Although you should never judge a book by its cover, that’s not to say that everybody does.
When it comes to your book cover, this is the first thing people are going to see and will be the make or break as to whether a potential reader picks it up or walks on by.
Designing a book cover can be hard work, especially when you want perfection but are completely unsure on what that could be. However, from the experiences of others, there are plenty of techniques and tips to remember that can help you get it right.
To give you a helping hand on this path, today we’re going to explore five of the most common book cover mistakes that could harm your sales, as well as detailing how you can correct them.
#1 – The Cover Not Suiting Your Genre
Each genre of book tends to have a style of cover that can help people easily relate to it. For example, if you see a lightly styled book with white and pink colors, you would automatically assume it’s romantically or female orientated.
People will simply walk by books they don’t think will appeal to them and you’ll have missed out on an opportunity. Simply look at other books in your genre for inspiration.
#2 – Not Representing the Book/Story
If you’ve got a war story or something surrounding military action, you need to make sure that this is represented in the cover, so people can easily identify what it’s all about. On the flip side, if your story has soldiers in it, but it’s not primarily about soldiers, and you have one on the cover, this can be misleading.
Once word gets out that your story is not what people thought it would be, this can seriously affect your sales and turnaround. Be honest and transparent with your designs.
#3 – Using an Unprofessional Cover
People expect quality, and if your book doesn’t have a professional cover, they won’t be taking your book seriously. Try to keep things as clean as possible. A lot of the time, less is more, and you don’t want to be overwhelming your readers with lots of crazy images and mess.
“Unless your niche is to look like an unprofessional cover, aim for keeping every clean and minimalist with all the appropriate information written in a nice and attractive font that people are going to connect too,” explains Julie Staples, a graphic designer for WriteMYX.
#4 – Not Properly Implementing a Book Series
If you’re writing and releasing a series of books, it’s vital that you pay attention to the aesthetic and style you’re choosing throughout your series. With the series, it’s important to settle on a versatile design that you can implement across every book.
However, each book still needs to be original and unique and stand out among itself. This means having a different picture and color scheme, but the core elements like the font and style should remain the same.
#5 – Not Being Commercially Appealing
“One of the most important things to remember is the fact that you’ll want your cover to appeal to as many people as possible. While it might be a same to drop a design you like, or you’ll have to be slightly flexible with your creativity, this is vital to your success,” explains Neil Harris, a marketing manager for Academic Brits and 1Day2Write.
The thing to remember is appealing to the largest audience possible. If you have a romantic book, you might narrow in on a certain cliché style, but keeping the style broad and open means you’ll attract a lot more people who are willing to pick your book up, rather than dismissing it based on their previous judgments.
Author Bio:
Adelina Benson is an email marketer and writer at Originwritings.com. She excels in graphic design for companies and on a freelance basis. She also loves to share her knowledge, skills and personal experience in the book industry through her blogs and interviews.
