They say a picture paints a thousand words, and that is definitely true when it comes to the cover of a book. The design of your cover has the ability to make or break your book. You want your cover to be able to reflect the main themes of your book, and attract new readers to take a look at what’s inside. If you are hiring a designer to create your cover then you can come up with some of your own ideas on what it should look like, so that the designer has a clearer picture of what you are looking for. This article provides some simple steps that will help you to create your perfect book cover in no time at all.

Begin by Brainstorming

So you have finished your book, and now you are ready to start working on your cover. Your book will contain all of the clues that you need to create the perfect book cover. To begin the design process, you can start by brainstorming some ideas. Take a large piece of paper, and in the centre of the paper write the title of your book. Now start writing down any words that describe the major themes in your book. If you could sum up your book in several sentences what would they be? If any images or symbols come into your mind then you can also sketch them onto the paper. Continue to work on this process until you have a full sheet of words, phrases and even sketches.

Your Book’s Image

Once you have finished brainstorming you can start to think about what type of image you want for your book. You can refer to your brainstorming sheet for ideas. Another good place to look for inspiration is on photo sites, such as Shutterstock. You can type in keywords and browse through some of the images available. Think about the colours, the mood of the image, and what it represents to people. Obviously you don’t have to choose the exact image you want, as a designer or illustrator will either be able to create a new illustration for you, or help you in selecting an image, but it is helpful to give them an idea of what you have in mind.

Text and Style

What text do you want to be displayed on the cover of the book? In most cases this is just the title of the book and the author name, but you can also include additional information such as tagline or part of a great review. The text font should complement the book cover image.

The Perfect Designer

Now you are ready to find a great book cover designer who will be able to bring together all of your ideas to create a perfect cover. Always ask to look at a designer’s portfolio of work, to see that their work is in keeping with the style that you would like. Also make sure that they will be in contact with you throughout the design process, so that the cover is made to your requirements.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source

Nouvelle Hollande is a voracious reader and has a whole host of classic English literature books in his library. He proclaims that this habbit of reading was cultivated in him by his father at a very young age. The result of that is that today he has his own website by the name of Meanjin. An avid art follower he still remembers his early days of creating a book cover for himself  and has shared his opinions on the topic through this post.