You Judge a Book By Its Cover ... We all Do

Whether you want to admit to it or not, readers do judge a book by its cover. They walk down the aisles of the bookstore or browse through the ebook store looking for their next read and it’s the cover that catches their eye and makes them take a closer look at your book. They may read the blurb on the back, then take a look at the first chapter. If they’re entertained by all those factors then they’ll purchase the book. Any of those elements can make them put the book back and walk away. It’s all process of elimination for a reader.

Your cover must be eye-catching, if it isn’t they’ll move to the next book and so on down the line. If your cover catches their eye they might read the summary on the back, this must also grab their interest. Again, if it doesn’t they’ll move on. You can’t skimp on any of these details. You’ve put the work into writing the book then you must also put it into the packaging of the book to make it appealing to readers.

We’ve all taken a stroll down the book aisle, picked up a book because you liked the cover, then put it back because the summary was confusing, boring, or perhaps not as interesting as the cover made the book out to be. If any of your book’s elements are lacking then readers may bypass it. While all of this might not be fair to your book, it’s all about taking the time to make every element of your book attractive. If you write a phenomenal book then you must take the time to make your cover and summary the same.

Readers bypassed the first book of my Chosen series because of the cover. When I first had it done I loved it, but looking back I now realize it was too dark and the font used was a bad choice. My summary was a novella that sent people into dreamland.

Graphic design isn’t simple or easy. It takes practice. You must learn how to place images and text, to make things pleasing to the eye. You can’t slap the first image you find on there and call it a day. When creating a book jacket for print you’ll need the template from the publisher/printer, your image cannot be copywritten unless you’ve purchased the right to use it (like an image from a stock site), and you must make certain the image covers the entire book from front to back. Don’t puzzle things together unless you can make it appear as if it’s smooth all the way across without jarring inconsistencies that make it obvious you tried to force it to be one image. If an image abruptly cuts off it looks awkward.

Avoid awkwardly made covers, just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should. I can leap from a building, doesn’t mean I’d do it. You can slap two images together because you can’t find “that exact image you’d like”, doesn’t mean you should. And because your sister’s cousin’s aunt’s dog can draw it doesn’t mean you should have them draw your cover for you. There’s a difference between a professional artist and someone who creates what most designers like to call refrigerator art. A perfect reflection of their artistic skill, awesome enough to display on your fridge, but not professional enough for published work.

Before you decide on the final look of your cover go and take a stroll down the bookstore aisles for your genre and see what other authors have going on. Pick something that represents the genre of your book. Don’t do something bright and bubbly if your genre is dystopian. Likewise, if your book is romance, you don’t want dark and mysterious. Covers are as important to your book as the pages between them. It’s not a throwaway, don’t dismiss your cover art, put as much effort into it as you did in your writing. If you’re self-publishing you have control over the final look of your book, take pride in that. If you’re publishing traditionally you may have little to no input in the final look of your cover.

Think of the entire package when creating your book, because it is an entire package. As with any product, the packaging is important to attract your customers so they buy your product. That is why you need to consider how the final ‘packaging’ looks as a whole. You are the one who will lose if readers pass up your book, they lose nothing because they’ll find another book to buy.

Look at your book from every angle and take pride in the finished product. Make it the best it can be so your readers will be as excited about it as you are.