Can you Tell a Book By its Cover?
Yes, you can. The important stuff, anyway. You can tell it things like:
- You have my attention!
- You look intriguing…
- What are you about?
- I want to snuggle up with you in front of a cozy fire – or in front of a cooling AC as the case may be.
If you can’t tell a book those things by its cover, the cover has missed the mark.
The cover to your book is the full-page ad you’ve signed up for. Why not make it pay?
Here’s how:
Whether you’re farming the job out or doing it yourself, you will need to have a picture in your head to convey to the artist. Here’s what the artist needs to know:
- Size
- Colors
- Subject Matter
- Font
Size
Canva (my goto) digital book covers are 1410 pixels by 2250 pixels. This works perfect for 6” x 9” books.
Colors
Pick your colors by the genre and the attitude of your book. What emotion do you want to fire up? For example: pink and purple for cozy mysteries; black and red for horror stories; green, blue, and brown for dramas. Nothing is set in stone… but do you get the picture?
Subject matter
The image should hint at what’s inside. Lightly. Here’s a typical size nonfiction cover that’s been clicked time and time again:
But this cozy mystery cover misses the mark entirely and is on the make a new cover list asap:
Here’s the cozy that’s had the most comments:
And this is cozy mystery cover that breaks all the color rules but is a close second for grabbing attention:
Who can tell what will be the next cover magnet? Except that the subject of the cover should hint at what a reader can expect to be enthralled with on the inside.
Font
Choose your font for clear readability and emotion. Bloody drips hint at gore… but can the title and author be read?
The Perfect Cover
The perfect cover snags attention in a lineup of teeny tiny pictures. It reaches out and grabs a reader’s emotions to dig deeper.
Whether you choose a cover creator service or conjure it yourself with an AI cover image creator like Night Café Studio and Canva, you still have to tell them what you want produced.
Be ready to communicate the size, colors, subject matter, and font of the project.
Onward!
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