Cover designs play a crucial role in generating the interest of the readers. As there are plenty of books arriving in the market every day, you have to ensure that your books make a very good impression in the first go to stand out from the competition. It is evident that readers only take a few seconds to judge the inside content by looking at the book’s cover. Therefore, your goal shouldn’t be just to grab their attention but also spellbind them to pick it up and purchase it.
Here are some assured tips for designing your covers that is alluring and convincing to the readers for choosing your book or eBook over others.
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Keep it Simple
It is one of the basic principles you must follow while designing a cover. Even the professionals indulged in the job stick to this tip. Including too many text colors, typefaces, or images will only decrease its appeal while distracting the viewers from the key message. However, staying simple and direct can make your design compelling and comprehensible. It will also enable you to understand the message without any confusion and discern what is relevant to your needs.
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Research your Audience
It is necessary that you conduct thorough research before planning the design. Do proper research on the e-book marketplace and temperament of targeted readers to design covers that make a bold statement of their persona and seamlessly attract buyers.
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Title should be clear, large and readable
People look into the title, once they are impressed with the design. It is the identifying element to connect with the targets. So, make it large and easily readable, no matter whatever the size or resolution of the image is. But the title should not completely dominate the entire page. To assure that it is operative, check the view of the proposed page as the thumbnail of the concerned retailer.
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Use the Best Quality Images
Pictures definitely have a lot more worth than a group of words put together. It tends to attract more readers in the first glance when used in creating a captivating cover design. Hence, choosing a high-quality image with appropriate elements and colors is a wise option. Apart from this, it should also be easily accessible on all screen sizes for improving readability.
It is essential that one gives as much importance to the cover image like how one puts together a story in the first place. So, choose something catchy that relates to the topic of the book. As they say, “beauty lies in simplicity”, sometimes even a simple object can reflect major implication. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how simple your image looks, it should drive the main idea of your book by being easy on the eyes as well as the mind of the readers.
However, with the wrong selection of the cover image, it can cause severe damage, i.e., you might lose potential readers. Therefore, it is always advisable to take time and research before you finalize an image. Also, ensure that the images don’t distract the people from your actual message.
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Emphasize on Element Space
Browsing through an endless list of eBooks online is a huge task. It’s a greater challenge to stay unique and attractive from the rest so that your book will garner attention. Thus, designing an eBook cover is a bit tricky and one has to consider lots of elements within the image. One of the most vital eBook cover graphic design tips pertains to the optimal provision of space in a design. Therefore, keeping things simple yet appealing will work wonders and help you to earn a good response from the readers.
Generally, there is a common format followed for eBook covers which uses a specific order of putting a title on the top, an appropriate image in the middle and at the bottom, the name of the author. Certain designers give it a twist by switching the author’s name at the top and title at the bottom – for example, Dan Brown’s books follow this type of design pattern. Whatever the layout maybe, it is essential to reflect clarity. This is what experts offering cover design services always keep in mind.
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Use the right fonts
Artistic and elegant fonts look great only when seen in full size and bold colors. When it reduces to smaller sizes, it may become unreadable or fade in the backdrop. Therefore, the one you choose should work perfectly on various screens and sizes. There are several websites available from where you can test and compare fonts before downloading them.
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Use complementing or contrasting color schemes
Readers can relate with your story in an engaging manner if the theme is adequately reflected through complementing colors on the cover. The impact of book cover design is influenced by color psychology which motivates potential readers to subscribe to your offerings intuitively. Deep red, aquamarine hues, or spooky black can suit a thrilling literary masterpiece whereas cool shades perfectly complement the relaxed feel.
If you are running short of color combinations for designing your cover page, then just go for contrasting colors like black and white. This classic theme has been generating appeal since long and would make your book’s cover design linger in the memories of the readers for a prolonged period. Covering the fonts and book title with meta description would also capture the reader’s attention immediately.
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Publish review about a expert
Just like color psychology in graphic design, putting the review of a popular personality in your niche on the cover can effortlessly grab the attention of readers. If the cosmetic elements of the cover have to be sacrificed for this, don’t hesitate. Having a valued person endorse your literary skills is a masterstroke for increasing your book’s sales. The name of a respected personality standing out in bold letters on your cover would make your offering credible, particularly if it is your first attempt.
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Put in a subtitle or teaser for a quick glimpse
You may add a relevant or insightful subtitle to offer readers a quick hint of what to expect inside your book by building up the anticipation. But you must try to include it intelligently. Readers often hesitate to go through the blurb on the book’s back. The teaser should do the work of enticing them. The font size of teaser needs to be smaller compared to the title for the ease of reading. Implementing this important element among proven cover design techniques would definitely increase your readership.
However, don’t let the cover tell the whole story of your book. The curiosity of targets should be maintained and the cover should prompt them to explore more and peep into your work. Don’t be literal and keep the image and other elements archetypal.
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Retain trademark style
If you are planning to come up with a book series, it is advisable to chalk out a design pattern. To keep your set of eBooks distinct, it will be better to choose some unique design element, colors or title fonts and maintain it throughout the entire set. This way reader can identify your works easily and differentiate it from a wide range of collections.
Take the reference of some book series from famous authors who retain similar design essence for their collective works. For example, in the Harry Potter books, a common typeface for the title has been conserved and the colors used are mostly of dark tones.
In order to establish yourself, it is important to carry forward your brand by promoting your cover design in various online community and social media platforms. By consistently keeping your books in the limelight, there are good chances to garner positive responses.
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Exploit the value of your brand
If you have a regular reader base or fans, make the cover reflect your brand. Scrutinize and find out the ways in which you can add your personal brand by including elements on the cover page.
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Arrange the elements wisely
The cover is created with combination of attractive background, high quality image, and typography in a layered manner. They should be synchronized to optimally convey the tone and theme of the book.
A book cover has several elements and it is obvious that all are not of equal value. Think of those particular elements that you want to project out from the rest and make people notice it. For example, if you have made up your mind to go with a single image, every additional element you add should have a reasonable purpose. Let it be text, graphics or anything else, it should be inevitable and must convey or complement the message that you are trying to communicate. Never use anything simply for decorative purposes.
When it comes to the design theme, it should reflect the genre of the book in a subtle manner so as to help readers identify the same instantly. The background should be perked up with attractive and relevant textures, images and colors. The color should serve as a counterpoint for typographical aspects. Purchased stock images give a more professional look as compared to the self-shot ones. Headline fonts should be of respectable size with little intervening white spaces. Most professionals revere this as one of the most relevant book cover design ideas.
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Never replicate the physical bookstore’s book cover
The e-book’s thumbnail has to convey the entire story at first glance. This is very crucial to convince your online prospects. Therefore, don’t replicate any cover present in the physical bookstore. The hardcover books don’t have promotional info collated on their cover as prospects leaf through them to learn more about the book.
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DIY Options
You can choose popular cover designing applications such as Canva Book Cover Maker or KDP Cover creator to develop stunning designs in dilettante mode. These apps come bundled up with cool and feature-rich templates from which you can choose from. The templates have been highly enriched with lots of relevant elements and can be optimized to pull off a professional look with relative ease. You can experiment with lots of typographies and layouts to figure out the best one which fits your project.
Most of the templates are free to use and you don’t have to pay anything. You can also use images from the exhaustive stock of royalty free images available in the library of the applications. Most of the online publication houses have their own cover creating applications. Hence, to get access to the app, you just need to create an account on the site. Often proficient designers take care of the font and texture decisions on your behalf.
Conclusion
While designing an eBook cover, always keep in mind that in most places it won’t be displayed in its full-size or resolution. However, it will be featured in a list format with other eBook covers in the thumbnail size. Every element in the cover design should render clarity as well as showcase its most important elements.
Therefore, if you are planning to hire an eBook cover design services company to help you with designing the best quality eBooks, then you may choose a reputed cover design company like WinBizSolutionsIndia. For receiving suggestions or advice, you may speak to the executives by contacting us on our website. We would happily assist for all your book cover designing needs.
