Importance of a Creative Book Cover Design for effective Book Marketing

2020-07-142020-07-14 Sharing Stories 1 Comment knowledge, Piya, writing tips

Importance of a Creative Book Cover Design for effective Book Marketing

You might have heard the phrase “Never judge the book by its cover” but did you ever think why would they have book covers if we aren’t supposed to judge the book by them? It makes no sense. Isn’t it?

As a reader when you go through the book shelf for something interesting, the first thing which stops you to look for the contents in the book is that fascinating book cover!

IMPORTANCE OF BOOK COVER

In earlier times the book covers were used for the sole purpose of binding hand-made sheets together. With the revolution in technology, the book cover also changed from handmade to machinery made and expensive cloth covers to inexpensive cheap covers. The book covers’ purpose has now evolved from just protection to promotion which highlights its importance to be designed well in order to draw a reader’s attention in the book self.

If you are an author in this age of highly competitive market and thinking of marketing your book on a great scale, there is no need of shiny and big publishing houses. Yes! Self-publishing is a new normal now.

WHAT DOES A GOOD BOOK COVER HAVE?

A brilliant book cover design helps in grabbing attention of the prospective reader. According to a Wall Street Journal Study, a person spends about eight seconds looking at the front cover of the book. Go and search for the book covers of Best-selling books which could attract large no. of buyers. Here are some great ideas to give a fascinating look to your book cover design.

Focusing on the Big Picture: A big and fascinating picture on the book cover makes the book count by the one searching book through the book shelf. Also, if you want to keep internet your medium to publicize your writing on a bigger level then big, attractive and colorful cover sounds really good for Amazon or Flipkart thumbnails.
An Intriguing Focal Point: The focal point of a creative book cover is exactly that — it is where the eye is naturally drawn, the component of the design that will draw the most attention. It can be a colour, text, or a picture; but ideally that primary point of interest should be able to direct attention to reader’s smile and eyes.
Clear title and subtitles: Be specific and be bold while choosing title or subtitle for your book cover to make it more interesting for the reader. Remember few points while selecting a subtitle like get the rhythm right, think as if you are speaking to your audience, research about other subtitles used by best-selling authors. The more relatable and catchy titles increase curiosity of the readers.
Simplistic book cover designs: Simple is the best. One should use lesser images and contents in a book cover to make it pleasant to the eyes. You may notice simple yet classy book cover designs used by many best-sellers.

HOW TO GET A GOOD BOOK COVER DESIGNED?

If you want buyers to shop your book with their eyes. You will have to keep certain things in your mind. You need to be specific about the genre (sci-fi, horror, romance etc.) If the book is to be sold online as thumbnail then the cover should be eye-catching with larger text and big pictures. The book cover includes front copy, back cover copy (also referred to as “flap copy”), author bio/photo, blurbs and endorsements. Both the designer and author should be aware of the extra costs that can add up during the design process. This will include (but is not limited to) font licenses, stock images, ISBN identifier and barcode. Also, it is always good to consider some guidelines like genre sells better in paperback while literary fiction, thrillers and biographies sell well in hardcover.

If graphic design is your way, this is how you can design your own book cover:

There are various ideas that you can use to create your book cover for free, your way!

Pinterest – Sign on to Pinterest and look up “book covers” to get a ton of brilliant covers all in one place. This can also help you to create a board specifically to save book covers for future reference.
Goodreads – There are so many books on Goodreads for you to look at as covers inspiration. Here you can also keep the track of the books you want to read.
Google book cover ideas – Just google it! You can simply go to google and type “book cover inspiration” and click on the “images” tab to be welcomed with tons of amazing ideas. Or you can check out helpful blog posts like this one.
Canva – Canva app gives you some great ideas to self-design your book cover for free. You can look for various easy to use illustrations for simple book cover design.
Online image libraries – Unless you’re looking to use your own photography or illustrations, head to a free stock image library like Pixabay or Unsplash— which have thousands of images that you can use without attribution. Or, for a significantly wider choice of images, try one of the large libraries like Shutterstock: depending on what graphics you’re after, the license fee may only be a few dollars.

If graphic design doesn’t interest you, you may hire a good graphic designer but how?

There are many excellent book cover designers, but finding the one best for your project can be a task. Here we have got some strategies for you to get the suitable designer for your book needs. A professional designer brings more than just Photoshop skills to the table. Book cover design is a complex balance of images, text, and information — and you need someone who understands how each of these elements interacts with the others to best sell your book.

You can go to Amazon and look at covers for books in your genre. Find out the cover designer of that one book whose cover is really enticing. You can google search cover design and the title of the book to get the name of the designer. Or you can type “cover design” into the “look inside” feature in case there is an acknowledgement. If those methods fail, you can always contact the author. When you approach the artist, you can show the style or example you want for your work.

Another strategy is to conduct a Google search for “book cover designers.” This will yield you 16 million hits and will make you want to run screaming from your computer screen. But it is worth it to look at some of these sites. You won’t necessarily find the best designers with this method, but you will get a feel for different types of design options — of which there are exactly two: pre-made designs and custom designs.

A great book cover can reduce the cost of advertisement, it is a billboard for the book. A book cover obviously causes a huge expectation from the book. If a reader sees a book with an amateur cover, they’re going to believe that it’s also poorly written. So, it’s always good to hire a professional book designer or to look for something classy and different to get a place in many passionate readers’ book-shelves.