Never judge a book by its cover.
As the old adage goes, but book covers are a vital selling point for all authors wanting to grab the attention of future readers.
To do that you need an exciting book cover.Thankfully you can create awesome book covers with the help of online services such as Fotor, and don't need to be a book designer to create the perfect book cover.
Take a look at 5 brilliant book cover design points that will spark your audiences imagination, and get your books into the hands of potential readers:
1. Plan Your Book Cover Design Around Your Chosen Genre
First things first, you need to understand which genre your book falls into, then start looking for some inspiration for your book cover. Your book cover needs to stand out for all the right reasons, fiction or nonfiction, so look at other authors book designs, and embrace their chosen styles. Your cover is there to entice your readers, and grab their attention from the outset. So make your book cover count!
Distinctive Looks for Different Books
Every genre and sub-genre has a particular trend, for instance a nonfiction book is their to acquaint the reader with the subject matter, so the cover should get straight to the point. This is done through strong colours and typography, instead of complex illustrations.
Fictional books have a more detailed cover with the use of illustrations, and a mix of media. Usually they include elements of the story on the front cover to give the reader an idea of what to expect inside.
Be Inspired!
A good place to start is by looking at authors in the same genre as yours, get to know the kind of covers that are out there, and start to piece together how your book cover is going to look.
2. Know Your Audience
Know what your readers want, what information or story do they want from your book? Self-help and sci-fi books have two totally different audiences. Your book cover needs to reach the right one with the right visual and title.
Does Your Book Cover Need to Provoke Emotion With Your Audience?
If its fiction, I'm guessing it will, for example horror brings about terror, you may want to use darker colours, and dramatic shadows to set the tone for your horror fantasy. Books that are written to make the reader feel calm and happy, such as romance novels, will use lighter pastel colours. Colour is powerful, use it wisely!
3. Focus on a Particular Element of Your Book
A good place to start is by concentrating on one particular element of your main theme, and highlighting it. This may be an image, photo, or font. By creating a single element, this helps your readers to understand what the essence of your book is all about. Fotor have an abundance of templates to choose from, that cover lots of different genres, all completely customiseable.
Choosing the Right Photos and Images for Your Book Cover
It can be really difficult looking for graphics and photos, especially when they need to be high resolution. After that you need the right fonts, borders or even extra illustrations. Fortunately Fotor provide you with lots of different templates covering a multiple of genres, all customizable, to fit with your needs.
There are other places you can get free images, apart from Fotor, these include Pexels, Unsplash, Barnimages, and Pixabay.
4. The Design Hierarchy
The design hierarchy is the order that the information should be seen on your book cover, usually this is by size. For instance, the title is the most striking bit of text on your book cover, and holds the most valuable information. All other information like sub titles should be in a smaller font so that the two aren't confused.
So What Goes on Top?
Should the title be bigger than the authors name? If your Stephen King or Shakespeare, then yes.
If you've created a series of books its important to know where these particular elements go. You may choose to add them on your cover, or leave them out.
Make it Readable!
Choosing the correct font is paramount, making it clear and direct. Fonts such as serif and san-serif are always safer options, because they look clean and clear, and can be read no matter what size they are. Fonts such as script should be big and bold to make them more clear on the cover.
As the old adage goes, but book covers are a vital selling point for all authors wanting to grab the attention of future readers.
To do that you need an exciting book cover.Thankfully you can create awesome book covers with the help of online services such as Fotor, and don't need to be a book designer to create the perfect book cover.
Take a look at 5 brilliant book cover design points that will spark your audiences imagination, and get your books into the hands of potential readers:
1. Plan Your Book Cover Design Around Your Chosen Genre
First things first, you need to understand which genre your book falls into, then start looking for some inspiration for your book cover. Your book cover needs to stand out for all the right reasons, fiction or nonfiction, so look at other authors book designs, and embrace their chosen styles. Your cover is there to entice your readers, and grab their attention from the outset. So make your book cover count!
Distinctive Looks for Different Books
Every genre and sub-genre has a particular trend, for instance a nonfiction book is their to acquaint the reader with the subject matter, so the cover should get straight to the point. This is done through strong colours and typography, instead of complex illustrations.
Fictional books have a more detailed cover with the use of illustrations, and a mix of media. Usually they include elements of the story on the front cover to give the reader an idea of what to expect inside.
Be Inspired!
A good place to start is by looking at authors in the same genre as yours, get to know the kind of covers that are out there, and start to piece together how your book cover is going to look.
2. Know Your Audience
Know what your readers want, what information or story do they want from your book? Self-help and sci-fi books have two totally different audiences. Your book cover needs to reach the right one with the right visual and title.
Does Your Book Cover Need to Provoke Emotion With Your Audience?
If its fiction, I'm guessing it will, for example horror brings about terror, you may want to use darker colours, and dramatic shadows to set the tone for your horror fantasy. Books that are written to make the reader feel calm and happy, such as romance novels, will use lighter pastel colours. Colour is powerful, use it wisely!
3. Focus on a Particular Element of Your Book
A good place to start is by concentrating on one particular element of your main theme, and highlighting it. This may be an image, photo, or font. By creating a single element, this helps your readers to understand what the essence of your book is all about. Fotor have an abundance of templates to choose from, that cover lots of different genres, all completely customiseable.
Choosing the Right Photos and Images for Your Book Cover
It can be really difficult looking for graphics and photos, especially when they need to be high resolution. After that you need the right fonts, borders or even extra illustrations. Fortunately Fotor provide you with lots of different templates covering a multiple of genres, all customizable, to fit with your needs.
There are other places you can get free images, apart from Fotor, these include Pexels, Unsplash, Barnimages, and Pixabay.
4. The Design Hierarchy
The design hierarchy is the order that the information should be seen on your book cover, usually this is by size. For instance, the title is the most striking bit of text on your book cover, and holds the most valuable information. All other information like sub titles should be in a smaller font so that the two aren't confused.
So What Goes on Top?
Should the title be bigger than the authors name? If your Stephen King or Shakespeare, then yes.
If you've created a series of books its important to know where these particular elements go. You may choose to add them on your cover, or leave them out.
Make it Readable!
Choosing the correct font is paramount, making it clear and direct. Fonts such as serif and san-serif are always safer options, because they look clean and clear, and can be read no matter what size they are. Fonts such as script should be big and bold to make them more clear on the cover.
5. Your Book Thumbnail Needs to Shine!
Thumbnails are used on electronic platforms such as Amazon, giving your book a fighting chance in a sea of competition.
Does Your Book Cover Stand Out?
When you start building your book cover use the zoom out tool to view your cover, and ask yourself if its clear enough at all sizes.
A thumbnail image will show two things to the reader, the typography and the colour scheme. Both of these set the tone for the book, always make sure your fonts, title, and colours embody the content of your book.
Thumbnails are used on electronic platforms such as Amazon, giving your book a fighting chance in a sea of competition.
Does Your Book Cover Stand Out?
When you start building your book cover use the zoom out tool to view your cover, and ask yourself if its clear enough at all sizes.
A thumbnail image will show two things to the reader, the typography and the colour scheme. Both of these set the tone for the book, always make sure your fonts, title, and colours embody the content of your book.
Creating Your Book on Fotor
Select book cover option on Fotor's landing page. Click on Book Cover button, and you'll be directed to the numerous templates available. Gain access to all templates with Fotor Pro.
When you're going through all of the templates on offer, think about which category your book is in. You'll discover templates for both fiction and non-fiction alike.
When you're going through all of the templates on offer, think about which category your book is in. You'll discover templates for both fiction and non-fiction alike.
Choose Your Template
If you don't like the templates provided their are plenty of backgrounds and stickers available to create your own.
Backgrounds
Stickers
You also have the option to use a different template and resize it.
Template
You could create your own by simply choosing a background, choosing a basic, shape, and then adding a font.
If you don't like the templates provided their are plenty of backgrounds and stickers available to create your own.
Backgrounds
Stickers
You also have the option to use a different template and resize it.
Template
Choosing Your Font
If you've already chosen a template, you probably won't need to change your font, but you can always experiment with other fonts, to customise your template.
As you can see from my book cover above I decided to go with a larger font than the one chosen on Fotor.
After you've created your design and signed in to Fotor, you can go Pro and have the full choice of templates on offered. This is gives you freedom and choice, like my book covers above, and many many more templates.
It makes a world of difference designing a book cover with the right tools.
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