As a potential writer, you shouldn’t live in the illusion that your content matters the most and that no one will judge your book by its cover because the truth is the other way around. The cover of your book is the most important aspect of your book – especially – when it comes to marketing your book and presenting your book to attract your ideal readers.
If the book cover isn’t well-designed and carefully crafted, a book can fail to sell. It doesn’t matter how well-written your content is; if your book cover isn’t up to the mark, your book won’t sell.
Of course, as a writer, your entire focus will be on completing the manuscript of your book. You can always hire one of the best book cover designers in the UK and have a professional design your book cover for you.
However, as a novice writer, you will want to understand the importance of having a good boll cover. Your book cover must be as good to attract the ideal readers. It should also be true to its genre and stand out from other books.
What Lies Underneath the Purpose of Designing a Good Book Cover?
The process of designing a book cover is all about getting your manuscript into the reader’s hands by giving your book a form. An excellent book cover is good enough to give the readers an authentic feel about what the book is all about – instead of telling them through words.
As a writer, you know best what your book is about and can use this knowledge to direct what your book cover design should be like. You will want to start by making points about what your book cover should have. You can proceed to have a couple of book cover options printed before choosing the one that looks and feels the best.
Many potential writers overlook the importance of having a good cover design, which is what they learn about later when their books aren’t flying off the shelves. Many books that aren’t selling have cover designs that don’t convey the right message, falling flat in the reader’s eyes.
Before you start brainstorming ideas about your ideal book cover, you will want to look at things from a reader’s perspective. You will want to assess honestly what you feel attracted to when you walk into a bookstore.
Naturally, you will be attracted to books that have great cover designs. Ideally, these are book covers that have creative graphics and attractive font styles. The more attractive the book cover is, the greater the sale the book can make.
Hence, as a writer, you should never underestimate the importance of a good book cover design. You get the point – you will want to look at your book cover as the perfect marketing tool. This indicates that you should never leave the book cover as something to deal with at the last minute.
Be creative and bold.
You will want to have a book cover design that will catch the reader’s eye. The book cover should intrigue the by-passers to halt and be compelled to pick up the book and at least go through it to see what it is about.
Ideally, your book cover should exude creative energy to attract the by-passers.
The Role of a Good Book Cover
Now that we have covered the basics about having a good book cover let us see the role a good book cover design plays in the success of your book,
1. Get the Reader’s Attention
Your book cover is the first touch point that the readers will have with your book. That said, a striking cover can make a difference between a hot bool and a book that flopped in the market. This aspect perfectly explains why authors hire professional cover designers.
Ideally, your book cover should give away just enough to get the reader’s attention to the point that it makes the reader pick up your book out of curiosity to see what it is about. The cover should also capture the book’s essence without revealing too much about what is happening inside.
The book cover design must reflect that your book is worth your reader’s time and money.
2. Good Quality Cover
A good quality book cover plays the role of keeping the binding of the book together. You know how books are displayed on a bookshelf – you can see the spine. This aspect indicates that you should focus on ensuring the quality and creativity of this part of the book, too – to make a good first impression.
Nonetheless, the book cover also plays the practical role of keeping the bookbinding together and keeping the edges of the book intact. So, as an author who is about to publish their first book, you should also focus on having a good-quality binding.
3. Display Books Review on Book Cover
Another practical aspect of the book cover is that you can use it to boast about good book reviews. Book reviews are all about providing useful overviews of people’s great and intuitive reading experiences.
A good book review comprises the complexities set forth by the book without treating the author’s material as doubtful content. Make sure that the reviews on your book refer to how the book was written, what was implemented during the period the book was written, and how the delivery has been from the reader’s perspective.
4. Allow Readers a Glimpse into the Book
As mentioned before, the book cover serves as the first contact point between the book and your ideal readers. Your primary objective of the book cover is to lure the ideal readers towards the book.
With that said, you can use the book cover to give your readers a brief glimpse into the book without overdoing it. Before you add a glimpse of your book to the book cover, you will want to understand the difference between being flashy and attempting to grab the attention of your ideal readers.
You can use the book cover effectively to convey your book’s main idea or theme without exposing the entire story.
