Every person is drawn to products or services that are attractive. And, a book cover usually works as a marketing tool for your book. A good book cover needs to be recognized so that it can serve its purpose which is to bind and protect the pages of your book.
Because there is a stiff competition for authors and self-publishing writers are now taking the center stage, a book cover design is crucial. No wonder, many authors prefer spending money to get professional book cover designers in the UK. After all, many readers nowadays tend to go for a book that has a great cover design. This page discusses why you should have a good book cover design.
A book cover serves as a face of your book
Besides a book cover doing it’s original purpose which is to bind and protect the pages of your book, it also acts as a face of your book and summarizes what your book offers. Just like your face is a mirror of your emotions and feelings, a book cover also reflects what readers can expect from your book.
For example, if the cover of your book shows dark images, ghost silhouettes, or owls, then it means it’s sending the message that the book’s story is based on supernatural and scary things. Likewise, if the cover design shows roses, hearts, or soft words, it may send the message that the genre of the book can be a romantic fiction. Ideally, the book cover needs to take the most general feel and look of the genre to help your readers connect to it.
However, choosing an image to utilize on the book cover can be a hard task. There are several styles of imagery that you can use on the book cover. The most important is illustrative, photographic, or vector based.
When it comes to non-fiction, you have fewer chances of playing around with imagery because it can be more literal. On the other hand, fiction books can have more chances to be expressive and abstract. This doesn’t mean that both can be in either category. Instead, you can figure out what image style can convey the tone you are attempting to get across. Therefore, you need to keep your options open for various styles.
With illustration, it can have a wide range of imagination to the reader. Hence, you need to research to determine the style of imagery that is or is not popular with your targeted audience.
You can also decide to rely on stock imagery, especially if you cannot manage to hire an illustrator. This can be good because stock image sites keep many images. This means the image you utilize may not be seen on another book cover. However, there is also a good chance that the image may have been utilized before, though this is rare.
To capture the audience’s attention
A catchy and professional book cover design can immediately capture the attention of your target market and force them to take a second look. Your well-designed book cover can tell the readers that you are serious about your book and it’s professional. But a poorly designed book cover sends the message to the audience that you don’t care a lot about the book. Therefore, you need to invest in an excellent book cover design to ensure that it doesn’t interfere with the decision-making when the readers try to buy your book.
You also need to remember that the way you write your story for your audience also applies to the values of the book cover design. In this way, this can allow the readers to instantly identify with your work. Therefore, you need to consider what typography, images, and composition styles that can resonate with your audience.
For instance, a book that focuses on personal health and nutrition can attract the audience with images associated with the benefits of exercise. This gives your readers that feeling that they can also do it if they purchase the book.
You can also use an image of government buildings if you intend to write a story about politics. The best way to do it is to research to see what sells or doesn’t sell in your genre. However, avoid copying other writers’ ideas when you try to get a feel of what drives the interest of readers.
To build the identity of your brand
Another good reason why you should invest in a good book cover design is simply branding. Keep in mind that the book cover design can form the basis of the brand identity. For authors, it’s crucial to have an identity when it comes to placing your books on the market. There are few various ways authors can brand, but it can be based on their books’ type.
The common branding concept among authors is known as the same cover concept. In this, the writer can decide to come up with a single specific design for your book cover and stick to it for the entire forthcoming books. In such cases, the idea is for the writer to continue branding the same and do some small changes when it comes to the rest of the elements.
Another branding concept is called a different cover concept that has a single concept. With this concept, a book cover can change but a single signature element tends to remain the same. Some books released by authors can have the same font. This font can have some different treatment or effect, though it remains the same. Further, you can choose to create a logo design for the book and utilize it for all your books.
There are also traditional series which is a type of branding that works when you want to write a series of books. The book cover design usually remains the same and the main image keeps changing. It’s worth mentioning that branding for books can be quite important because it helps your audience to recognize your work and establish in the market writer identity.
