Five top mistakes when self-publishing book covers

Joann Schissel  
Book cover advice from a graphic designer and author

Five Top amateur mistakes when self-publishing book covers


A good cover design is essential in creating interest in your book. Readers take an average of a couple seconds to deem your cover worthy of their interest. It must catch the reader’s eye amongst an ocean of others waiting to be chosen.

I’ve seen many social media and forum posts about this topic and wanted to offer my opinion based on my decades of experience as a graphic designer. In my employment years, I produced hundreds of covers for magazines, catalogs, and more. Writing fiction came later after I retired. Since this topic is so broad, I will focus on a few basics for any type of cover.

Gear your cover to your genre

There is a tricky balance between standing out and fitting in. The last thing you want to do is confuse the buyer with mixed messages about your book. Research successful books in your genre. Create a Pinterest board or other collection of examples. Distill what your book is about and make the design unique. Just because you personally like bright, flowery images doesn’t mean it will work for your gothic horror novel.

Use image-appropriate visuals

Unless you’re going for a mixed-media collage look, avoid combining photos and drawings together. Images should blend into a cohesive, unified theme using the same style. Disparate elements stitched together haphazardly will immediately scream amateur. The best covers will have a focal point — an area that immediately draws the eye in to linger and capture attention. In many cases, this may simply be a clever way typography is used with no images at all.

Readable at various sizes

A common mistake I see often is a cover that looks fine at the actual book size but gets lost when reduced to a thumbnail. The book title should be easily read even when the cover is only an inch big. This can happen with poor typography choices and/or variations in background-foreground contrast. Script fonts are especially prone to this due to the nature of their ornate and thin lines. Images with a mix of light and dark areas in the background can obscure parts, or all, of the foreground text. Even in areas with a solid background color, if the overprinted text is too similar in tone, the lack of contrast will cause it to disappear.

Lack of technical knowledge

Commercial printing requires certain exact conditions to be met for a successful outcome of your published work. The printing press has different requirements than a digital eBook. These considerations include accurate size measurement, high resolution, color space for ink, bleeds, font licensing, and acceptable file types. Without getting into the exact details and terminology, be aware that knowing these things has a bit of a learning curve. Many DIY designers can be stymied and frustrated at this point.

Getting feedback

Many authors have made their cover or hired someone to make it, then seek feedback on forums or social media. Be aware that other authors, friends, or family aren’t always the best judges of what works in your situation. Hesitate to rely on opinions from someone who will never browse your section of the bookstore. Instead, consider using stakeholders like designers, marketers, booksellers, or potential/previous buyers. If anyone on CC would like an opinion about your cover, I’d be happy to offer my advice.

Visit my collaborative author website at www.BackroadsLiteraryReview.com

Fun exercise

When in the bookstore, look for covers with a figure or figures looking, walking, or running away with their back toward you. Once you see this motif, you’ll find it everywhere across genres.

13 Comments

Okycool

Great blog, thank you sharing :grin:!

Feb-26 at 00:11

Honzo

All sound advice. I worked as a graphic designer back in the day, before any significant amount of it was on the internet, but I saw all the same problems not just in book cover design but also in product and packaging design, and I still do. 8pt white type on a beige background? Really? And what’s really disturbing is that I don’t think amateurs have much to do with this- I mean what processed food company exec designs their own labels? It makes me wonder what they teach in all these design schools and mass-com programs. Understanding the difference between a thin black line on a white screen and a thin black line on a white page seems to be beyond most of the pros these days- if they even use black and white anymore. Designer-y color pallets with a narrow value range seem to be all the rage. Fine for your hip geometrics, but for the text on top of them?

Anyway, while I’m not sure how much really needs to be clear in a 1" image, I do think clarity and legibility is a top priority. If you’re writing fiction that fits neatly into an established genre, then proper genre styling is just as important, but sometimes the correct title structure will do all the work: Playing With The Doctor is clearly not a whodunnit or historical fiction.

An element you don’t mention is what might be called physio-psychological messaging. Structural elements like color schemes, contrast and geometry impact the viewer subliminally and stimulate different emotions and physical response. By itself, How To Train A Cowboy is pretty clearly a romance novel, but put the title in a bold, black sans serif font over a white circle on a dark red background… hmm…

Feb-26 at 00:54

Jacksavage

Houses seem to dominate thriller covers. It’s all same old, same old. Fuck knows why. What’s so thrilling about a creepy old house?

Or some dangerous image of a man with a gun.

Not sure on the gear towards your genre. On one hand I agree somewhat. On the other the classiest covers often don’t.

I have my own ideas for covers. Might require a few arguments with publishers and agents if I make it that far.
If self publishing, there won’t be a problem.

Feb-26 at 09:12

Elliestorm

there’s a great facebook group called the Indie Cover Project. Seen a lot of people get a lot of help in the group for covers and blurbs.

that being said, the biggest help is actually just pay a designer. Most writers do not have the photoshop skills or design skills to pull off a cover. Vast majority of self help covers I’ve seen in that group will probably never get noticed because they just don’t have the technical skills, design skills and most do not realise the learning curve of photoshop.

I can use photoshop quite competently (been a photographer for over fifteen years and won a few competitions and trophies for it. One of my photos is actually my banner on my profile) … I would still pay a cover designer to design my cover (if I don’t get a traditional contract and end up going self publishing route).

While I note that technical skills are mentioned here in the blog, they are in reference to physical printing, not photoshop. you also don’t mention image licencing or use of AI … AI must be declared on amazon now and there is no copyright on anything produced by AI. It can be tempting to go the cheap route … but you have to be aware AI is probably not a cheap route in the long run for covers. They will likely still need to be photoshopped, tidied up in other publishing software and that could be more expensive than just paying a reputable designer in the first instance.

a premade cover can be picked up quite cheap on Etsy. like $100-$150 US or something. Been a while since I looked. A custom one is about $500-$800 ish using stock images through a number of good websites. Then how long is a piece of string for custom art pricing. but ultimately you get what you pay for I think.

Feb-26 at 09:55

Vanschiz

Honzo,
Thanks for your insight. Design, in general, is a broad topic, and cover design specifically has so many considerations. I like your additional point about the physio-psychological messaging. That could be a whole other blog post.

Feb-26 at 12:02

Vanschiz

Elliestorm,
AI is going to be a huge topic in the design world, already is controversial.

Feb-26 at 12:07

Redredrose

One terrific blog! Thanks for posting. Plan to study what you’ve said more thoroughly.

Feb-26 at 12:58

Femac

SelfPubBookCovers and TheBookCoverDesigner both offer premade book covers and don’t allow AI.

Feb-26 at 14:28

Redredrose

Two questions:

  1. I have two book covers in a series with, more or less, the same design. The third in the series is coming out in a month. After that, I won’t have access to the SAME design for a fourth in the series, for which I’m currently developing the plot points. How can I get the same image (of the woman) and same font for that fourth book? (The book cover is currently my profile picture.) And what will it cost me?

  2. All three of my covers are designed for eBooks. Can I transfer those cover images for paperbacks, and if so, how? And how much will it cost?

Feb-26 at 17:01

Li1991

Where did you get it to start with, and how are you losing access? I’ve found cover designers are usually pretty good at letting you know what font they used and where the images came from if you ask. If it’s a stock photo, you should be able to license it yourself or tell your next designer where to get it from. Same for a font that costs money for commercial use - many cool fonts are available for free, however.

Most designers have an ‘ebook only’ price and a ‘ebook + paperback’ price. For a nice quality paperback, you’re probably best getting the designer who designed the ebook cover to do it - prices will vary hugely. Otherwise, if publishing through Amazon, I have used KDP’s cover creator to do a basic spine and back cover (this is free). Alternatively, you can download templates with the appropriate spine size for your book and make your back cover and spine in a program like GIMP or Photoshop.

Feb-26 at 22:16

Vanschiz

RedRedRose
Question 1: From your post description it reads like someone else has done your book covers. If that’s true and you like the results, try to work with that person for the fourth book to get the same images. You should look at the original agreement to see if there is a process to follow if you want the files only and a different production resource.
Question 2: Assuming the e-book covers were done correctly for that online use, you most likely should not use it for print. typically, E-books are low resolution and made in RGB color. A print version requires high resolution made in CMYK. Using the online version for print will produce weird colors and blurry/pixelated images. Also each version needs its own UPC on the back. Hope this helps.

Feb-26 at 22:35

Dougp

All good advice. I did one of my books with the two main characters as small silhouettes running away (professional graphics artist). I thought it turned out well, but I realize it’s a style you see on a million other books. Do you consider it to be worn out?

Feb-27 at 03:55

Vanschiz

Good question. My opinion is there is nothing inherently wrong with a figure walking away. It depends on how it works within the composition. This trope of imagery typically directs the reader to focus on the surrounding environment, instead of the character, in order to surmise the idea of the theme. The setting therefore elevates the world around the figure as the primary way to instill intrigue. I think one reason we see so much of this motif is because prevalent thought has been the figure leads the viewer into the story. We follow him/her/them into the scene. When I see this style of cover I think elements like plot or world, etc., will be the main expectation, not so much character importance.

Feb-27 at 15:13
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