6 Tips for Designing Effective Book Covers

• Does your book cover design matter for ebooks? 
Most potential readers of your ebook will first encounter it via an image – the book’s cover – rather than the wording. If that thumbnail doesn’t cause them to take a closer look at the accompanying text descriptions of your book, you are farther away from making a sale.

• Guidelines for creating an ebook cover 
People will judge your book by its cover. As humans are visually-oriented, the first thing a potential buyer of your book will spot on a web page is your cover; almost always the words come later. In addition, that cover typically will just be a thumbnail. Given this, there are several principles of ebook cover design you should follow.

• 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.

• Let bookstore buyers select your cover for you
You’ve got two or three mockups of your book cover but can’t decide which is best. Nor can your friends or author colleagues who you’ve shown the mockups to. If stuck, consider doing what bestselling author Tim Ferris does: He lets readers browsing in bookstores decide.