If You Can't Tell a Book by Its Cover...

 

--- you have a real problem.  (By Susan Van Kirk)

I’ve had the good fortune to explore different methods of producing covers for my books. First, I collaborated with a friend on my teaching memoir with a strong idea of what I wanted. Second, I suggested some plot symbols to freelance cover artist Karen Phillips, and she carried it on from there on several of my Endurance mysteries. My third experience was when Level Best Books created my cover based on the actual content of the book. All three methods have produced amazing covers for my books.

 

Over the years, I’ve done some thinking about what good covers must do and have. It’s simple. Book covers catch the eyes of readers, tantalizing them so they have to buy your book. But you also need to play fair and make sure your covers reveal what the book is about. Each of my covers illustrates points about these very ideas.

 

The book cover can make or break sales for a book, depending on whether it catches readers’ eyes. Here are seven principles I’ve discovered when designing a book cover.

First, a book cover should reveal what is inside. Do not mislead the reader into thinking your book is one thing when, in fact, it is another. Often a cover will use symbols about the book content, as did my cover for The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks.) I had a very definite idea about the cover for this book. It was about the small high school where I taught for thirty-four years, and I imagined that readers would recognize high school yearbooks. It made sense to me to put my yearbooks from many of those years on the cover, along with the cartoon signature of Kurt Vonnegut. The longest chapter in the book concerns a censorship challenge to Vonnegut’s book, Breakfast of Champions. Darren Jackson, who was pursuing an advanced degree as a graphic artist at Bradley University back then, was a former college student of mine, and when I told him what I wanted on the cover, he produced it beautifully. My next-door neighbor, Jim DeYoung, took the photograph of the yearbooks in my living room. It was a cover on a budget. I still love it, and it represents what is in that memoir.

Second, a cover needs to be simple, without so much “stuff” that the reader gets lost. My first Endurance mystery, Three May Keep a Secret, is exactly that. Karen Phillips, freelance cover designer, created this cover when I told her that I thought fire was an important symbol. Then, there was a raven. She took it from there.

Third, the cover should be eye-catching. This is the cover for my second Endurance mystery, Marry in Haste. The photo of the house is an excellent choice because it plays a huge role in the story. The pictures of two women illustrate the two characters who lived 100 years apart, and whose stories are connected. Karen designed this cover also.

A fourth item to consider about a book cover is the font. Scribbly, loopy, difficult-to-read fonts will ruin the effect you’re trying to create. When I self-published a novella about my detective, TJ Sweeney, I again hired Karen Phillips. I live in the Midwest; she lives on the West Coast. I sent her a synopsis of the story, and we spoke on the phone about what we believed to be themes and symbols in the story. She created several covers, I chose one, and we made some minor changes. The font on this cover, as well as the others, is easy to read.

 

A fifth point: Make sure your cover will work as a thumbnail on a phone or e-reader. Karen’s cover for A Death at Tippitt Pond looks great on a kindle, a cellphone, or a paperback.

 

A sixth point, perfectly illustrated by this cover, is the concept of having the font “pop” out at the reader. All three of my Art Center Mysteries have the same font, and it pops out as if paint were used to write the titles. My editor at Level Best Books designed my covers for this trilogy. The backgrounds on the books look like canvas, and you almost want to touch them to see if they are.

 

Finally, a cover should be about the genre you’re writing while matching the tone and mood of your book. In my book, The Witch’s Child, Karen captured the atmosphere of the book while adding Skye, the cat, who is one of the characters in the story. As you can see from the title, it’s a book with a spooky story, and the cover shows that atmosphere.

 

So, readers and writers:  Which of these principles is the most important to you? What causes a book cover to stand out when you’re browsing?