“Never judge a book by its cover.”
Such a principle is time-honored, and one of many reasons why it’s important to know the essential steps to receive a mediocre cover design. But why just mediocre, you ask?
Shouldn’t I aspire for my cover to be the best it can be?
[tweetquote]Mediocre book covers are becoming the new norm in today’s market.[/tweetquote]
Oh, the book cover is not important. It’s what’s on the inside that matters. Instead, follow these simple, straightforward steps and your cover will begin to looking nice and bland in no time:
1. Don’t Hire a Professional
Professionals will give you advice and will steer you away from outdated trends and from your ideas which may not be best. Avoid them at all costs. Instead, find someone who shares your personal tastes and interests.
2. Micro-manage the Design Process
If you do have the severe misfortune of having a professional cover designer, know that they cannot be trusted. Be sure to tell him/her how to position each element and never let them have any room to go outside what you envision for the cover design. After all, it’s your book!
3. Have a Friend Create a Cover Design for Your Designer to Use
You may have a friend or relative you know who is pretty good with computers, or who has some experience with a design trade of some sort. If so, see if they can create a design for your cover designer to follow closely, or at least to add to what’s already been done. The more, the merrier!
4. Play it Safe
Change and originality can be dangerous. Look at other cover designs in the same genre and market of your book and find ones you like. Once you’ve picked your favorites, have your designer mold your cover to look just like them.
5. Pay Careful Attention to Feedback from Everyone But Your Cover Designer
Just like you can’t trust your dentist to tell you how to properly clean your teeth, you cannot trust cover designers to know what’s best for a cover design. Take polls, hold committee meetings, and find out what everyone (even your mailman) thinks about your book’s design. Just steer clear from designers or book marketing experts.
6. Pick Out All of Your Typefaces and Colors
This is your time to be creative. Scripts, sans-serifs, block type; pick whichever you think looks best. For your colors, consider the book cover your canvas. There are millions of colors to choose from, have an artistic spree!
7. Have Your Cover Designed, Just for You
Give no thought and pay no attention to what your readers would want your cover design to look like. Have many intricate details and images placed on your cover from your own personal experiences and ideas. The less someone can understand what the cover means, the more they will have to look further into the book to find out its meaning. After all, the content is what’s important!
Moving Forward
Hopefully this information has been helpful as you are now well on your way to having a cover design just like thousands of others out there. If you’re one of those individuals who want a unique and high-quality cover design, this article was probably not for you. Don’t worry, articles for your kind are on the way, stay tuned!
Ha! But want if I want an incredibly lousy book cover. Like the kind of epic design fail that gets posted to 10 worst book covers of 2014 lists?
Oh, how wonderfully sarcastic this article is! Seriously though, it is pretty damn funny. Kudos!
There are millions of colors to choose from, have an artistic spree!
When I first read the above sentence, I was getting ready to start in on you for using the word Autistic as an insult, then my eyes travelled over it again and I managed to read it properly second time around. Dyslexia really sucks sometimes.