Judging a book by its cover has a bad rap, but how else is a potential reader supposed to judge it? In a glance, a good cover can tell you everything you need to know about a book. Genre, author, whether it’s part of a series, what the book is about, maybe an inkling of the quality.
Unless you have a strong background in graphic design, I highly recommend you hire a designer to make your cover. If you have a small background and the proclivity to tinker, you might be able to cobble together your own cover. Chances are you will spend more time than it is worth to produce something that works–barely. I am a tightwad when it come to paying for author services, but graphic design is a service for which I’m always happy to fork over the money.
There are a growing number of inexpensive design options out there. I had my covers designed via 99designs, a design contest platform. (You put up a concept, designers from all over the world submit rough designs, you select a winner to complete the final design.) You can hire a freelancer via a site like Fiverr or Elance (which is apparently now Upwork). As always when working with a freelancer, make sure you have a clear agreement in place and have seen at least samples or rough designs before you fork over any money, and that you have some assurance that you will get what you’ve paid for, either through a contract or great references.
Also make sure you understand what you are buying–that you will have full rights to use the design, rather than one-time use. And make sure that any stock images your designer might have incorporated are being used legally and that you can continue to use them for the life of the design.
Even if you do hire a designer, you still need to have a clear concept of what you want for your cover. The likelihood of a designer knowing your genre or your story as well as you is slim.
If you are publishing both print and ebook versions, you will need covers for both. The ebook cover might be the same as the front of the print book cover, or it might be different. Both will be viewed differently, so must serve different needs.
I’ll cover what you need for the print book design first, since the ebook design will incorporate some of the same elements.
A Strong, Eye-catching Graphic
Nothing connects with a reader as quickly and viscerally as a picture. Having the right one on the front of your book is essential. Your visual should communicate the genre in which your book is written as clearly as if you had written the word “Vampire Romance” in huge letters across the front of the book.
You’re probably tired of hearing me say this, but examine other books in your genre to determine what visual style might be appropriate. Make sure to look mainly at currently published books–although examining the strata of books over the last few decades might be interesting, you want to be sure your image reflects what modern readers expect to see.
For many genres, a digital compilation of stock images, professionally done, is enough. Other genres favor original art. There are always exceptions within a genre, like the simplicity of the covers of Game of Thrones compared to all other epic fantasy. If you choose for your graphics to be an exception, make sure you have a reason and that the concept is well done and not just confusing.
“At a Glance” Information
This is the kind of information you will have on the front cover of the print book. It is the stuff the reader looks at with a glance when making that first judgement. It won’t have the same visceral impact as the image, but it will make an impression.
Title: The title should, again, match the genre. It should also be unique, punchy, intriguing. Short titles are best, if your genre allows for them. If you are writing a series, patterns in the series titles can be a great way to brand.
Author: Just your name (or pen name if you are using one). No “By” necessary. Make sure you’ve chosen a specific format of your name for your author name. For example, don’t use John L. Smith on one book and J. L. Smith on another (unless J. L. Smith is a pen name that you’ve chosen to brand a particular series with to distinguish it from your works as John L. Smith).
Series Info: If this is a book in a series, tell the reader so, and which book this is. Nothing drives me more crazy than looking for the next book in a series and having to search through five books on the shelf to find out which number they are. It’s simple, folks. Book I, Book II, and so on.
Spine: At minimum, the title and the author’s last name should appear on the spine of your book. It is convention to also put the name of the publisher, but I think this is being done less so by independent publishers. I also put the name and book number of the series on my spines. Spines should not be busy with information, but they should be clear and eye-catching. Many times in its life your book will be shelved with the spine facing out and you want it to still be discoverable.
“Keep Reeling” Information
Once you’ve hooked the reader with your amazing graphic, captivating title or author or series familiarity, you have to keep reeling them in. Typically, the info you’ll use for this will be on the back of the book.
Cover Copy: This is the brief blurb that tells the reader what the book is actually about. Like everything else on the cover of the book, it is intended to sell the book to the reader, to entice them to want to read page one. Cover copy deserves its own post, but I will freely admit that it is not my strong point. I intend to study up on cover copy this year, so I’ll return with a post about it at a later date. For now, all I’ll say is that you need it, and it needs to be great. Everything else about your book cover can be average, but cover copy needs to ignite the spark you’ve kindled in the reader to read your book.
Author Info: I don’t recommend putting this on the outside cover unless A) you have strong visibility already and readers will be drawn into reading the book by finding more about you than your name, or B) your book is nonfiction and you have relevant credentials that will sell the book.
Quotes/ accolades: If the book has won awards, this is definitely good to include on the cover, especially if they are high profile. The same with reviews. There is some debate over whether to include quotes from fellow (low-profile) authors. My personal preference is to do this–if nothing else, it can make for a great way to share each other’s fan-base, and it balances out the cover-copy so there is not a lot of blank space.
Author Photo: While it’s not common or required, I also do this, because again, humans like faces, and the quality of the printed color cover is much nicer than black and white interior photos.
Cohesive, Brand-true Design
All of these elements must come together to form a cohesive look. Fonts must match, colors should be balanced and pleasing to the eye, and everything about the composition should communicate genre, quality, tone. Your designer is responsible for pulling this off, but you are ultimately responsible for the design. No one on earth will ever look at the cover of your book more times than you will, so it must please you. You will almost certainly be able to look at a design and know that something about it doesn’t quite work, but what you need to be able to do is say what and why. Then, you can request the changes you want of the designer.
Just as you should choose a designer who is willing to work off your suggestions, you should also be receptive to what your designer has to say. One thing I’ve learned from working with them for years is that good designers know a lot about what they are doing. They might be making design choices for very good reasons, even if the result doesn’t match what you had in mind. If you can clearly communicate the specific effect you want the design to have on the reader, you stand a good chance of getting a design that actually does that. Which is why it is crucial that you understand your genre, your readers, and your desired effect.
Ebook Requirements
There are exactly three things an ebook cover should have:
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Strong, eye-catching graphic that is clearly visible in a thumbnail
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Title, readable in a thumbnail
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Author name, readable in a thumbnail
