Everything you need to know about book cover design!
When it comes to your book cover design, you have two options: Do your novel cover design yourself or hire a professional book cover designer who provides cover design services. With the recent addition of AI into the mix, self-published Australian authors have a new option. However, while AI programs can help create covers, they often produce images that aren’t ready to be uploaded to self-publishing platforms such as Amazon KDP and IngramSpark Publishing. AI can be an excellent tool for developing design concepts, but not so great at implementing them.
While authors would like to believe that customers don’t judge a book by its cover, especially our own, it’s unfortunately true. According to WordsRated, approximately 11,000 books are published each day. Can you afford not to invest in the cover of your book?
Book Cover Options for Australian Authors
Luckily, as an Australian author, you have book cover options available to you. Regardless of whether you’re a self-published author or not, a professional book cover could set your book apart from other books. If you have tried to design your own book cover and your DIY efforts failed, hiring a professional book cover designer specializing in book front cover design or ebook cover design is a great choice. It takes a lot of the pressure off you as the author. This will allow you to focus on other areas of your book.
There’s no shame in admitting that your DIY cover design skills aren’t excellent. You invest a lot into your book, including professional editing and book formatting, so it would be a shame if its front cover design let you down. Your book cover shouldn’t be the area you choose to cut costs in.
At Author Services Australia, we provide a full range of professional cover design services tailored for Australian and New Zealand self-published authors. Don’t hesitate to contact us today for a quote on affordable cover design services for your next fantasy book cover, paperback cover, or ebook cover. We specialize in book design for both fiction and non-fiction genres.
In the complete guide to book and cover design, we cover the following topics:
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- As an author, can you design your book cover yourself?
- What does your novel’s cover design tell readers about your book?
- Book cover design information you’ll need to know!
- 7 essential steps for creating a professional novel cover design!
- Ebook cover design size and dimension requirements
- Expert tips, tricks, and information about creating the best book covers.
- Working with a professional cover design artist, tips, and FAQs
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As An Author, Can You Design Your Book Cover Yourself?
Of course, you can design your own book cover. If you’re a self-published author with a tight budget and a strong background in graphic design, then a DIY book cover design is definitely an option worth considering.
However, the cover of your book is your ultimate marketing tool. If your book cover isn’t perfect, you’ll directly impact book sales. Fewer book sales equal fewer book royalties. This could mean less money to invest in marketing or the production of your next book.
If you’re not 100% confident in your cover design skills, we recommend investing in a cover design artist. You wouldn’t choose budget editing or formatting, so why try to cut corners with the most significant marketing asset your book has?
What Does Your Novel’s Cover Design Tell Readers?
Great book covers send a clear message. Your cover answers potential readers’ questions. A beautiful book cover should answer the following questions:
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- What genre is the book?
- Is it a non-fiction or a fiction book?
- What is the age category of the novel?
- Generally speaking, what’s the book about?
- Is it a professional book, or does it look self-published?
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The following are essential tips to keep in mind when planning your book cover:
Always be honest
Identify the most marketable components of your novel. Now, display them on your front cover. If it’s a romance book based on firefighters, then a shirtless fireman on the front cover is a good representation of the novel. If it’s not about firefighters, don’t put a firefighter on the front cover.
Don’t mislead potential readers
If your book is about zombies, but you know dragons are popular, don’t put a dragon on the front cover. While you may experience a bump in sales at the start, that will be quickly offset by upset readers. The last thing you want is a bunch of negative reviews from readers who get annoyed that there are no dragons.
Some excellent programs exist if you’re committed to designing your own book cover. Reedsy published a great article on different book cover design programs, including pros and cons. However, even the best program is complex to use, and many have a steep learning curve. Even the best program can’t replace decades of experience making professional covers.
Another potential use for these programs is to create a design concept to give to your cover designer. They’re great for generating cover design concepts. Even if you can’t pull the design together, it will be an excellent way to show your designer what you’re looking for.
Book Cover Design Information Every Author Needs to Know!
Before we look at the 7 essential steps you need to know to create a professional novel cover design, there’s some information that you need to collect.
Does the book’s genre have an established book cover style?
The principal fiction genres include romance, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and thriller. When you look at a few books within these genres, you’ll start to identify specific characteristics that these books all use. Of course, there will be exceptions to the rule, but the majority will stick to a similar style. This is to make them universally appealing to readers within the genre.
Ultimately, your goal is to sell books. So, if you want to sell books in a competitive genre like romance, your book cover will need to fit the genre’s style. The trick here is to embrace the genre but find unique ways to ensure your cover stands out.
Look at the covers above. They were taken from the romance category on Amazon KDP. You’ll notice that most covers stick with the same general theme of an attractive man or woman and a straightforward typography combined with a photo background.
When we check out these best-selling fantasy books, we start to see their similarities. While two are by the same author, you can clearly see that the first three are fantasy books based on style and design. They are instantly recognizable as fantasy books simply because of the cover design.
While it’s always good to think outside the box and come up with something unique and exciting, you need to remember your genre’s general style if you want to attract readers.
Where are you planning on selling your book?
Where you plan to sell your book will play a massive role in your decisions during the book cover design process. If you’re planning to go ebook-only, you’ll only be concerned with the front cover design. You don’t need to worry about the back or spine.
If people are only looking at your book online, often as a small thumbnail, the text needs to be a little larger and more eye-catching. Print books have more room for movement because if someone’s picking up your book in a bookstore, they’ll be looking at all aspects of the cover.
The Book Format
What format is your book going to be? Ebook, print, or both? If you’re planning a print version, start thinking about different trim sizes. While Amazon KDP and IngramSpark are the biggest self-publishing platforms, both offer Print-On-Demand (POD). They also share some common trim sizes. IngramSpark Publishing has a bigger selection. You can learn more about Print-On-Demand here.
While ebooks are all essentially one size and format, you have a few options with print formats. You can choose from paperback, hardcover, or casebound. Hardcover or hardback books can be produced with or without a dust jacket. They are more expensive to print, but more desirable for libraries and schools because of their durability.
Think a lot about book size. The smaller the book, the more pages it has, and the thicker it will be. While a larger trim size book can look better, it will also have fewer pages and a smaller spine. This will affect your cover design.
The Book Cover Copy or Text
Your book’s cover copy will include the front copy, back copy, blurb/description, author bio/photo, and any endorsements you get from readers or other authors.
Book Cover Graphics
These could include your publishing logo, your company logo, and barcodes displaying your ISBN. If you’re an Australian author and want to learn more about ISBNs, including where to get ISBNs, check out this article, Do I Need An ISBN In Australia?
Your Cover Design Budget
Get a clear idea from your cover designer of the total cost for your cover design. This should include any additional costs that may arise. At Author Services Australia, our cover design services are fixed-price, with no extra costs unless the project scope changes. However, some authors want more than two cover design concepts or drafts. In that case, we can offer a custom price for your book cover design project.
We include two design concepts. An ebook cover and a paperback cover (if ordered). All the covers for self-publishing platforms. We also include a promotional ebook and mockups of your cover in paperback, along with title pages.
7 Essential Steps For Creating A Professional Novel Cover Design!
Now that you have your information ready, it’s time to begin the cover design process. The more you understand about great book covers, the easier it will be to design a great book covers for your book.
One. Understanding the Different Cover Elements
As you can see in the image above, courtesy of Book Printing, your book cover has three main parts. These include a front cover, a back cover, and a spine that connects them. Your paperback book is the economy version of your print book. The hardcover, or hardback, is where you can incorporate a lot of fancy elements to create a beautiful book cover.
Two. Research Your Potential Market
Here are some tips. Genres will sell much better in paperback, while thrillers, biographies, and literary fiction do well in hardcover. If it’s the kind of book a reader will take with them on a trip, like a plane, it needs to be a paperback and compact. Libraries love hardcovers.
If most authors in your genre publish books in paperback format, and they price their books between $14.99 and $19.99, then a paperback priced at $29.99 isn’t going to be competitive.
Three. Focus On One Design Direction for Your Book Cover Ideas
While it’s easy to get sidetracked with many book cover ideas, great book covers pick a design direction and stick with it. If you love a cover, take a photo of it and establish which parts of the design you love and why. Keep a collection of beautiful book covers as inspiration. Make notes about what you love and hate and why you think different elements work together.
Four. Establish What the Book Cover Needs to Emphasize
When you’re looking at the cover, understand what you’re trying to emphasize and what role that will play in your author’s marketing plan. Is it the typography, a logo, an image, the colors, or perhaps the location? Your cover design elements should be carried through your marketing plan, and the two should be instantly recognizable.
If you’re planning on creating a series, then how will this cover work as part of the series? It’s never too late to go back and change the cover, but if you start the design process with a series of books in mind, it’ll make it a lot easier later down the road.
Five. Choosing Your Cover Fonts and Images
Narrowing down a style and font for a cover can be a challenge. You may not realize how hard it will be to simply ‘pick a font’ for your cover until you start. When choosing fonts, pick fonts suitable for the period your book is set in. A modern font on a historical fiction set hundreds of years ago isn’t going to work.
Your cover could include illustrations, photographs, cartoons, pure typography, or an abstract design. If your book is set in Los Angeles, then a Hollywood skyline works well. However, if it’s not, it doesn’t make much sense.
When using any stock images, remember everyone has access to the same images. If you choose a common stock image, you can find it on other book covers.
Six. Get Feedback from Beta Readers, Friends, and Other Authors
Sometimes, the perfect book cover, or even a beautiful book cover, isn’t perfect for the book it was designed for. Don’t be afraid to get feedback, but be careful about how you send your book cover and to whom. The last thing you want is for your upcoming book to leak before you’re ready to share it yourself.
A simple feedback form is a great way to determine what potential readers may think or feel when they see your book cover.
Seven. Find Out What Your Printer Needs
Before you start laying out the cover, check with your printer on what size specifications they need, including trim. It’s no use laying out the cover and getting everything placed perfectly if you then have to adjust to accommodate trim and bleed during printing.
Ebook Cover Design Size and Dimension Requirements
If you’re just doing an ebook cover design, you have a little more flexibility with sizing. However, there are still size requirements for your ebook digital cover. It’s all about choosing the right width-to-height ratio.
Different platforms, including Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and IngramSpark Publishing, have different ebook cover size requirements.
The chart above shows the recommended dimensions and sizes for ebook covers across the most popular ebook self-publishing platforms.
Amazon KDP gives you a lot of flexibility with the ratios on your ebook covers. Their only big cover requirement is that one side of the image be at least 1000 pixels long. Their recommended ebook cover ratio size is 1.6:1. Below is a table showing some comparison images.
It’s essential to choose the best cover ratio for your book. If you’re self-publishing a children’s book, the 1:1 ratio often makes a good choice because it accurately represents your children’s book’s square trim size (8.5 x 8.5).
Expert Tips, Tricks, and Information About Creating the Best Book Covers!
Below are some critical cover design tips recommended by experts for anyone considering designing their own book cover:
Sneak Peek
Always try to give potential readers a sneak peek of what they should expect to discover when they read your book. Please don’t give away the whole plot, but let them know when they see your great book cover what to expect when they read it.
Genre
Try to indicate what genre your book is to potential readers with your novel cover design. A reader should be able to instantly see from a beautiful book cover what genre the book is.
Know Your Audience
Understand who your target audience is and what they’re typically purchasing. If you know what those covers look like, you can replicate some of the elements in your design.
Set the Tone
Use a beautiful or cool cover design to set the tone for the rest of your book.
Don’t Ignore Small Details
Cool book covers are all about the small details. The best book covers never ignore the small details.
Rules
Rules are meant to be broken, but not in all cases. Please pay attention to the cover design process outlined above. Don’t skip steps. Don’t send mixed messages with your cover.
Think About the Future
If you’re planning on releasing a book series, remember that when you design the cover for book one. You need to be able to carry through elements from each cover as you progress through your book series.
Consider Hiring A Professional
If you get overwhelmed or are not blown away by your DIY cover design, consider hiring a professional cover designer. At Author Services Australia, we provide a full range of professional cover design services tailored for Australian and New Zealand self-published authors. Don’t hesitate to contact us today for a quote on affordable cover design services.
Working with a Professional Cover Designer, Tips, and FAQs
If you are considering hiring a professional cover designer or creating your own book cover, we’ll go through some of the pros and cons of working with a cover designer and some tips to make the process a little smoother.
Just because you’re a self-published author, it doesn’t mean that you need to cut corners when it comes to the design of your cover. It shouldn’t prevent you from having a beautiful book cover that looks attractive and sells more books.
Pros of Creating Your Own Book Cover
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- 100% Creative Freedom
- Freedom to Experiment and Explore
- Cheaper
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Cons of Creating Your Own Book Cover
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- Lower Quality Cover
- Potentially Lower Sales
- Cover Design that Looks Self-Published
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However, if you have graphic design experience or cover design experience, the cons to creating your own book cover aren’t going to be the same.
Working with a Professional Cover Designer FAQs
Should I have some idea of what I want my book cover to look like before I start the cover design process?
Yes! The more ideas you can give your cover designer, the better. However, don’t overwhelm them. Give them some room to interpret your ideas and add their own creativity.
If we have a client who is already 100% determined to use a specific design, I always recommend letting the designer create one draft to those specifications and then one using their ideas. You’d be surprised what another opinion can come up with!
Should I give the cover designer my blurb/synopsis?
Yes! A blurb/description/synopsis is a great way to give your cover designer a snapshot of your book.
How much will a professional cover design cost?
The average price for a professional cover design package ranges between $500 and $2000. However, there are also freelance cover design services that charge less, and pre-made covers are available for about $150 and $250.
What are the advantages of hiring a professional cover designer to create a great book cover for my novel?
You’ll receive a professional cover design that looks amazing. It will be sized correctly, sell more books, and can be directly used for your author marketing and social media.
The Complete Guide to Cover Design for Authors | Conclusion
As you can see, a lot goes into a book cover. However, if you want to create a best-selling book, you need the best book cover to put on the front of it. Your book cover is worth investing in, so don’t cut corners. Your book cover is the first thing any potential readers see, so it has to impress them. An attractive cover will push readers to learn more about your book. A cheap or poorly designed cover could lead them to skip your book and choose another, regardless of how well it’s written.
If you have any questions about the self-publishing process, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
At Author Services Australia, we support Australian and New Zealand self-published authors and writers with a full range of affordable self-publishing services, including ghostwriting, copyediting, developmental editing, proofreading, ebook and paperback formatting, book cover design, children’s book illustrations, graphic design services, Amazon KDP Keyword and Category Research, manuscript uploading assistance, animated book cover reveal videos, and social media and marketing.
