It's a pleasure to have multi-published author of the Dryad series, Katie Jennings, here with me again today! You might remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted Katie's Dryad series for Book Talk Wednesdays. Speaking of that, the latest installments in the Dryad series are available now! Today, Katie is going to give us a few pointers about book covers. Perfect, because I have a related surprise coming up in a couple of weeks that might interest you. So, here's Katie!
You never get a second chance to make your first
impression. At least, that’s what my dad
always told me, and he’s completely right!
Think about your life in terms of the products and services you are
exposed to on a daily basis…which ones stand out the most to you? Which ones really take off and which ones
fall into the dark depths of obscurity?
I’ll answer the question for you:
the ones that succeed are the ones that draw in potential buyers with a
clear, instant impression. In other
words, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Or, in our case as authors, a book
cover is worth every single word you ever wrote in a novel.
Think about it.
You’re perusing the aisles at Barnes and Noble, or scanning the
Bestseller’s list on Amazon. What
catches your eye? What appeals to
you? Obviously, for every consumer the
answer to that question is different.
Which is why as authors we MUST know our market. We MUST know who we are trying to sell our
books to.
As an example, take my book cover for Breath of Air, which is the first book in my contemporary fantasy
series The Dryad Quartet. On the cover
you see a girl, her face hidden so that the reader (I’m marketing to females,
FYI) can easily slip into the main character, Capri’s, shoes. Much emphasis was put on her hair, so that
readers can identify that Capri is the light, airy blonde in the book with a
soft nature and sweet disposition (note:
the bird on her shoulder is both representative of her “Snow White”
qualities as well as her gift of Air).
In the first chapter of Breath of Air, you learn that Capri can control
birds, so having the bird on the cover was key.
Also note the castle in the background. This gives potential readers a clue as to the
“type” of fantasy book Breath of Air
might be. It’s clearly not set in a
grungy New York alleyway or a sweltering Florida beach with palm trees. No, according to the distant image of the
castle, the book will take place in a strange land, both elegant and
extraordinary. It lends to the concept
that Capri feels like something of a “princess” fallen into a realm she had
never before imagined.
Okay, so the imagery is all very important, right? But what about when your book is shown in
tiny thumbnail form in the midst of thousands upon thousands of other
books? What is it that will cause
readers to click on your thumbnail before someone else’s?
For me, anyway, it’s the coloring. Coloring is very important, but keep in mind
that this varies drastically by genre.
Is your book a thriller or horror?
You should have dark colors, maybe reds and grays, and there should be
plenty of contrast. Or, alternately, do
a lighter version with big, bold text and contrasting images in stark black and
white. Convey an emotion through the
colors you use. If it’s a romance novel,
the softer the colors and more dramatic the imagery (a woman with flowing hair,
arching back, delicate hands, etc) the better.
Readers will notice the book first by color, then by image. Think about your market and the readers you
want to attract, and what colors may catch their eye.
So what about your title font? What I recommend is looking up other books in
your genre, and seeing what other authors have done. Fantasy and romance books generally have
loopy, calligraphy-like text. Thrillers
tend to have bolder, stronger, harsher text.
It is important that you get the text right. Make the extra effort and surf the free font
download sites, and hunt up some new fonts to use. As long as it’s easy to read and available
for commercial use, you should be good.
Lastly, I offer you my most important, crucial bit of
advice, even though it will only appeal to some of you. But here it is anyway, because I honestly
cannot stress this point enough: If you
have a book series, make sure that each and every cover in that series is
CONSISTENT with the other covers. And
I’m talking style, imagery, title text placement, author name font and
placement, etc.
Readers should be able
to easily identify that those books go together. It breaks my heart when I catch authors not
following this important rule, because they are not imagining their books
sitting side by side on a shelf. And
that is how we must look at our work. We
must think of ourselves as not just self published authors, but as good enough
to be up there with the big boys, our books sitting right beside theirs. If we lose those high standards for
ourselves, then the reputation for self published authors suffers.
So please, keep all of this in mind as you create your
covers, and good luck!
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