The decision about whether or not to download your book is made by the reader in a few seconds, perhaps even less than that. Within those few seconds, the cover does all the work for you. It tells the reader whether this is a book he or she wants to read.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That’s why learning how to <\/span>design a book cover<\/b><\/a> properly is one of the most important things you can do as an author. This guide will help you understand what makes a cover effective, what kills a cover, and how to ensure that your book appears worthy of being a best-seller.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Most writers tend to see marketing as advertising, social media engagement, and e-mail lists. Indeed, that is true and very important. However, your book cover works as a marketing tool whenever your book is alive and published \u2013 on Amazon, on Goodreads, in search engine results, in e-mail recommendations, and even on book blog sites.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When anyone sees your book, the first thing they will see is your book cover. Before seeing the book title or reading the plot, before seeing any reviews on the book, that is how they are made to form their initial impression. And, it could happen whether or not it was intended by you.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An excellent cover attracts people while a bad cover drives them away without their knowing why. This is why investing in <\/span>professional book cover design<\/b><\/a> is never a waste of money. It’s the investment that pays for itself every single day your book is on sale.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is the single most important rule when you <\/span>design a book cover<\/b><\/a>. It is one mistake that many new authors tend to make. While having an appealing cover, you also have to create a cover that fits in well with the category you chose to write about. Different genres have different ways of communicating visually. For example, thrillers should have a cover with dark colors and fonts and an image that conveys tension. In romance novels, depending on whether it’s a sweet or steamy romance, different colors, fonts, and illustrations may be required.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you choose the right type of font and illustration, the reader will know that it’s a book that is worth buying because it belongs to his\/her favorite category. But when there’s some disconnect between the actual genre and what you’re showing, it’s not clear whether he\/she should open that book or not.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Before you begin designing anything, spend thirty minutes on Amazon. Go to the category that your book belongs to. Examine the top twenty best-selling books’ cover designs. Pay close attention.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n What colors dominate? What font styles can you see? What kind of visuals are used \u2013 illustrated or photographs? Are they minimalist or elaborate? How large is the title? How large is the author\u2019s name? What common elements do all these cover designs have?<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Copying cover designs does not work. You don’t need to copy anything here. These best-selling covers were designed for a reason. They work because they communicate with their target audience using the language that they know and understand well. This is what you need to do as well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \t\t <\/p>\n Among the elements in cover design, color is one of the most potent but, unfortunately, not utilized as much as it should be by most authors. This is because colors have an impact on the emotional state of the viewer before he even reads your title. Darker shades of blue and black evoke a mysterious aura that will do well in thriller and horror novels. Red and golden colors are associated with passion and excitement and would be suitable for romance or adventure stories.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Soft pinks and lavender have a tender and emotive effect and can be found in women’s fiction and romantic literature. White and gray colors are modern and trustworthy, and make ideal choices for self-help and business publications. These are just suggestions, and while they cannot be broken, there is a basis for choosing the colors of your cover based on real-world experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Here\u2019s something that the designers know about their designs, which most of the authors are unaware of \u2014 the cover has to look good as a thumbnail image, too. After all, the reader will likely encounter your book in the form of a postage stamp-sized thumbnail image, and if he won\u2019t be able to read your title there, you\u2019ve just lost him.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Use fonts that are easy to read and relatively bold so that even at this small scale, your title will look nice. Avoid using decorative script fonts that might look wonderful in a bigger image format, but which will become illegible when scaled down into a small thumbnail.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The cover has to make sure that the title stands out more prominently than everything else, including your name, which can be smaller and less prominent for new authors.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Before a word is written, the image on your cover establishes its emotional mood. It needs to set an immediate atmosphere for the reader. Yet, while too little information can be misleading, having too much on a book cover can also be confusing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n If you are writing a fictional work, having one distinct image is often preferable to including too many characters or objects within the scene. If your book covers non-fictional topics, having a clear idea is often easier to convey than a literal illustration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Regardless of what you decide to use, your image must reflect the emotional essence of your book and not just because it was cool at the time of design.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n If you are going to create a paperback version, you still have a few more design aspects to consider after you\u2019ve made the front cover perfect. These include the spine and the back cover, which can really make a difference for readers who found your book by chance on physical shelves or on someone else\u2019s shelf.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The spine should have your title and your name as an author in bold text and a legible font. The back cover should contain a brief description of your book, an author photo if you have one, the barcode, and a biography. They all need to be neatly designed to fit into the exact parameters that Amazon requires from all printers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Failing to meet these requirements is going to get your book rejected when trying to upload it to Amazon, and then you\u2019ll have to redesign everything from scratch.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Many novice writers prefer designing their own book cover using freely available tools online. Most of them come up with designs that look pretty good to their eyes. The problem is that they designed the cover themselves. They understand the meaning behind the cover art. They see their story within it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The sad reality is that an average reader will not be familiar with the writer’s story before purchasing the book. All he sees is the cover, which might give away more than meets the eye. When readers take one glance at the self-designed book cover, they can tell that some effort went into creating it, but the person lacked skills in the field. Unprofessional fonts, inconsistent colors, uninteresting imagery, and poorly planned layouts \u2013 the flaws are subtle yet noticeable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Luckily, book cover design services from Kinetic Digital Publishers cater to exactly such problems. You receive a professionally trained designer who will create book cover art based on your preferences and the target audience’s interests. What’s more, all books that our company releases are designed and published by the same publisher. So, when readers see the cover art of your book, they assume that professionals created it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \t\t <\/p>\n Of course, designing a beautiful cover is only part of the task. The other aspect to take into consideration when preparing your cover is the need for it to meet certain technical criteria, depending on the platform where it will be sold, especially Amazon.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For <\/span>Amazon book cover design<\/b><\/a>, your ebook cover must have a minimum width of 2560 pixels, maintaining a proportion of 1.6:1 between height and width. The resolution of the cover for printing should be 300 DPI. The file format should be proper, and that is why the cover should be saved in the right format \u2013 JPG\/TIFF (print), JPG (ebook). Also, your color profile must match Amazon\u2019s specifications, as the colors will not appear correctly without this.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In case any of the above criteria are not met, your cover will be rejected or printed with skewed colors. All of this is handled effortlessly by a professional designer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Many writers are surprised to find that this is true. The same file cannot be used for an eBook and for a printed book because of differences in size specifications, colors, and even technical capabilities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n eBook cover design<\/b><\/a> uses RGB color mode because digital screens display color that way. The color mode used in print covers is CMYK because it is used for the printing process. The design may appear differently depending on the color mode used. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The spine and the back cover must be included in your print cover, meaning the size of the file will depend on the number of pages you have. In other words, the wider the file, the more pages you have. However, in an eBook cover, you only need the front cover of your book.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you’ve never worked with a <\/span>cover design for authors<\/a>‘<\/b> service before, you may not know what goes into the process. Here is a simplified outline of what a great experience will entail.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n First, you provide details regarding your book, such as the genre and the tone of the cover you would prefer. In addition, you also get to provide a description of the story or message. If there are any existing visuals that you would like on the cover, you provide these too. You will also get to provide covers that you admire or don’t.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Once the designer creates designs according to the brief, you evaluate them and provide constructive feedback. This process continues until you achieve perfection. Finally, the design files are provided in all required formats.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhy Your Book Cover Is Your Most Important Marketing Tool<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nThe First Rule \u2014 Your Cover Must Fit Your Genre<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Study the Bestsellers in Your Category<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Contact Us for a Free Consultation to Design a Book Cover That Sells<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Color Psychology \u2014 How Colors Make Readers Feel<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Typography \u2014 Your Title Needs to Be Read in a Thumbnail<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Imagery \u2014 What to Show and What to Leave Out<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
The Part Most Authors Overlook \u2014 The Spine and Back Cover<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Here’s What Most Authors Get Wrong About DIY Design<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Contact Us Today for Your Free Book Cover Consultation<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Amazon Book Cover Design \u2014 Getting the Technical Side Right<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
eBook Cover Design vs Print Cover Design \u2014 They’re Not the Same<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Cover Design for Authors \u2014 What to Expect From a Professional<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Book Branding Design Thinking Beyond One Cover<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n