“Five Reasons Why You Should Judge a Book by its Cover”

In this post, I want to cover some reasons why book covers are so vital to selling books to readers, whether the books are print or ebook.  We all judge books by their covers…because we have to, for some very good reasons I’ll enumerate.

1.     A well-designed book cover represents the story in a condensed form.  It encapsulates and projects the essence of a story in a way that you can take in instantly.  Here’s a cover I used once for my horror story Root Magic (available at Smashwords.com, by the way)….

 

 

Not the greatest cover ever invented, to be sure, but remember, it’s a horror story.  The cover has a gloomy swamp, a skull, blood-red type and some odd voodoo talismans.  Probably too much detail but the elements are there.  It’s supposed to evoke a mood of menace and mystery.

2.     A good book cover appeals to your emotions or evokes a feeling.  The cover should talk to your readers through typography, imagery and metaphor.  Using my cover above, what feelings are evoked when you look at it?  If I had done my homework right, you would be feeling a sinister presence right about now.  Swamps are always scary places, where creepy things crawl out of the vines and grab you ankles.  Skulls evoke a sense of dread, even death.  Red type might make you think of blood and gore.

3.     A good book cover should grab your attention immediately, even subliminally. You’re intrigued.  Getting noticed in a crowded bazaar is a challenge for any author.  Whatever you can do to intrigue the browsing buyer is usually a good idea…it’ll make them take a look, maybe even a second look.  That’s what you want. 

4.     We’re already programmed by evolution to look for human faces and forms.  Not all covers have people on them, but many do, even most of them.  Why?  Because we instinctively respond to human faces and forms…even dead ones.

5.     The cover does something unexpected.  Like Salvador Dali.  I always think of Dali as the master of creepy art.  You look at one of his paintings and you find yourself saying, “No.  That just can’t be.”  We’re used to patterns and Dali was a master at taking a simple visual pattern, something we see all the time, and inserting some object or twist that immediately jars you.  You cock your head and rub your eyes, disbelieving.  A good book cover often has something of the same effect, hopefully not as creepy, but enough to make you look twice and study it. 

6.     A good book cover should also be visually pleasing.  Less is more.  Simple and minimal.  I have too many separate visual elements in my cover above, although I think your eye is naturally drawn to the skull.  Maybe just the swamp alone….

7.     Here are some more tips I found from Writer’s Digest…

10 Tips for Effective Book Covers

By: dmatriccino | February 17, 2011

 

As more authors opt for independent publishing routes, I’m getting more questions about secrets to good book design, production, and layout.

Here are the 10 biggest things I learned about book cover design.

Remember: Most people in book publishing believe that a cover is a book’s No. 1 marketing tool.

1.     The title should be big and easy to read. This is more important than ever. (Many people will first encounter your cover on a screen, not on a shelf.) This is such a well-worn cliche of cover design that I have a designer friend with a Facebook photo album called “Make the Title Bigger.”

2.     Don’t forget to review a thumbnail image of the cover. Is the cover compelling at a small size? More people are buying books on a Kindle or mobile device, so you want the cover to read clearly no matter where it appears. You should also anticipate what the cover looks like in grayscale.

3.     Do not use any of the following fonts (anywhere!): Comic Sans or Papyrus. These fonts are only acceptable if you are writing a humor book, or intentionally attempting to create a design that publishing professionals will laugh at.

4.     No font explosions! (And avoid special styling.) Usually a cover should not use more than 2 fonts. Avoid the temptation to put words in caps, italics caps, outlined caps, etc. Do not “shape” the type either.

5.     Do not use your own artwork, or your children’s artwork, on the cover. There are a few rare exceptions to this, but let’s assume you are NOT one of them. It’s almost always a terrible idea.

6.     Do not use cheap clip art on your cover. I’m talking about the stuff that comes free with Microsoft Word or other cheap layout programs. Quality stock photography is OK. (iStockPhoto is one reliable source for quality images.)

7.     Do not stick an image inside a box on the cover. I call this the “T-shirt” design. It looks extremely amateurish.

8.     Avoid gradients. It’s especially game-over if you have a cover with a rainbow gradient.

9.     Avoid garish color combinations. Sometimes such covers are meant to catch people’s attention. Usually, it just makes your book look freakish.

10.  Finally: Don’t design your own cover. The only people who should consider designing their own covers are professional graphic designers—and even then, it’s not advisable.

 

Bonus tip: No sunrise photos, no sunset photos, no ocean photos, no fluffy clouds.

So there you have it: some ideas on book covers.  The next to post to The Word Shed comes on November 7.  We look at where all my crazy ideas come from.

See you then.

Phil B.