Judge a Book by its Cover
Book cover design is arguably one of the most important parts of the process of publishing a book. Your book cover draws the attention of your potential readers way from other books and to yours instead.
Let’s talk more about book cover design:
So there are three parts of a book cover. Front cover, back cover, and spine.
The Front Cover of your book is the main promotional preview of your book. It’s what readers are going to look at to judge whether they want to spend their money and/or their time to read the book. The cover needs to get them intrigued enough to want to read it. It also has to match the content of the book. If you’re a spicy author or your book contains specific types of content, be aware that Amazon in particular has some rules and regulations in regard to cover imagery that you should become familiar with.
Your cover image should consist of imagery and typography. In other words, it should have a picture (photo, illustration, etc) and words (book title, subtitle, author’s name). Those pictures and words should reflect what is in the book.
If you’re publishing an ebook, remember that the book will be referenced in thumbnail (small) size. The cover still needs to stand out, even in thumbnail size. Keep that in mind. Statistics show that successful book cover design can increase your visibility by more than 50%. 50%!
The back cover of a book is a chance to continue selling your book to the reader.
On the back cover, you can include:
Book description (blurb) (It’s important this is well written!)
Book reviews
Author bio/headshot
ISBN and barcode
Since most bookstores shelve their books vertically, your spine is what people are going to see first. The spine should at the very least include the title of the book and the author’s name.
Unless you are very good at design, I wouldn’t recommend designing your own cover. This is one of those things that’s worth spending the money on. Hire a professional designer. Do your research, though. Check their website, compare rates, see designs of their previous work, ask for references, etc. This is an important decision, and there are people out there who take advantage. Be smart and do your research, then hire the right person for you. Your book cover is one of the most important parts of this process, in relation to selling your book(s). Treat it as such.