5. Be Unique! (But Not Too Unique) This one goes back to our discussion on genre.You want your cover to convey your book's genre, but you should also push a little bit farther and give those readers a reason to pick your book out of that sea of samey covers. I’ll give a standout cover …
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On Book Covers: Part 4
4. Professionalism This is a pretty nebulous concept. In general, does it look like someone with thoughtfulness and skill designed this cover, or does it look like someone with no previous experience used a “make your cover” template? For those who are designing your own covers on a budget and don’t have access to fancy …
On Book Covers: Part 3
Today's lesson is on how to make that cover pop. 3. Visual Impact The human eye is naturally drawn to three things: movement, high contrast, and bright color. For a book cover, motion is out, but we have two tools left at our disposal. Contrast and color.Contrast: This is merely the level of difference between …
On Book Covers: Part 2
On to our second lesson on book cover design... 2. Genre Readers should be able to look at your cover and instantly know kind of story it is. Every genre has its cover conventions. Script font with two beautiful people in regency dress embracing on the cover? Historical romance. A dragon’s eye and a strong …
On Book Covers: Part 1
So where to begin our discussion of the 5 traits of good book covers? We'll start off with: 1. Clarity This concept is pretty simple. How easy is your cover to read? Readers should be able to determine your title in a fraction of a second. Make it prominent, give it high contrast, and make …
On Book Covers: Introduction
So I’m starting off this blog with a week of posts on one of my favorite topics: Book Covers! I love a good book cover. I basically have a crush on V.E. Schwab’s cover designer(s). Graphic design is my day job, and book design is particularly near and dear to my heart. If you’re thinking …
Down the rabbit hole.
Welcome to the launch of my new website! I hope you'll follow me for the sake of all the whimsical, wonderful words of wisdom I share. (And the alliteration, of course). So what can you expect from this blog? As well as the occasional writing craft post, I'll be sharing all the good, the bad, …
