Cover Me

Part 11-How to decide what your book is going to look like!

Let’s backtrack in our book journey a bit, again. Maybe some of you are still trying to figure out problems besides the ones we’ve touched on. Maybe your book needs a cover?

Making a cover for a book is a daunting task, especially for a self publishing author without a team.

So how do we do this part of the book journey? 

Remember our questions that we keep going back to? “Who is this book for?” “What is this book for?”, “Who will buy the book?” Those still apply here. 

There are some tricks to getting a cover done if you have an already established brand. Do you have a website or existing product you make? If so, you have colors, fonts, and some elements that can inform the cover. Does your business have a style guide with PMS colors and fonts? Documents like this are a great place to start. Along the same lines, you might have an Instagram page with a solid fan base. What sort of images do you use to portray yourself? Are there colors and styles that pop up when you view your page? These are a key to finding your book cover identity. Looking in these places will also illustrate how important it is when you select a brand icon and font set. Those items will have to scale to a variety of end uses. 

One strategy I’ve used was to ask an author, “When you look in your closet what colors do you see?”  “Do you shop at J.Crew or Anthropology” would be a good question? I’m dating myself a bit with those clothing options. I once had an author answer the question, “Do you wear a pair of Pumas or are you a RedWings boots kind of guy?” Knowing that answer leads you to two totally different aesthetics. 

I came up with an author's book cover once by going through her Instagram posts and finding patterns, and styles that she used often. I had a designer recreate her dish towels into a printable file and we were on our way to a cover. 

Another option is, look at your bookshelf! What sort of books do you buy? Are they the genre of the book that you wrote? What covers do you like best? What is it about the covers that you like? 

I know some of you have trouble talking about what you like and don’t like in regards to colors and aesthetics but I am here to tell you, answers like, “I don’t know what I like but I’ll know it when I see it,” are not doing you or your designer any favors. You owe it to yourself, the people working for you, and the money in the budget to answer the questions. 

This cover breaks a serious rule. The author’s name, here a “MID TIER AUTHOR” is obscured by the flowers. You can solve this with a frame box or some trickery. (I made this in Canva)

If it’s not clear by this point, to make a cover you need to do research. You are researching a variety of things to get to the winning cover. I’ll sum them up for you below.

1. Research yourself! In the modern age or Pinterest Boards, Instagram, and bespoke life this should be pretty easy! Make a Pinterest Board or screen shot grab folder of the things that speak to you. Get Canva and mess around! Sketch ideas! These will be very helpful to your designer.

2. Research book covers. Look at the books you own. Go to a bookstore if you can find one! (And buy books while you are there). Go on Amazon and look at book covers. Honestly, most books are bought on Amazon so keep in mind your book has to look good at 1” x 2”. What performs best in the genre you are working in?

3. Research current trends. If you are making Gift Books or High End books you need to constantly be looking at purses, shoes, makeup packaging and furniture. These places are full of the inspiration you need. 

I bet every Art Director out there has some good ideas on how to get a book cover proposal to a winning cover. Please share in the comments below? Questions or are you still lost? Please comment below too! Next week, more book making madness!