How To Create A Great Book Cover

Hi guys, welcome back! It’s hard to believe it’s already December 20th. We’re only 5 days away from Christmas and 12 days away from the New Year! In case you missed last week’s video, I mentioned that I will be revealing the cover for the final book in THE ALPHA DRIVE trilogy, RESTITUTION. But before we do that, I want to talk about what makes a good book cover and give some advice before paying a cover designer to round up your first draft. If you’d rather watch the video on this topic, feel free to click play below. Otherwise, read on!


1. The first tip is to remember the theme of your book or series. Is it good versus evil? Individual vs. society? Love vs. hate? No matter what the theme is, you need to make sure it’s reflected in the cover of your book, otherwise when a reader goes to pick it up, they may be disheartened or confused because what’s written on the inside doesn’t match what’s portrayed on the outside.
2. In conjunction with the first tip, consider the tone or mood of your story. Is your book a mystery? A horror novel? A comedy? Erotica? I think we can agree that these genres are all very different from one another, and would likely have very different book covers. Just like a movie poster, your cover must set the mood or tone for what you’re trying to sell the reader. Color can also play a key role in the tone or mood of your cover. For example, if you’re writing a contemporary romance novel, then you’ll probably stick with lighter, pastel colors, and the images on your book might be more abstract and “flowery” in a sense – whereas if you’re writing sci-fi, you may use darker, sharper colors and the images may be more specific to the events that occur in the book.
3. Consider focus. A cover should have a focal point. This is something you may be trying to draw attention to or something that you want to highlight to the reader. For example, on the cover of my second book, the focal point is clearly the two figures entering what appears to be a city, but it’s encased in an omega symbol. These are all hints and clues as to what’s going to happen in this book, as well as gives some indication as to what’s happening overall in the series.
4. Consider legibility and clarity. This is especially true if you’re going the ebook route. There are so many ebooks out there that don’t have clear or legible covers. And if someone is scrolling on Amazon, the cover images are small enough as it is, and they’re not going to take the time to click on it to get a better view, so you want to make sure your images are legible and clear in a small Amazon-ebook-sized photo. Here are some examples of photos that ARE NOT legible nor clear.
5. Consider image selection. This is where a lot of authors mess up. I would highly recommend hiring a cover designer to create your book cover for you. It’s an investment and expensive, but it’s well worth it. Your cover needs to be appealing which involves having the right images, proper fonts, and correct placing of it all in order to get your book to sell. Your job is to write the book, not to create the cover for it. So take the time to research cover designers and find one that fits the look you’re going for. If you’re in a rut, I highly recommend DamonZa. I’ve used them for all three of my covers for THE ALPHA DRIVE series, and I plan to use them for my dark fantasy series as well.
6. The last tip is to be consistent, and this especially goes for those of you writing a series. Consistency helps your branding. Think about how you’ve probably been able to spot certain authors’ books from 15 feet away – Stephen King? James Patterson? I can spot their covers immediately because they’ve branded themselves properly. They are consistent with their book covers, you should be too!
So there you have it, 6 tips to help you create a great cover for your book. If you enjoyed the content today, please thumbs up and subscribe to my channel.
As promised, it’s time for the big reveal. In just a few moments, I will be revealing the cover for the final installment in THE ALPHA DRIVE trilogy, RESTITUTION, as well as announcing the release date.
Drumroll please…

There it is! I am so happy with this cover because it truly encompasses everything I wanted this series to be and more. Make sure to mark your calendars because RESTITUTION will be released in just a few short months on April 4, 2017.
Don't forget to check out both THE ALPHA DRIVE and THE ORDER OF OMEGA on your way out. As always, I will see you in the next post!!




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