Top 9 Goals for Book Covers

When it comes to selling your book, one of the main factors to success is the book cover design. It does not matter whether you are publishing through self-publishing or traditional self-publishing. In this case the book’s cover does matter. Sadly though not many people know the fundamentals of book cover design and end up with sub-par cover designs that makes their overall book design look cheap and unprofessional.  Which is why when you create a book cover you should have a set of goals to adhere to and work towards to.

• It must be unique

It is easy to say but difficult to do. In this era of book publishing there are literally thousands of book designers creating book covers by the day. And it is very difficult to create a truly unique book cover design that can hope to compete with the already existing ones. But don’t be discouraged, although it is difficult it is not impossible. Thus the main thing to remember is that you are also talented in your craft and that you yourself are unique and can create a design cover that will stand out amongst the rest. Believe in your own skill.

• The overall design must be minimal

It is easy to get carried away in your design and uses a huge amount of images on your book cove. Word of advice, don’t.  Using a myriad of images will not really guarantee that your book cover design will be a success. In the end the overuse of book design may just as well damage the overall look of your book and make it look chaotic and tawdry. The thing you should always remember is that less is actually more. Use maybe one or two images on the cover. Just be sure that your images captures the overall flavor of the book.

• The images used must be high quality

The images used must be high quality. Would you read a book if the book cover has images that looks cheap and badly drawn?  Such examples are illustrations of well-loved children’s stories that have book covers stamped with images of characters that are amateurishly drawn. Their coloring and the overall artwork being both unattractive and badly colored. If you are to use an image you should use a good quality one or better yet a truly unique image specially created for your book. This gives your book a unique flavor.

• The colors used on the cover should match the theme of the book

When you make your book cover, it is good to remember that the colors used in the book should match the theme of the book. It would be so awkward and downright offending to the eye if you used colors that do not complement or capture the overall design of the book. Imagine looking at a book cover that has horror as a genre but has orange, pink and neon as base colors. It would damage the overall design of the book.

• The book cover should have an overall theme

One of the main errors in book cover design is that the design might stray from the overall theme of the book. It can come out as awkward looking and miss the entire concept of the design.

• The book cover should stay true to its genre

The same way that the design should follow an overall theme, the design should also stay true to its designated genre. If the book is suspense themed, it should be obvious just by looking at the cover.

• It should convey the scope of the story

It should explain the full scope of the book so that it would be clear from the start what kind of book it is to its target market.

• It should generate a buzz

As it was stated before book covers are extremely important when it comes to being able to sell one’s book. The book cover is the first thing a potential buyer would see and this is also the same thing that will convince the reader if the book is worth buying or not. Thus the book should be able to generate excitement or a buzz right from the start.

• It should be able to establish a market position

This is technically a proving ground for the book. If ranked with the other books in the book store or in the internet, what would the book cover look like? Would it stand out or would it be lost in obscurity with the less well made books. In the end the main intent of the whole book cover design process is for this very moment.
In quick summary the main goal when it comes to creating book covers is to capture the reader’s attention and to stand out from amongst the competition.