Designing the Graphics For Your Book Cover: 3 Top Tips
Electronic and on-demand publishing has made it possible for anyone to publish a book. If you want to write a novel, a memoir of your time spent abroad or a useful guide which will help others interested in a particular hobby, now you can. While your first concern may be the words which make up the text, once you have written your masterpiece, you will need to turn your attention to the cover of the book. Traditionally, a publishing house would have full control over the design of a book cover. However, if you are self-publishing, you get to design your own. Below is a guide which will help you to design the perfect cover for your book.
Evoke the right emotion
When considering the images and text you wish to use as part of the design of the book, you should carefully consider your audience. If you have written a teen vampire novel, you may wish to use a gothic typeface with an image of blood and sharp teeth set on a background. However, if you are producing a book about fly fishing, you may wish to use an image of a lake or a fishing rod on a tranquil blue background. Evoking the right emotions can help to attract the right kind of reader to your book. A graphic designer will be able to offer further advice.
Be careful of copyright laws
When looking for images for your book cover, it is important that you do not fall foul of copyright law. When a person paints a painting or takes a photograph, they automatically have the rights to that image. If you wish to use the image, you will typically need the permission of the person who controls the rights to the image. If you do not do so, and you use the image, you could face legal action. You may have to pay a fee for the rights to use an image. Graphic designers will often have banks of stock images to which they control the rights.
Test multiple designs
If you were publishing with a traditional publisher, you would end up with boxes of books which all feature the same cover. If you discover that this cover doesn't appeal to your target audience, you will have a problem. However, the beauty of e-book and on-demand publishing is that you can test out multiple cover designs to see what works best. When designing your cover, you should play around with the configuration of images, colours and typeface. You should try out these different designs over a period of time and see if one particular design performs better than all the rest.
If you would like further advice about designing your book cover, you should contact a graphic design company.