Book Cover Design Tips

This post is a part of Ebook specific cover design series.

There are three approaches to covers:
– ebook cover is a copy of a print edition,
– one cover is designed for both print and digital edition,
– a cover is designed for ebook only.

I’d like to focus on the last one as it creates much more possibilities than you would originally think of. And all this can happen if you just switch the perspective.

A different approach, free from constrains typical for print production – and taking into consideration circumstances typical for digital environment – can bring […]

The book cover is the first thing people see when they are browsing in bricks and mortar bookstores or online. It’s often the first impression people have of the book. While those books released by large publishing houses might have been pre-sold via reviews or the fact they have a celebrity author, few independently published books enjoy such benefits. For this reason, self-publishers have to be extra cautious when deciding on a cover design.

One thing to avoid “image desperation.” That’s when a novice publisher is so desperate to have an image, any image, that he or she will “make […]

Book covers are important marketing tools for publishers. It’s difficult to gauge actual sales made on cover design alone, but there have been numerous anecdotal stories from major publishers that clearly demonstrate the impact a strong cover design can have.

Penguin discovered the power of the cover in the late ’90s when the company hired several graphic artists to design new covers for its Modern Classics series. The experiment proved a huge success with the under 25 demographic. Sales soared.

In the March, 2006, meeting of the Association of American Publishers, Marcella Smith, director of small press relations for Barnes […]