Understanding the Importance of A Good Book Cover Design

Finally – you are ready to launch your book, which makes you feel excited, happy, and thrilled, and why wouldn’t you be? You have an amazing hook and an ideal reader, and you have sweated over the book by investing your time, energy, and money in having it edited and designed. 

You launch your book, and then you have a few sales before your book fades away in the background. You try to up your marketing game and run ads, but no one clicks on them. Seemingly – no one is interested in your book anymore. 

Your book cover might be preventing book sales. 

Why Your Book Cover Matters 

You might have invested a whole lot of time in designing your book cover – but – it might still not be as good as it should be. If you didn’t hire a professional freelance book designer, then it is almost a guarantee that your book cover isn’t as good as it needs to be.

There are countless reasons for bad book covers, including the following six basic reasons:

• You thought you could save money by using a cheap tool to create your book cover.
• Your book cover looked good to your untrained eye.
• You designed the book cover yourself, and you thAought it was perfect.
• You asked your family members to design the book cover for you. 
• You put yourself on the cover despite the fact that you aren’t famous. 
• Your book cover wasn’t according to its genre. 

How to Know Your Book Cover is Bad?

A bad book cover can only stay bad unless you take proper action to fix it. Now, the important question is, how will you know that your book cover is holding you back? Well, the answer to this question might be challenging as you can not know for certain. 

Nonetheless – there are several signs that indicate that your book cover is holding back your book sales. 

Interested Readers Who Are Not Buying 

Now, you have a good book idea, and your ideal reader is genuinely interested in your book. But – their interest isn’t really translating into the sales that you are looking for. Despite the great book idea and the genuine interest of your target readers, if your book is still not selling – your book cover might be the factor that is preventing sales.

Your Run Ads without Results

Now, you might have self-published your book, and of course, most of the marketing responsibility lies on you. So, you might be running Amazon ads, and you are getting the impressions – but – everything stops there as you aren’t getting any clicks. 

In this case, you should treat it as a big sign that your book title or the cover of your book is behind the fact that no one wants to buy your book. 

Things to Consider When Designing Your Book Cover

There are several things to keep in mind when designing your book cover on your own or when evaluating concepts that a book cover designer has given to you. 

Appropriateness

The first thing that you should consider regarding the book cover design is its appropriateness. You must ensure that the book cover is appropriate to the following:

• The book genre
• The brand

Now, if you are into fantasy books, you might have noticed that there are certain themes that always seem to be on the fantasy book covers. This always tells us that they are fantasy covers. Similarly, crime thrillers often have a specific aesthetic, such as a running figure in the middle of the book cover or a dark silhouette. 

Also, if you have read a few self-help books, you might have noticed that the book cover has a lot of white and plain covers. The same goes for business books. You get the point – there is a particular aesthetic that is built around these genres, with the primary objective being to create recognition.

So, if you want to sell more copies of your book – make sure to keep in mind the appropriateness of the book cover. 

Typography

Another aspect to focus on when it comes to designing your book cover is the typography. Now, this might be quite obvious – but – it is worth-mentioning that typography is the common denominator amongst all books. 

In order for your book to sell and communicate what the book is and who it is by – it needs to have typography on it. In fact, you might have noticed that some book covers simply have typography on them as there is no other imagery, and there might be a few different colors – but – typography is the primary purpose of such books.

Here is the thing – if you are a self-published author and you want to fit in, communicate, and actually sell your book – you need to have your author name and the book title on the cover, as this is absolutely essential. 

Imagery

Imagery is another thing to consider when designing your book cover. On a similar note, typography needs to be appropriate to the genre and brand – the imagery needs to be appropriate as well. You have a few options when it comes to imagery.

For instance, you have the option of using photography, which can be a stock photo or it could be a photo that has been custom-made for your book cover. Similarly, you have the option of using illustrations – or – you could simply let the typography speak for itself instead of having any particular imagery. 

If your book is about real people – you can consider photography. The kind of imagery that you choose also depends on the tone of your book. So, if you have written a romance – illustration might be a great option for your book cover.

The Takeaway

Now you know why your book might not be making as much sales as you might have originally expected. You might have written a brilliant book with an amazing book idea for your ideal readers – but it might not be selling because of the book cover. On the safe side, you should hire a professional book cover designer who knows how to make your book stand out in the crowd of other books – because – believe it or not people are going to judge your book based on its cover.