Cover Design Calypso--Part I

By:  Kimberly Hitchens is the founder and owner of Booknook.biz, an ebook production company that has produced books for over 750 authors and imprints.

T'was the Night Before Christmas....this week, co-blogger Marlyn Beebe is taking my usual Tuesday spot, as she wants to say something more "Christmas-y," and me, being the Scrooge that I am, (pre-ghosts), intend to rerun a post from my own website (www.Booknook.biz), dealing with cover design.  I'll be back in two weeks on my regular Tuesday!  In the meantime, here is the original Cover Design Calypso, from April of 2011.  I've added some new bits at the end--and have a link to a little-known gem for those of you on a budget with regard to your cover design. 

Everything I ever needed to know about Book Cover Design, I learned in the frozen food aisle of the supermarket...

What makes a great book cover?

Is it color? Is it blurbs from famous authors? Is it just luck? I wish I knew.
Like pornography, I know a great book cover design when I see it, but I can't tell you why it is fantastic, particularly, other than WOW! What a great book cover . It's something that grabs me when I see it. Sadly, it's not like a Chinese menu...one from column A, one from column B, when it comes to cover design.

I do know, though, that I have learned a shocking lesson in this business. Being an avid reader, I of course always assumed that it was what was inside the covers that sold books. But I've learnt otherwise; great covers do sell books, even those with less-than-stellar stories inside of them. And in thinking about it, I realized that I already knew why these books were selling; it's something I learned years ago, when I was ill and had to cruise the aisles of the dreaded "TV Dinner" section of the supermarket. And here's the horrible truth:

People buy frozen dinners based not upon the actual content of the bag or box or TV-Dinner-Tray, but, rather, based upon which company has put the best picture on the cover of the box.

Let me say that again, in case you missed it: When you go to the supermarket frozen-food aisle, and get ready to try something you haven't had before, you will almost always buy the brand with the best-looking image of the food. The brand with the prettiest picture, in other words.

We humans are visual creatures. We're sight-hounds on two legs. This works on television; it works in movies; it works in advertising...and it works for book covers. So keep this in mind when you are preparing your next cover--think of crows, and bright, pretty things.

That was the end of the original post.  In the 20 months since I wrote it, there have been a ton of books through Booknook.biz, and that fact is truer now than ever before--if you have very little money to spend, if you must, forgo the formatting (DIY) and pay for a great cover designer.  I've also learned this lesson:  a great cover is not a busy cover.  There are, in fact, no "great" busy covers.  As I said in my sequel to this post--the first post I ever made here at Crime Fiction Collective, authors frequently err on the side of attempting to tell the entire story on the cover, and end up with a muddled mess. 

Your book cover is not an IMAX screen.  Your saga should not roll across the cover as if it is.  The best and most glorious covers have one single, strong graphic element. Your color selections should be powerful and vivid.  The cover doesn't even necessarily have to do anything with your actual story--it simply needs to evoke a strong emotion, and a desire to OPEN IT and see what's inside. 

But I'm on a Budget!

Many authors are scraping by, and can't afford the $150-$200 (average price) for a custom-designed cover.  What to do?  One of the little-known trade secrets are "pre-made covers."  Yes, I said "pre-made."  Unlike used cars, someone else didn't use this before you; what  a pre-made cover represents is a cover designer that was bored, and made some up on a weekend!  His boredom is your gain--you can buy the cover, have the text changed to match your title, and your author name, and VOILA!  For as little as $30, you have a professionally-designed cover that does not look like the dog's breakfast.  Now, of course, you need to peruse these pre-made covers carefully; some places that offer them are, well, let's say you'd do better with a crayon.  But one such place does exist, that I've Pinned on Pinterest and even Tweeted about, and that's Go On Write, at http://www.goonwrite.com.  If you're pinching those pennies--and every publisher should--cruise on over there and check 'em out!  Save some shekels!

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And to all the kind people who drop by and read me, from time to time....Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!--Hitch

Cover Design Calypso, Part II

by:  Kimberly Hitchens is the founder and owner of Booknook.biz, an ebook production company that has produced books for over 500 authors and imprints. 

Some months back—heavens, in April—I wrote a post on my own website (www.booknook.biz) entitled “Cover Design Calypso,” in which I discussed “what makes a great book cover?” 

At the time, I likened it both to pornography (“I can’t define a great cover but I know it when I see it”) and to frozen dinners (“People buy frozen dinners based not upon the actual content of the bag or box or TV-Dinner-Tray, but, rather, based upon which company has put the best picture on the cover of the box.”)  In other words, as painful as it is to those of us who believe that the words rule the book and its world, the truth is that covers, absolutely, irrefutably and indisputably, sell books--particularly eBooks. 

So, having accepted that shocking truth, how do we mine for great cover design? 

It’s been my experience that authors, in general, envision their book covers as if they are watching a movie in an IMAX™ theater…a grand rolling epic, sprawled across a massive screen, with THX sound, telling the awesomeness contained within.  Or, even when considering space, thinking of it on an 8½x11” sheet of paper.  But the reality is that 99% of the viewing (and buying!) public will only see your book cover the same size that it is displayed on Amazon.com, (or Barnes & Noble) which is a whopping 88x135px (1.2 inches by 1.88 inches), or on the book page itself, a whopping 160x240px (1.75 inches by 2.5 inches).  That’s not a lot of real estate in which to grab someone’s attention and hold it. 

So, what to do?  Remember THIS:  one, single, strong central element.  Don’t make a cover too busy, and don’t try to tell your entire story on its tiny little face—that’s what the book is for, to tell the tale.  When you find yourself thinking, “I want a vampire and a heroine with a bloody neck and a knife and the magic cup and an amulet and a wolfpack in the background and…” JUST SAY NO.   A cover is supposed to catch the eye; to pique curiosity; to impart a feeling.  It needs to reach out to people and make them want to pick up that book (literally or metaphysically) and read it.  If you need to remind yourself what BAD cover design is, roll on over to Fixabook and check out both good and bad covers.  If that doesn’t convince you, simply tootle around Amazon.com, and find one—just ONE—busy cover that you love.  Can’t do it?  Remember that when your next cover comes around. 

Seth Godin, chatting it up at The Domino Project, has issuedbooks that have no title text whatsoever on the covers—neither title nor author name, although the spines have both—and argues that there are compelling reasons not to have either.  Of course, not everyone has the clout—or the hubris—to simply put their last name on the spine as a tell-all/signature/branding.  I don’t love his cover, myself; but Godin’s a guru, and what he says does carry weight.  Will your next book have text on its cover?

Lastly, on the topic of covers, just for fun:  this is a hoot.  I laughed my patooties off.    That's it for today, gang!