Never Judge a Book By its Cover...But...

Just a bit of advice about book covers gathered along my literary journey.

Like it or not, readers do judge a book by its cover. That's why authors go into a book store and turn their covers face front.

A cover must capture the attention. That's elementary, but doing it is a bit more tricky. A lot more.

1) First of all, a cover needs to be simple. Cluttered covers confuse the eye and leaves a reader wondering what the heck the focus of the book is. Remember that the cover is not meant to be a visual summary of all the important elements of the book. Pick one or two. Or a single eye-catching scene perhaps. Make it dynamic, or give it meaning, or both. Leave a question in the readers' minds that they will want to answer by reading your blurb or flipping the pages, and ultimately buying it.

2)  Choose colors that will pop out visually. Don't use dull colors except as background. Up the contrast. Make the color wheel your friend. Using colors that are opposite on the color wheel will make your visuals  stand out.

3)  Mind the 30 foot rule. Does your book stand out even from 30 feet away (i.e. from the front of the store). This applies even in today's online age. When your cover is reduced to a thumbnail, can you tell what is on the book cover? Can you read the title and the author's name?

That last one is important. Make your fonts large enough that it can be read, even at a glance, at a distance, or as a small icon. Be careful not to bleed it into the visual elements. Don't be too 'cute' with your fonts. It just comes across as amateurish.

Don't just use simple black or white for your title. Make it more interesting. Use colors from your visual in order to tie it all together, or use the color wheel.

Try using all caps, all no-caps, enlarging the first letter, etc. The author name doesn't have to be the same font as the title, but try not using more than two.

4) Give the eyes a direction in order to give a cover more impact. Have the visual elements naturally flow in one, or at most two directions (that make sense). You can 'point' it to your title.

5) Make it unique, exciting, sexy. Guns, gals and explosions. They work for a reason. The cover is your first hook. Grab them by the...well, you know what I mean.

6) Try adding a tag line, but make it an interesting one. Look at movie posters for some great examples. My favorite is the one from Alien ("In space, no one can hear you scream...")

Hope that helps.