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The cover of your book is (obviously) extremely important. With so many choices out there, you want to get your book noticed, and a good way to do that is to have a cover that stands out. Your cover design can influence the perceived quality of your book. Here are a few recommendations that you should take into consideration when designing the cover of your book:
- Hire a designer
- A designer can help you apply your vision and they will know the proper way to set up the cover to send to your printer. You do not have to do everything on your own. A good designer should have an artistic eye as well as access to specialized software.
- Ensure that you have permission to use the images you choose
- This is where a site such as Shutterstock or Adobe Stock comes into play. You can subscribe to obtain permission for a number of photo downloads per month or purchase images individually on these platforms. (We will share more information on image copyright in a future post, so stay tuned.) You can also use your own photography, but make sure the photos are taken with a good quality camera in the correct format.
- Use images with a high resolution
- Further to the previous point, if an image has a low resolution, it’s going to reflect that when it’s printed. This is why you should use a good camera if taking your own photos for your book. For example, we do not recommend using a cellphone camera unless they have been set to take high-resolution images. Poor quality images may negatively influence readers when deciding whether or not your book is worth reading.
- Don’t overcrowd the cover with images
- Sometimes, less is more. You want the title to be the focal point of your book cover. Overcrowding images can look cheap, whereas clean, minimalist covers can be attractive to readers because it suggests a degree of sophistication in the content. Of course, there are exceptions to this, such as children’s book covers, biographies, etc.
- Make sure the title is legible
- As previously discussed, the title should be the focal point of your book cover. Pay attention to the font size and typeface, and choose a good color that pops with your background image and/or color(s). Although there are certain genres that tend to have fancy scripted titles, such as fantasy, often you want your title to be easily legible.
- Decide if you would like your book to have a matte or gloss finish
- Check out this blog post to learn more about choosing which finish is best for your book.
For more tips and information about designing a good book cover, get in touch with us at books@blitzprint.com.