That’s the whole point of having a cover! If you’re thinking of publishing a book or are in the process of writing one, the cover design might not even be on your radar yet. But it should be.
There are no hard and fast rules about what a bestseller should look like. The content matters most and people will spread the best books by word of mouth.
Still, a great cover is just like any other piece of marketing: it gives your work a chance to get seen in a sea of other material. Just like ads on social media utilize hooks to capture attention and landing pages utilize hooks to encourage you to continue reading, an attractive book cover might make *just* enough of a difference that a prospective reader will pick it up, flip through it and decide to give your book a shot. It’s part of your “funnel”.
Think of it this way: they can’t change their life if they never read your book. And they’ll never read your book if they aren’t attracted to it in some way. The cover is a tangible piece of the marketing equation you can control that makes a significant different in conversion from browser to buyer.
Here are a few things that seem to work well when selecting a cover:
1.) Bold or neon colors stand out against other books.
This applies online and especially in person. Try choosing a color that most don’t use and you’ll have a leg up. The brain recognizes colors and patterns before words, so it’s good to look at things from a bird’s eye view. Close your eyes and open them quickly without thinking. What colors really pop for you? What draws your eye immediately? Whats blends in or is a bit boring?
2.) Consider evoking emotion.
There’s an element of subtle symbolism that comes from color.
For instance:
- Red: power / energy / caution
- Orange: energy / warm / attention
- Yellow: happiness
- Blue: intelligence / serenity
- Green: money / growth / health
These aren’t rules, but suggestions.
3.) Large fonts work best.
Large, easily readable typeface that contrasts from the book cover and can be deciphered from far away works well. Combined with the actual title of the book, this functions like the headline on a sales page — and as famed copywriter David Ogilvy said: “Once you’ve written your headline, you’ve spent 80 cents of the dollar.”
4.) A simple graphic or visual cue is important.
A simple graphic that connects to the theme of the book really ties things together.
It’s also a good move to use something iconic or something directly relatable to your brand. If you have a personal brand, it also works to have yourself on the cover — though sometimes I think this is more of a vanity move than in the best interest of the cover itself. It really depends on the subject matter and what you’re trying to accomplish.
For every one of these rules, I could give you a book that’s sold millions of copies that defies the rule — which affirms the fact that content and word of mouth matters most. But don’t be silly: you want to give your work every possible chance it has of succeeding — and if you have great content, word of mouth AND a great cover / title, that’s when you hit the lottery.
Next time you’re at the airport bookstore (my favorite), notice which covers stand out to you.
Note: a great way to determine which cover works isn’t just to “go off your gut.” You should be actively testing and polling your audience. If you don’t have an audience, ask friends and family. You can also spend a little money to run ads and see what gets the best response. This is called “split testing” in marketing and it’s a very smart thing to do. You probably don’t know best.
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Pictured here: a little demo shot I sent to James Swanwick as we work on the cover iterations for his upcoming book on the Alcohol-Free Lifestyle. In the top row, I shared more neutral tones black, white and gray.
In the bottom row, you can see different color variations lined up in ROYGBIV. My first book is in there, but I don’t think it’s the best cover design. I actually never liked that cover and fought to have it changed, but the publisher wouldn’t budge. That’s another story for another day. The benefit of publishing with a small company like New Wave Press is that you get complete creative control and 100% of the royalties.
From this selection, I think the most eye-catching designs are on the ends and in the middle: Scrum, The Icarus Deception and $100M Offers. Maybe that has something to do with the color spectrum? Who knows.
Happy writing!
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