Designing a book cover can be neck-breaking. Trying to come up with an idea itself can also make you break a sweat. But it doesn’t have to. A book cover design is a crucial part of the book. Don’t be fooled; people judge a book by its cover. According to a survey, 79% of buyers say book cover designs play a decisive role in their purchase decision.
A good book cover design increases your chance of grabbing your prospective reader’s attention with the first impression. It is the first thing that your target audience sees when they decide to purchase your book online or in bookshops. Therefore, your book cover must be attractive, accurate and aesthetically pleasing and purposeful.
We know how tasking it can be to come up with a trendy and marketable book cover, so we’ve pulled 11 remarkable book cover designs to inspire you, as well as show you the elements that make a good cover design and how you can make yours.
What Makes a Good Book Cover Design?
A Good Book Cover Design is:
Attention-Grabbing
Your cover design arrests attention. It is evocative, catchy and enchanting. Imagine someone who’s scrolling online or walking through a bookshop, looking for any book in your genre. If they’ve never heard of your book before, you increase the chances of them choosing you if have an aesthetically pleasing cover. Your book cover design must provide sufficient reasons to make your readers think your book is worth the money, time and attention. This would include amazing elements such as colors, typography, images, title, hook and layout.
Purposeful and Informative
A good book gives a glimpse of what’s in the book. It provides insight into the main themes of the book. Although you might try to be playful with your book cover design, you still have communicated the central idea of the book. Just like a human, a good book cover design can speak for itself as it provides a remarkable piece of information that attracts the buyer. Your book cover design should carry elements such as the genre of the book and elements that allude to the purpose or setting of the book or the feelings that arise may during the reading experience.
Simple
Yes, there’s something considered overdesigning. Oftentimes, in trying to be attractive, designers give too much away in their design. You don’t need to get confused trying to be playful yet serious, colorful, and modern with lucid imagery. Just stick to simplicity. A good cover design is simple. It doesn’t distract with too many details. It just gives enough to pass the message across.
Read more:
11 Remarkable Book Cover Designs To Inspire You
In Search of Stupidity by Merril Chapman
Right from the cover design, you can already tell that In Search of Stupidity is a hilarious book. This book is one of the most influential marketing books written in business lingo laced with humor. The image on the remarkable book cover gives depth to the title, thereby making it easily memorable.
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This book dwells on the idea of stickiness. It talks about how ideas can be memorable and interesting. Without aiming for giving too much away, the book cover design simply makes use of a plaster to play on the word “stick”. This is a model of utmost simplicity and maintaining the element of attraction.
How To Behave In A Crowd by Camille Bordas
Playing with typography to reinforce your message is a good way to design your book cover. The book cover design here brilliantly and carefully captures the essence of the witty and emotive novel. Seeing this, you’d agree there’s no better way for simplicity to meet essence and aesthetics.
Motherhood by Sheila Heti
You don’t need to open the book before you know that this is a book about the struggles of motherhood. The book cover design focuses on one thing, portraying a disturbing image of how uneasy motherhood can be. Don’t you think this can inspire your remarkable cover design too?
The End of Food by Paul Roberts
illustrative images are a creative way of making your book cover design remarkable. The design of The End of Food deftly portrays the central idea of the book. The book talks about the failure of a food production model in modern times and the cover shows that you do not need to go overboard to make something purposeful.
Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
Here, you quickly see an image showing a spark. it also portrays how light spreads. This image is used to capture the essence of the book which hammers on how information goes viral. It’s a creative yet simple book cover design focusing on just one thing. No confusion.
Thick and Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Here is another evocative example of the effective use of typography. However, this isn’t only about typography, the choice of colour too is intentional. This book dwells on black misogyny and the lives of modern black women. It portrays this message in a simple, effective and remarkable book cover design.
Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin
You know how exploration and adventures are about going from landmark to landmark, yes? This book is a personal narration of Rand’s adventure as a Startup founder and the book illustrates the adventurous nature of the content in the book.
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
The cover design of the entrepreneurship classic adds to the remarkableness of the book. The design uses an image of a cheap means of transport with a sack of money. How much cheaper can it get?
Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind by Philip Kotler
This is another example of the effective use of typography. Bold typography mixed with colors helps you grab attention. They tell your readers this is the book they should pick up. In this marketing classic, the designer deftly positions the words in a way that matches the chaotic nature of the marketing world and how to stand out.
The Crow’s Vow by Susan Briscoe
Finally, we have a minimalist design of an extraordinary fiction. Minimalist designs focus on passing the message using the barest minimum of elements. Here, instead of writing crow and also using another image, the designer matches both ideas by using the image of a crow. Try pronouncing the book name from the cover and see how effective it is.
Now that you have some designs to inspire you, you may want to ask:
How can you make your own book cover design?
The answer to this is simple. You may choose to use free design software like:
- Canva
- GIMP
- or Visme.
You can also use paid tools like
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Spark
- or Book Brush.
All these tools have templates to help you ease through your design process.
However, if you consider the need for a professional touch, you can work with a professional graphic designer who already has experience in designing book covers. This can go a long way in making your book’s appearance stand out.
Either you choose to do it yourself or hire a professional, the following are
Things to Consider When Making A Book cover Design
1. Prepare in Advance
First, you have to plan.
- What message do you want to pass with your book cover design?
- What is your genre, and does it have an established style?
- Do you want a modern style or an old-style?
- Where will the book be sold? (eBook/print/ both)
These questions help you make an effective decision. In addition to these questions, you also want to know the budget and tools that you might need. This helps you get a striking outcome for your book design.
2. Avoid Overdesigning
We mentioned earlier that good cover designs are often simple. Overdesigning only kills your book cover and it can throw off your prospective audience. Consider sticking to a minimum number of matching fonts and typefaces as well as a single style.
3. Avoid Giving too Much Information
If your book has multiple themes, it might be hard to decide which one to represent on the book cover. The solution is to stick to one theme or idea so that the audience is not confused
4. Put the Audience in Mind
What do you want the visuals to convey to the reader?
Remember the book cover is designed for readers who will make their purchase decision based on the design they see. Thus, consider reaching out to your audience through social media or any other place you think they hang out.
Conclusion
So, we’ve shown you best book cover designs that should inspire you. These book cover designs are generally simple yet effective. And like we’ve said a good cover design is simple, purposeful and appealing to the target audience. We hope you’ve gotten enough inspiration and insight for your next book!
