An Insight on The Need For a Good Book Cover Design

The best book cover designs might be considered best for a number of reasons, and not all of these are design-related. Strength Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath, published by Gallup Press, does not particularly stand out for its dynamic, unique treatment or it its artful illustration. There are no illustrative elements, no photographs, nor is there any use of calligraphy. A simple, medium-sized, red, sans-serif typeface is used for the title, centered on the page. As of today, the book has remained on The New York Times Bestseller List for 1722 days.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, published by Scribner, utilizes simple, sans-serif type against a pale blue background, but includes a small illustrative element "a small child whispering into another child’s ear"centered on the page. This book has remained on The New York Times Bestseller List for 1946 days.

The author and the topic are certainly compelling reasons for the popularity of a book and its sales, but it is often the dynamic of the book covers designs that first place the book into the hands of a potential reader. A designer of book covers must always keep this point in clear view. The design is not meant or required to stand on its own, but to define, enhance and make accessible the product to which it is applied. The best book cover designs often manage to serve both design and commerce, but their primary purpose is to convey information and attract attention to the book.

Several book cover designs come to mind from the past year that are worth looking at because they are unique, and, well, brilliant. Vault, by David Rose, designed by David Pearson for Salt Publishing is a beautiful representation of type alone as a powerful visual illustration.

The Waves, by Virginia Woolf, designed by Coralie Bickford Smith, is a cover that could as easily lend itself to being matted, framed and hung in the living room. The bold swashes of color, the sense of movement and dynamic, are highlights of many of the best modern paintings, and in this case highlights of the work of a very talented designer of book covers.

The design for the cover of Oceana by Ted Danson with Michael D’Orso, designed by Paul Kepler for Rodale Books, is simple, elegiac and elegant.

These all deserve mention in any discussion of the best book cover designs for this past year, and all would serve well as creative inspiration for your research on book covers designs. They are diverse and unique, but above all, they are well considered and each executed by a fine designer of book covers.

It is worth the effort to compile and regularly update a tearsheet file of cover designs that have caught your attention, to use as a source file for your next project, whether you are the writer, the designer, or both. Remaining exposed to the best work, as well as the most successful, will give you balance and focus for your book projects.

Beautiful Book Covers attract the Readers!

There is a famous epitome, “don’t judge a book by its cover” but the bitter truth of the industry is that people do judge the book from its cover only since it is the cover of the book that attracts the readers first and leads to its selection in a bookstore. For example, if your book coverer is not exciting or it has nothing to show as a glimpse of the inside content, it will most likely fall flat attracting the customers that will result into the degradation of your book sales.

The E-book cover design is something that determines the general feel of the book. It gives the good glimpse to the readers about what they might get within the pages. In the lack of an appealing cover art, however inspiring story you may right, it will not get the expected attention, it truly deserves. It will just accumulate dust standing in the bookshelf. Book cover art is something that compels the readers to eventually buy a book and begin to read it.

In order to identify a quality book cover that actually incites the readers, you need to keep the TRAIL formula in mind. TRAIL literally stands for the Tone, Relevance, Attraction, Interest and Legibility

 Tone:

The most essential element of a cover design is its tone. The tone is actually the vibe a reader gets by just having a bird’s eye view at the cover. Hence, the tone of the book must be exciting enough so that it may capture the attention of the readers and leave the lasting impact. The tone is determined through the harmony of hues and the balance of fonts with space on the cover.

Relevance:

The relevance of a cover design refers to the story of the book and. There are various ways to kept e cover art relevant without being obvious. Relevance is generated through playing on interesting locations, exploiting deep emotion and exacerbating prominent character traits expressed in the book without giving away the story. 

 Attraction:

Attraction simply stands for attracting the readers towards buying a book to begin with. An attractiv design can simply be created by hiring the professional designer which is the key in having your book noticed amongst a sea of limitless options.

Interest:

Cover design should be like that which can capture the best interest of the readers in order to be sold like a hot cake. Interesting cover designs help your book stand apart of the million other books. You can do this by using fascinating fonts and creating unique images.

Legibility:

Though legibility seems the most significant thing for a book, it is often ignored especially when it comes to e-book covers. You need to be sure that the book title and the author's name are mentioned clearly on the cover so that the readers may easily pick the book of their choice.

Keep the formula of TRAIL in mind and get a good book cover designed for your hard written book!