7 Tips for Designing Your Book Cover

• Design your book cover to attract attention
You can’t judge a book by a cover goes the old cliché, but the reality is that people literally do so all of the time. That’s why you’ll want to spend some time coming up with an attractive cover for your paperback book.

• Guidelines for designing your book’s front cover
Given that the most important part of your cover is its very front – as that’s what potential readers will see when they consider purchasing your book in a store or online – you’ll want to spend some time thinking about and working on it.

• How to select artwork for your book cover 
If your book were being handled by a mainstream publisher, you’d have little or even no say about how your front cover looks. In self-publishing, since you’re essentially doing all of the work of an editor, marketing department head, and the publisher, you get all the say. As most of us aren’t artists or marketing experts, we’re often at a loss where designing a good front cover is concerned.

• Use stock art to create cover inexpensively 
When creating a cover for your self-published book, you’ll probably need a single, striking photograph or illustration that draws in readers. Since you’re a writer, not a photographer or illustrator, this can pose a problem. Where will you get such an image? Purchasing stock art can be a low-cost effective solution.

• Great tips for taking a book cover photo  
If self-publishing your book, you may need to come up with a photo for your front cover. You can go about this in one of three ways: hire someone to design the cover for you and let that person look for the photo; purchase a photo, usually from an online stock photo provider; or take the photo yourself.

• Add tagline to boost interest in your book 
When designing your book cover, you may want to consider adding a tagline. A tagline is phrase or short sentence that aims to entice readers into reading the book or at least looking more at it by reading the blurb or a few pages.

• Attract attention by adding shout line to cover 
When designing your book cover, consider adding a shout line. A shout line is a compelling phrase or sentence that aims to intrigue the reader.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 350 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

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