One deciding factor in making a book a best-seller—out of the thousands available at a bookstore—is its cover.

For any book, its cover design makes the first impression on readers. Some classics have iconic covers which remain unchanged over the years, even in their reprints. Take, for instance, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The iconic covers of these books are etched in our minds just like their underlying story and characters.



The art that graces your book cover can lure the readers into buying it. It leads readers to your pages because of its role as an emissary, and it also serves as an essential marketing tool. Where do you find the right designer? How do you give them the exact brief about what you want? For that, you must be well-versed in what the ingredients of a fabulous cover design are.

Let’s get straight to it.



A riveting title for the book

Your title must be cleverly devised. It’s the one quick to read and easy to remember. If you could place yourself in the reader’s shoes before you finalize on the title, it will give you a better idea of what it should be.

You must carefully finalize the typography, color, and graphics to create a kind of communicative imagery for your book cover.



An evocative subtitle

Provide additional information about your book through a clear line that complements the book title.

Subtitles are very important for fiction books. It’s an excellent way to attract the attention of the readers by giving them a short glimpse of what they’ll find between the covers. It takes much less time to read than the description and immediately draws them in.

The text of the title should be smaller than the title and placed under the title itself or under the image.



If you’re going for an ebook, keywords could be added to this line to make the book more search friendly on the web.



Interesting typography

Readers are going to read the same font throughout the book. It can be refreshing to see a cover branded with an exclusive and relatable font as they open or close the book, which coveys the tone and the content you’re aiming for.



Cover design and layout

There are endless ways you can think about and experiment with designing the cover of your book. The front cover is an artistic blend of all the elements mentioned above. It’s up to the designer to understand the crux of your book and create figurative imagery to create a powerful book cover. There is immense scope for experimenting with and using minimalistic features, photography, an exclusive 3D cover design, or vibrant colors.



The best covers effectively manage to give book browsers an idea of the book’s plot, themes, tone, and genre without revealing too much.

Endorsements and reviews

“Blurbs”, as they are called, go on the front and back of the cover. If you can get major newspapers or other prominent authors to go through and comment on your work, it can be used as social proof to validate the worthiness of the book.



This part is especially rewarding for printed books when you don’t have scores of reviews readily available. The longer ones should be on the back of the cover, and the shorter, more impactful ones can be on on the front in quotes.

Author Bio

One might think as they start reading, “Who’s written this for me?” Readers love to know more about the authors. Use this section to familiarize readers with your persona. Mention a little something about yourself and your latest accomplishments. You can include your website details or blog address which can further acquaint them with you if their curiosity is piqued.

Spine

If your book is not an extensively marketed one that’s stacked tall at the entrance of a bookstore, it will be found sharing space in a bookshelf with its genre rivals with only its spine to display. So, you want a spine that is striking. It must be cohesive with the design and theme of the cover. It shouldn’t be too gaudy but should catch potential readers’ eyes. The choice of text is particularly crucial. Bold, simple text is the most fitting for any genre. Remember, the spine of a book only needs the title, the author’s name, and maybe the logo of your publishing company, space-permitting.



So that’s everything that goes into making an attractive book cover. The cover designers here at PaperTrue combine all these elements into gobsmackingly clever ideas to create the perfect cover design to make your new book ready to dazzle in bookshelves or in thumbnails.