How to Design the Best Book Cover in 10 Simple Steps?

A professional design agency can create the most incredible book cover imaginable. If you want to take on the challenge for yourself, continue reading. Learning about book cover designing will help in your task and choosing a designer for your design requirements. A book cover’s design attracts your audiences and tells whether your book is worth their time.

Graphic designers understand the importance of audience appeal, whether logo designers or web designers. The cover’s design must appear engaging, inducing, and professional to achieve the bestseller title. The following steps ensure a cover that will influence book readers effectively.

Best Book Cover in 10 Simple Steps

Logo designers select the text, font, design, colors, and objects in branding that appeal to the target audience. Likewise, book covers must comply with the interests and preferences of their target audience. The following ten steps make sure a book cover distinctively attracts readers.

1. Seek Design Inspiration

A design needs creativity, and creativity comes from inspiration. Look for sources of inspiration to enhance your creative abilities and review the work of famous designers. Also, study the covers of the bestselling books to get a fair idea about their appeal. Use the inspiration to garner ideas and transform your ideas into a design following the next steps.

2. Select Design Tools or Software

The paper, pencil, sketch, and draw schema is gone as technology is getting better. Some famous designers still use this practice, but if you have no design experience, select a tool. Numerous design tools and software are available on the web and app market. Anything with a good balance of design, editing, and refining aspects would work for your book cover project.

3. Decide the Cover’s Size

The cover size is an important aspect of design, as books come in all shapes and sizes. However, we will talk about the size ratio rather than measurements. Select the one that attracts more readers and is easy to carry. Your cover’s size defines the book’s dimensions. Notably, all bestsellers have a compact size and ratio ideal for readers. See the Amazon cover ratios.

4. Find Images that Relate

Including an image on your book’s cover enhances its appearance and appeal. Usually, an image related to the book title or content is selected, but it has no bounds. See the tree and bird image in “To Kill a Mockingbird” or the persons and city image in “Forty Rules of Love”. An image defines what words are incapable of, with deeper meaning and higher understanding.

5. Choose the Colors

The colors on the book cover, like its background, image, title, and fonts, must create an immersive impact. Select the colors with emotional meaning that best reflects the content or interests of the audience. Contrast those colors in proper balance and ratio so that they influence the readers to select and read the book. Most importantly, choose the colors that help your book stand out from the competition and make it prominent.

6. Choose a Typeface

A typeface that clicks in the readers’ minds is crucial for a book cover. Be it the title, author name, or any text on the cover. The font type, size, shadows, and text styling are vital in the overall cover design. If you are writing for a mature professional audience, choose a more rigid styling with bold fonts. Likewise, choosing soft and playful fonts for books written for children and youth is best. Choose the typeface that attracts your readers in the best way.

7. Design with Balance

Use all these selected elements and assemble them for your cover using balance and aesthetics. Keep a ratio that enhances all elements rather than highlighting some and leaving out others. A cover with a good balance of images, text, and colors is more captivating than a poor one. Keep the same balance in adding colors to all elements and comply with the readers’ taste.

8. Test the Book Cover

You can ask your friends and family for feedback on your book cover’s design. You may also find a reader’s club and ask their members to rate your design on a scale of choice. Professional authors might also help if you approach them through digital means. Another great strategy is to test your book by placing it on bookstore shelves and observing the buyer’s behavior.

9. Make a Prototype

Prototypes are crucial to find any product or design’s impact and improving later based on feedback and suggestions. Make a prototype of your design and save each version as you modify it based on a reviewer’s recommendations. It will help to revert to an older layout or any variation based on comparison and likability. Keep all the versions safely stored with backups, as you might need them anytime for any different region or marketplace.

10. Apply the Design and Promote

Select the best cover out of all design versions as you prepare to implement it. Apply the new design on the paperbacks and e-books across all channels. Promote the book in multiple readers’ social media groups and clubs. Sponsor small events and ask publishers to promote your book for a fair share of proceedings. Talk about your book on blogs, vlogs, and podcasts to promote.

Conclusion

The steps in this writing are sequential progress to making a book cover that boosts sales. Embarking on the design journey using these steps will ensure your cover attracts and appeals to the target audience. Don’t hesitate to ask for help from logo designers, graphic designers, or branding professionals. Hire a professional design agency if you find it difficult to design a cover.