Elements of Good Book Design

DON'T GIVE IT ALL AWAY!

A sneak peek is all you need to hook the reader. Your cover design should hint at the overall theme and plot of the story without giving away any major plot details or spoilers. Think of it in terms of the “Three Bears Principle” —not too much, not too little…but just enough.

NEGATIVE SPACE IS POSITIVE SPACE!

Don’t overcrowd your cover trying to get a message across. A book cover with space allows the imagery and text to breathe. Utilizing space wisely draws attention to the elements that you want potential readers to focus on.

FONTS ARE FABULOUS, WITHIN REASON

Use no more than three genre-appropriate fonts on your cover: one serif, one sans-serif, and one decorative/display. Any more can look disjointed and unprofessional.

Pay attention to basic design color theory. Color contrast between fonts and the background is crucial for readability.

THINK TEENY-TINY

Your book may look good in full size, but online shoppers are more likely to judge your book based on its teeny-tiny thumbnail. This is why your book cover must be legible at a 10th of its actual size.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE BACK COVER

The back of the cover doesn’t do as much heavy lifting as the front cover, but it’s still important. Don’t make the back cover an afterthought. It should contain a blurb about the book to intrigue the prospective reader, and can also share a short bio of you, the author, to forge a connection with the prospective reader.

Your back cover should continue the same visual style from the front. In order to avoid printing errors, it’s best to continue the front cover image across the spine and on to the back cover. When the design or a hard line of color stops at the spine’s edge, printing errors can sometimes cause a sliver of color to bleed on to the front cover, leaving an awkward faux-pas and unprofessional look.

CREATE AN EYE-CATCHING SPINE

Make the spine cohesive with the design and theme of the entire cover. It’s a luxury to have your book marketed and displayed tall in any given bookstore. Sadly, this is often not the case for self-published authors. Your book may have to share space with its genre rivals on a bookshelf, with only the spine for display. Use this small space to capture the readers’ eyes—make it striking.