Given our recent adventures with our Author Marketing 101 Guide & Journal cover art, we decided to dedicate all of our September posts to the art and theory of cover design. To introduce this topic, please find informative links and tips below.
"The cover is part of the marketing and promotion budget for a book, and may consume all of that budget for a midlist or debut release.
Traditionally, the cover is the one thing that every potential reader sees. They might not see ads in magazines or hear radio ads. They might miss reviews and endcap displays or blog tours. But they all see the cover of the book before they purchase it, so the cover is the most important piece of marketing that exists for any given book. A publishing house will always spend money on creating a cover for a book, and often will use the entire marketing budget on it. The cover is even more critical to building sales in digital, because the cover has to communicate the tone of the book, the sensuality, the genre and subgenre, and be consistent with the author’s branding – and it has to do all that when it’s two inches high in thumbnail."
Deborah has additional advice regarding the Author Name on her post: What's In A Name? August 1, 2013
Delle Jacobs is a veteran and queen of the Indie Publishing World, for years, and even designs her own covers. These are screen shots taken from her blog/website.
Take note of the following:
- Ms. Jacobs website banner is in line with the tone and themes of her books.
- Notice that her name is prominent and clear on each cover - even if you'r not able to read the book title in a cover thumbnail image, "Delle Jacobs" can be clearly read.
- For the most part, there is a high contrast between the background colors and the title / author name font colors
- Crisp, footed fonts can be easier to read than swirly fonts in tiny thumbnails
- Each covers feature images related to the story tone and content <yes, some people miss the mark on this point>
Now that you know all there is about making an awesome cover for your novel - review How To Make A Cover Designer Cry.
For more great information, check out the blog for the Scarlet Ruger's Book Design Agency. Her '4 steps to making a bad book cover design look good' is loaded with solid info.
Delle always does amazing design work. She certainly has the historical and paranormal worlds down. I really appreciated the "How to Make a Cover Designer Cry" link.
ReplyDeleteNow I see why most cover designers have dents in their forehead. It's form banging it against their desk after a call. Shout out to my cover designer, Christy Caughie at Gilded Hearts Design who puts up with my weird requests. :) However, I deliver my requests with stock image licenses already purchased. Also, when she tells me something doesn't work or I've gone into crazyland (my words, she's too nice to actually say that), I believe her 100% and trust her to make the right choices.