What is Your Cover Saying? – 4 Keys to Quality Cover Design
Adapted from “Clean Fantasy and Boring Cover Syndrome,” originally published Nov. 28, 2017
Since subscribing to a number of clean fantasy authors’ newsletters, I’ve come across a disappointing trend. A lot of clean fantasy books have really unimpressive covers. The same is often true of indie authors, as a whole. You know the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover,” and that’s great in principle, but when it comes to books, readers really do judge books by their covers. As a reader myself I can attest to this. Heck, it’s why I’m writing this post.
The fact is, that’s not a bad thing. Cover art should communicate, and part of the weakness of a lot of clean fantasy and indie covers is that they’re communicating poorly–whether they’re communicating something undesirable about the quality of the book or they’re simply communicating something incorrect about the story inside. (Genre conventions matter in cover design!)
Here are some ways you can be mindful of whether or not your book cover is communicating effectively, and aim for a design that accurately represents your book.
*This post contains affiliate links, marked with an asterisk, which means that purchases made through those links earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Have Some Knowledge of Design
You don’t need to be a graphic designer in order to get a good cover; that’s what cover designers are for. But you should have some understanding of basic design principles, on some level, or you’re not going to be able to discern between what is really a good cover design and what’s not–or how to tweak a design draft–when you’re selecting and working with a cover designer. You should understand what colors complement one another, how much contrast is needed, appropriate proportions and alignment for both images and text, how much “white space” is necessary to keep a design from looking cluttered, etc.
If you’re an indie on a low budget and you’re determined to make your own cover, this becomes even more important and you need to invest even more time in learning and understanding the principles of design so that your cover doesn’t look “homemade.” You’ll also want to invest in high-quality design elements (images and fonts) and good photo editing software (I recommend Affinity Photo). For in-depth but affordable design courses, consider taking a look at Coursera*.
Have Some Knowledge of Cover Design
Cover design is built on the basic fundamentals of graphic design as a whole, but there are certain considerations that are unique to cover design. For example, you will need to be aware of how legible your title font is at thumbnail size when readers are scrolling through Amazon search results. You’ll also need to be aware of how well your cover prints when you get a proof copy; make sure nothing comes out pixelated, the colors are still complementary, all of the text is legible, etc.
Be Aware of Genre Conventions
As a part of understanding cover design, specifically, you need to understand the genre conventions of covers. Urban fantasy covers have a particular “look” distinct from the epic fantasy “look,” distinct from the space opera “look,” distinct from the cozy romance “look,” and so on. If you’re not sure what your genre tends to look like in terms of cover design, take a look at your sub-genre on Amazon and take note of the commonalities in design choices.
Do not underestimate the importance of this step. I’ve seen clean romance books that I skimmed over because their covers didn’t communicate “clean” to me; I’ve seen urban fantasy authors rebrand their covers to look more like generic fantasy covers that would draw me in only to disappoint me when I read the urban fantasy blurb. Make sure that you’re appealing to (and repelling) the right readers. If a reader likes fantasy but not urban fantasy, appealing to them with a plain fantasy cover isn’t going to make them more likely to read your book; it’s only more likely to make them frustrated with you.
Know What Your Cover Communicates
Everything about your cover communicates–your color scheme, font choice, imagery selection, etc. It’s your job, as the author who knows the story inside, to ensure that the cover you choose (or design) is communicating what you want it to communicate about your book, to the right readers, and in a cohesive manner. If your color scheme and overall imagery say “dark fantasy” but your font choice says “cozy,” potential readers are likely to be confused; cohesion matters.
Make sure your cover communicates the genre, tone, and general content of your story, and that it does so in a way that makes sense to and appeals to your readers. A really simple way to do this (though not necessarily an easy thing) is to look at your cover as a reader and ask yourself what you would assume of the contents (and quality) of the book based on the cover alone. Would it draw you in? Would you overlook it as shoddily made? Would it tell you the general tone and topic of the book? Or would you be confused as to what the book is about?
I love finding good clean fantasy and indie books. While decreasingly rare, they can still be hard to find amidst the not-“clean” fantasy and unpolished indie books. We need more independent authors who understand how to step into the reader’s shoes and think about whether or not the cover they’ve chosen will draw someone’s attention or if it will just be overlooked on the bookshelf or as a reader is scrolling through Amazon/Goodreads.
If your goal as a clean fantasy author is to bless your readers with something they can easily trust to not have sex scenes or language or whatever else we don’t want to read–or even if you’re just an indie author whose goal is to bless readers with something unique that didn’t have to pass through corporate gatekeepers to get in their hands–bless them by making your book stand out on a shelf, too, so that they can actually find it to read it. There may be some fabulously written books out there that readers will never know are fabulously written because the cover doesn’t make them interested enough to even look.
Now, this is not to say that all clean fantasy or indie books have boring covers. I know several authors who write indie and/or clean books and have wonderful covers (Miranda Marie, Abbie Emmons, C.G. Drews, Brooke Riley…), but it appears to be a general rule that clean fantasy has dull covers and indie covers are very hit-or-miss.
As a reader and author of clean and indie fantasy, I just want to ask a simple favor of any other indie authors out there: Please pay attention to your covers. Please put effort into them. The Book Cover Designer has fairly affordable pre-made covers, if you want to start there. 99Designs has been great for custom covers, in my experience. Whether you find something pre-made or get something custom made, give thought to your cover and understand what makes a cover work so that you can ensure that your own covers do the work you want (and need) them to do.
Readers, what is your biggest turn-off in book covers?
Indie authors, what is your biggest challenge in finding/designing quality covers?
Comment below!
Want to self-publish as professionally as possible? Sign up to my newsletter to download the self-publishing checklist!
One thought on “What is Your Cover Saying? – 4 Keys to Quality Cover Design”