{"id":28561,"date":"2018-09-19T11:21:06","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T16:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/?p=28561"},"modified":"2025-10-05T18:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T23:53:10","slug":"book-cover-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/book-cover-design\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Important Book Cover Design Tips to Help Your Book Stand Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Like it or not, people judge books by their covers.<\/p>\n
We all know that we’re not supposed to… But we do it anyway.<\/p>\n
And, honestly – how else<\/em> can you really choose? In a store packed with books (or sitting at home browsing Amazon) your book cover design<\/a> is the most effective way to catch people’s attention.<\/p>\n It doesn’t matter what’s between the covers if no one ever bothers to open them.<\/p>\n A shoddy book cover will make prospective readers question the value of the content within.<\/p>\n But, strong cover design will catch a reader’s eye, capture their interest\u00a0and<\/em> communicate what the book is about.\u00a0 These are the things that inspire someone to buy your book.<\/p>\n But, unless you are an artist or graphic designer, you probably don’t know how to create a powerful\u00a0and professional cover design. And you likely aren’t following contemporary book cover design trends<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let’s take a closer look at book cover design tips and best practices to help you create a book cover that makes readers want to crack the spine.<\/p>\n >> If you’re interested in current book cover design trends, read 10 Top Book Cover Design Trends for 2022<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Design by smarikaahuja<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n The title of your book should be the primary focus of your book cover and must be clearly visible. This is especially important if this is your first book as a self-published author<\/a>.<\/p>\n Your title communicates the essence of your book and differentiates it from the other books on the shelf.<\/p>\n Imagine if a shelf in a store or your computer screen contained nearly identical titles or titles that a person could not read. How would they be able to distinguish your book from other books?<\/p>\n If you want to attract a reader, they should never, ever have to search to find the title.<\/p>\n In practical terms, this means:<\/p>\n Ben Sobieck\u00a0points out<\/a>\u00a0in Writer’s Digest that many people shop for books online. This means that your book cover must be legible even when\u00a0appearing at a fraction of its actual size.<\/p>\n Even on a small phone screen, your potential\u00a0readers must be able to read the title of your book.<\/p>\n So, whatever you do, don’t let the cover design get in the way of your title.<\/p>\n Design by espacioM<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n Your book cover should be easy to read.<\/p>\n This may seem obvious – but it bears saying anyway.<\/p>\n If you let design choices get in the way of readability, you’re undermining your ability to communicate with your audience.<\/p>\n It makes no sense to share your title, summary,\u00a0and reviews if no one can see them.<\/p>\n So, make font and color choices that support readability.<\/p>\n Typographic consultant Ilene Strizver shared<\/a> in an article for Fonts.com:<\/p>\n Serif typefaces have historically been credited with increasing both the readability and reading speed of long passages of text because they help the eye travel across a line…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is why the print inside<\/em> your book is most likely in a serif typeface<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can and should choose a more creative font for your title and name on the cover; but, we suggest pairing it with a simple serif font for any reviews and the synopsis on the back.<\/p>\n And, limit yourself to only 2 fonts – more than that can start to look disjointed or busy. Speaking of which…<\/p>\n Design by godfreyw<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n Staring at a page of solid text, it’s hard to tell which word or sentence (if any) is most important.<\/p>\n They all look visually the same. Just letters in the same size, color,\u00a0and weight.<\/p>\n A crowded design will render it impossible to pick out the important stuff.<\/p>\n Readers don’t approach a book cover with the same engagement that they do when reading a page from your book. If they’re perusing covers, they’re simply browsing. They’re not ready to invest any deep concentration in your book yet.<\/p>\n But, that’s what your cover should persuade them to do! Briefly. Don’t make the reader have to work for it.<\/p>\n So, leave plenty of white space (a design term meaning blank space without text or design elements). This will allow the important information you share to be easily visible.<\/p>\n Your book’s title, your name, reviews, and the synopsis are all important. Keep your design uncluttered and readers will easily find them.<\/p>\n Design by RedOne22<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n While every book is unique, honoring your genre is important.<\/p>\n Genres exist for a reason. They’re a shorthand for helping a reader to guess if they’ll like your book or not.<\/p>\n For instance, I like horror, supernatural thrillers, and comedic fantasy. If a book is well written and falls into one of those categories I’ll probably enjoy it.<\/p>\n And, each of those genres has its own design style. So, when I’m browsing, I can easily pick out a book in one of my preferred genres without even reading the title.<\/p>\n A horror novel looks<\/em> like a horror novel.<\/p>\n So, when searching for book cover design ideas, start by browsing other popular books in your genre.\u00a0What colors, layouts, fonts,\u00a0and graphic elements are common in that genre?<\/p>\n Which of those elements make sense for your<\/em> book?<\/p>\n Always create a unique book cover design that remains true to you and your book. But, do it within the larger framework of your genre’s design style.<\/p>\n Fans of your genre will be drawn to your book subconsciously, getting your foot in the door. Then your quality writing and fascinating story can take care of the rest.<\/p>\n Design by Wilson_Fernando<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n If you’re looking for book cover design inspiration, look no further than your own writing.<\/p>\n The best path to a unique, creative book cover design is to visually represent a specific element or idea from your writing.<\/p>\n The cover should communicate as much about your book to your potential audience as possible.<\/p>\n But, you don’t want to try to overwhelm them with\u00a0everything<\/em> on one small cover.<\/p>\n Book covers have limited space in which to communicate. So, think carefully about the most important theme or element to feature.<\/p>\n Let’s say your story includes a paranoid android, mice, towels, and a spaceship\u00a0shaped like a giant running shoe (this is a real book!). It’s a bad idea to cram all of that imagery into just one book cover.<\/p>\n Choose just one element – the one that communicates the most relevant information about the book.<\/p>\n And then use colors, imagery, fonts… and of course, your synopsis, to tell a visually compelling story on your cover that will grab peoples’ attention.<\/p>\nMake your title prominent<\/h2>\n

\n
Choose fonts and colors to make reading easier<\/h2>\n

\n
Don\u2019t over-crowd the cover design<\/h2>\n

Embrace your genre<\/h2>\n

The cover should feature a key theme from your book<\/h2>\n
