist.
Like any packaging, a good book cover should grab the attention of its target audience. It should also tell readers what the book is about and why they should read it. a book’s title and author name should be used on the cover. The title should appear in a font that is easy to read. The author’s name should appear in a font that is large enough to read from a distance. View it again like packaging: Are you more interested in a bare box on a shelf, or do you rather pick that other box with a clear description?
A good book cover should also give readers a sense of the genre. In addition, the cover should also accurately reflect the content. The cover art should, therefore, be consistent with the tone of the book.
A great book cover uses images that are interesting enough to immediately catch the eye. It can feature the main character, an important setting, or an object or animal that is prominent in the book.
What’s Your Story?
The book cover must attract your readers’ attention. To do this, the book cover must be designed to draw the attention of your target audience, those who are interested in your intended genre. Therefore, you must truly understand the genre of your book. Your readers expect a certain layout for the genre they’re after. This will determine what type of cover you will design.
The cover should also give the reader a glimpse of what’s in the book. For example, if it’s a horror story, the cover should portray that. If it is a detective, a picture of a sunny beach may not really fit. Such a picture is much more suitable for a summer holiday romance.
Know Your Reader
To maximize the chances of selling your book, you must really understand you reader if you want to attract their attention. You must know what your audience wants. You need to understand what interests them, their age, gender, etc.
Their lifestyle or life stage may also influence your book choice. For instance, if you want your book to sell to present-day Gen-Z, you should write in a casual tone, use more images, and present your content in an appealing way.
You may want to include the latest design trends, which is perfect for younger readers or those interested in art. However, be aware that they may not always work with your intended audience. Sometimes it is better to stick with the tried and trusted.
Use The Correct Tools
When creating a beautiful book cover, first choose the right software. There are plenty of free book cover templates online. These templates are easy to use. Using the right software, you can create professional book covers easily.
There are also free online tools that you could use like Canva. Some self-publishing platforms like Amazon’s KDP even include cover generators where you can design the cover according to the platforms required specifications.
However, many of these free tools are limited in what they can do. So, you may need more sophisticated software that often comes at a cost and is less user friendly. Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator are among the most powerful tools to make a successful book cover that stands out.
How To Make Your Book Cover Stand Out With Design Elements
To make your book look professional, it is important to consider the book’s size as well as the topic. If the book is smaller in size, you don’t want to create a design that is too busy. If it is larger, you have more space to fill with intricate design elements, although this is not always necessary. The trick is to always make the design feel simple enough to attract your readers.
Another important tip is to make your book design capture the eye. It needs to jump right off the shelf. For this you can use elements such as illustrations, photos, or graphics. It is important to remember that the background image, font, and color are going to determine the success of your cover.
Fonts
The cover of your book needs to look good. However, you cannot simply choose a font that you like. You need to choose fonts that will look good on the cover of your book and are in line with your audience’s expectation of the story.
The first way to do this is to choose a font that is clean and easy to read. Of the cover design tips about fonts, this is the most important. You do not want your readers to miss out on your work, simply because the title was too hard to read. For example, a beautiful cursive script may look wonderful on its own, but it may become difficult to read when it is placed next to your cover image.
You also want to be careful with what associations people may have with certain font types. For this reason, designers now do not recommend the font family of comic sans. It may look fun and relaxed, but many people have used it so much in quick printouts that it appears cheap and not professional.
In addition, choose a font that matches the genre. For example, romance novels often have script fonts while science fiction books have blocky fonts. Historical novels may use serif fonts, to make it feel more classical, or even a font that resembles Medieval handwriting.
One font or multiple fonts?
Not only the font of your titles is important, but also that of the other elements like subtitles and author names. You can choose to keep it all clean and simple using the same font, or you could be more interesting by using a second supportive font. Do not use three or more different fonts on your book cover design.
If you use two different fonts, try to use a combination of a serif title with a sans-serif subtitle. Try several fonts or use a free online tool like FontPair.com to find fonts that work well together. Have fun while you are experimenting.
To understand more about fonts and typesetting, read this article.
Color
How to make your book cover stand out with color? When it comes to book covers, color is important. Many marketers claim the use of color increases sales.
In fact, some psychology research suggests color can increase engagement. For example, the color red is aggressive, so it may encourage readers to buy. On the flip side, the color blue is calming, so it may slow down readers. Either way, color is used to convey emotion. These emotions can lead to sales.
However, this may certainly be true for web pages or the layout of a store, for books it is a little more complicated.
Your book topic and age group determine what a good color is for your design. For example, if your book is geared to children, then the cover should feature bright colors. On the other hand, if your book is meant for adults, then the cover should be more sophisticated.
Also, if the book is a light-hearted story, the cover should be bright with a cover image that makes you feel warm. If the story is a deeply moving thriller, probably darker colors with mysterious elements would be better.
When it comes to color theory, your readers emotions and expectations, graphic designers are experts at using color. They know color theory, which teaches how colors affect emotion. This is why, if you choose to go for self-publishing, you should hire a designer to create the perfect book cover.
Let Us Help You With You Next Book Cover
At Cardinia Ranges Publishing House, we have many years of experience designing beautiful book covers that capture the eyes of your readers. We use and understand professional software (Adobe) that make your cover files ready for print or any eBook platform. We also grasp the intricacies of design and the various elements.
Take the stress out of your next book cover and let us help you. Get in touch with us today.
