Why Your Book Cover is Your Best Marketing Tool

Your book cover is your most essential marketing tool. It’s right up there with your story and your back cover blurb in importance. A book cover’s singular goal is to attract readers to your book and make them want to pick it up.

The book cover needs to convey the book’s

1. Genre or sub-genre
2. Location
3. Tone of the book
4. Possibly the main character(s)

Think of it like a movie poster for your book. It needs to be attention grabbing and professional looking.

You, as the author, might have a scene in your mind that you want to put on the cover. It’s an important part of the story and you feel it deserves to be front and center, right on your cover. However, that image might not communicate the genre and tone, which is the primary goal of a well-designed book cover.

Look at the covers of authors in your genre. What do their covers look like? What do you find attractive about them and why? While you do not want to copy a fellow writer’s cover, you do want the look and tone of your cover design to be comparable to what’s out there and selling well.

Cover Image.

The cover image reveals to the reader exactly what your genre is quicker than anything else. Romance and paranormal romance will typically have a bare-chested man or a couple on the front, posed in a sexy way.

Urban fantasy might show a single woman or man wielding their power, whether it’s a magic oracle or a weapon. Small town romance or beach romance will most likely show a cottage on the lake or couple on a dock. A western will have a cowboy or cowgirl.

You get the idea. It’s not rocket science, but it is important to choose an image that will quickly and effectively communicate what your story is about.

Fans of certain genres or sub-genres are looking for their next book and they have expectations for the cover being stylistically similar to what they’ve just read.

Cover Design.

Stock imagery is one popular way to find cover images, but just as there are millions of stock images out there, there are many ways to purchase cover art.

One of the least expensive ways to create a book cover is to purchase a pre-made cover. These are a fraction of the cost of hiring a designer and some are very nice. However, you can’t control whether another author will pick the same book cover as you, so it might not be unique to you.

Want a one-of-a-kind cover? Then you might want to consider hiring a cover artist that can do photo manipulation might be the way to go. Or if you prefer an illustrative design—the style that is popular with many romantic comedies and women’s literary fiction—you may want to enlist the help of a professional illustrator. Illustrators can be expensive but there are websites like Fiverr or 99Designs, where you can find artists to develop one-of-a-kind artwork at a relatively low cost.

If all of this seems overwhelming, don’t worry. Cover art is, well, an art form, and there are professionals to help you along the way. It’s important to remember as you work with a designer to communicate your needs and ideas clearly and don’t settle for something that feels off or not true to your author brand.

Branding.

Branding is something you should think about early on, before you even publish your first book. Your covers should look related and cohesive, like they belong together and are unique only to you, and they should convey your author brand immediately. It’s important to hire a cover artist that understands branding and will make sure that your cover designs reflect that perfectly and professionally.

The first way that you ensure that branding is spot on, is to pick cover art that is similar in style and tonal quality. For a series, the artwork should be cohesive in color as well, especially if part of a series.

Next, the cropping of the artwork should be consistent. If one cover has a closely cropped image, then the rest of the books should as well.

The title font should be the same, especially when part of a series. The placement, spacing and style of the title should be consistent across each book in the series.

The font for your author name, your “logotype”, should be the same for every book you produce. In fact, all your media should reflect your brand in your banners, cover post, and ads. Even if you’re already published, you can still create a brand and redo some of your book covers. Consider creating a logo that denotes your brand.

An exception to both the title and author font rule is this: If you write across genres or are using a pseudonym, you probably want to change it up.

Author Examples.

Literary romance author Jennifer Weiner‘s covers are not part of a series, but the cohesiveness of the artwork, colors, fonts and placement tell you in an instant that Jennifer wrote these.

The branding for Leigh Bardugo’s young adult fantasy trilogy, Shadow and Bone is perfect.

The title font, style and placement for each book is the same, as is the author logotype and the placement of each element. The artwork of the deer, snake and phoenix are similar in style and the only thing differentiating each book in the series are the colors of the art and title. Even if the author’s name was missing from the bottom, we would clearly recognize that this a Leigh Bardugo book.

Paranormal romance author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Blood and Ash series are a perfect example of great branding and cover art. The art work is consistent — black, gray, red and yellow and always shows a knife and arrow. The title font looks like metallic silver and has a drop shadow. The author’s name is the same font and size and in the same place every single time.

Some other things to consider.

You should work with an artist that uses commercial use art, if they are not creating the artwork themselves. If there is a fee for an extended license it’s important to make sure that you pay it so you are covered. Typically this will run about $75 – $100 per image.

A good cover designer will work with you in selecting artwork and fonts and give you a few different designs to choose from. It might take several tries to find a good match and several iterations on a cover before you are happy.

A true professional will work with you, patiently, until you are completely satisfied.

Word of mouth is the best way to find a cover designer, or you can check the copyright page as some authors will put the name of the cover artist there. If you just fall in love with a cover, you might consider contacting the author directly to get the designer’s name.

Here are some of the covers I’ve designed recently for fellow MRW and GDRW authors, including my own historical mystery, The Lady in White, which will be self-published.

I’m proud to say that fellow GDRW author Linda Bradley’s Unbranded won a cover award from Author Shout’s Cover Wars.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss your next book’s cover, please contact me.

As a graphic artist, author and former marketing executive, book cover design blends many of my passions perfectly in one creative space.