Epic Book Cover Fail…The Do’s and Dont’s of Designing Your Next Book Cover
If there’s one thing I love about my job, it’s being around books. As a librarian, I see tons of books everyday. Books by my favorite authors, books by authors I’ve never heard of. Every genre, kids, adults, teens, fiction and non-fiction. As an author, one of my favorite things to do is to study book covers and see if the cover matches the books description. Most times they do…
Sometimes they are an epic fail…
Such as this lovely gem…
Partial Cover Reveal:
Now, if you saw just this picture alone, what genre would you think this book represents? As a Romance and Women’s Fiction author, if I saw just this portion of the book cover, I’d think ROMANCE. My mind takes me to a tale of a night spent in bed with this cutie and being the one who woke up first, snapping pictures with my phones camera.
Was that your first impression?
Now, let me show you the ENTIRE cover….
Full Cover Reveal:
Surprised? Yep, this is a children’s book, an Early Reader to be exact. The purpose of this book is to help new readers learn to read words that feature the letter U. At this point, my first thought is that ‘Uncle Russ’ is supposed to be mommies new ‘friend’ as she helps her young child navigate reading words that start with the letter ‘U’.
And it gets better my friends, here are a few more pictures from inside the book:
Book picture
Full book insert
Book picture
Full book insert
There are so many things I’d like to say about my personal thoughts on how much the publisher screwed up with this picture choice for a children’s book, but I’ll hold them back. (Though I had my fellow librarians cracking up!) I’ll chalk this one up to being a Romance author who’s mind is probably in the gutter to some degree because of working on a love scene in my current WIP.
Instead, I’ll share this advice:
Authors, if you have the opportunity to have a say-so in what images will be found on the cover of your books, take into consideration exactly what will be on that cover. You have to put work into what message will be conveyed to potential readers.
Here are a few of my DO’s and DON’T’s when designing your next cover.
What genre will this book be listed in?
DO: Every genre has specific types of covers. Romance typically has images of couples in a loving embrace, while Erotic covers revele a lot of skin and sexually explicit poses. Women’s Fiction has thought provoking images that key in to the books themes. Thriller or Mystery often feature blood or broken images. Science Fiction has what else, images of planets or fantasy locations, creatures, etc.
DON’T: Do not take images of a bloody murder scene and use it on a Romance novel. Don’t use a vase of roses sitting on a table to depit the character in an Erotic Romance…that would give the impression of a Women’s Fiction novel and not an erotic tale of seduction.
What message about the characters/plot/setting do I want readers to key into?
DO: Select a key scene that will best represent your character(s) and try and recreate it. Readers enjoy looking at covers and being able to have a visual representation of what happened on the cover.
DON’T: Depict a random scene that has nothing to do with the character(s) or stories. Readers will pick up on this and it will make them think twice about reading more of your work.
Does this image accuretly represent my character(s)?
DO: If your character is depicted on your cover, make sure you provide an accurate description to your cover designer so that they can be sure to truely represent the them.
DON’T: Purchase images of people for your cover that look nothing like the physical description given in the story. This will turn readers off. No one wants to read about a heroine that is full-figured with big breasts and dark skin, only to look back at the cover and see a light skinned woman wearing a size 2. Epic. Cover. Fail.
About My Book Covers:
I write Women’s Fiction and my covers are symbolic, using images and color to represent the characters and their stories. The colors and the mood they represent set the tone of the story. The butterfly represents the female characters and the evelution that they experience during the course of the story. The images (guitar, laptop, truck, white picket fience) represent the male characters, their jobs/dreams. All of these things come together during the course of the story. To learn about my series, The Butterfly Memoris, follow this link!
Good luck selecting your next cover, and when in doubt, ask your beta readers who know your story for their advice. You’ll be glad you did!
Until next time…happy reading and writing!
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