Article written by Ashleigh Lowry (literature) and Caitlyn Saliba (visual art).
We’re all told “don’t judge a book by its cover” right? But isn’t that what we all do?
Traditionally published book covers are produced by the publishing company. Many self-published books have outsourced artists. Some artists even draw their cover designs first and then scan them and graphically edit on computer, which has a very unique look. So why go through all this trouble of getting a cover perfect? Well, today, Ashleigh Lowry and Caitlyn Saliba are going to tell you why.
Covers are the initial point of contact between customers and the sale of the book. Many people decide if they will take a look or buy a book by the colours, cover picture and title font. Certain colours, images and scenes can weight for or against a reader decision in purchasing a book or not. Certain colours, images and scenes also help to elicit emotions from the potential reader, pushing them towards buying and also foreshadowing what occurs in the book’s contents.
People pick books through a number of different criteria. One of which is, of course, the cover. Changing the covers with new editions keeps novels current. As the reader community grows and develops with trends, book covers follow, which keeps them current and topical for a longer amount of time. Another is the back blurb about the book, reading the small description of the book or excerpt allows people to feel out the book and see if it is a style of novel that they may enjoy. One major criteria is friend, family or other recommendations. This can work both for and against a novel. Covers and recommendations sometimes can oppose each other for a reader, if one is a positive for a reader the other can be a negative. Which means more to a reader is a personal thing and each will be different.
So how can you find the best person to create a cover? Well, as previously stated, if you get published traditionally, it is most likely that your book cover will be provided for you. However, if you aren’t publishing traditionally, so if you’re self-publishing or going through indie publishing, there are many places where you can find people to create these for you. On the other hand, if you’re more artistic, you can do this all yourself. For those of you who aren’t very artistically inclined, you can look on sites like Etsy or Fiverr to find people willing to design your book cover for you.
I myself took this route when I published my first ever novel (which has now been banished from the web and erased from my fragile mind). I used Fiverr to find someone to make my cover. All I had to do was put up a project, asking people to create a book cover for me. Within days I had an abundance of offers, people who didn’t know anything about me or my book yet wanted to create the cover for me. All they asked of me was a blurb, the title and author and if I had anything in mind for how I wanted the cover to look. With that little information, the artist I chose came back with a fully fledged cover design. The artist also let me change as many things as I liked and made all the necessary changes. Not only that, but it was CHEAP, which is what all self- and indie-publishing authors want to hear, am I right? But that’s only one site.
If you jump on Etsy and do a quick search for ‘book cover design’, there are a lot of pre-made book covers for as little as $15. If you want a custom designed cover however, it does get a little more expensive.
Another idea to look at is Canva, if you sign up for this site (it’s free!) you can instantly create a book cover of your own, using free images from the site or your own images. On this site you can also create Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts that sparkle. I mean you can even create marketing tools such as bookmarks and flyers! This site basically allows anyone to become a graphic artists. It’s the ultimate tool for all of your author needs, whether that be creating your author platforms or your book covers, I definitely recommend Canva to at least get you started. It will also give you some insight into how the traditional publishers may set out your cover.
So enough about the technical side of things. Let’s take a look at some of OUR favourite covers from well known books.
First we’re going to take a look at the Trylle series by Amanda Hocking. I think this is one of the most important ones to look at simply because she is a self-published author, which means she either made these covers herself, OR, she found someone to make them for her. Either way these covers have clearly been approved by Amanda Hocking otherwise they wouldn’t be here. She has two different covers for each book, the American version, and the UK version, which is sold here in Australia too. Not only this but she also has a three-in-one book with all three books of the trilogy. My personal favourite is the UK versions of these covers. I mean, look at them!
I think the contrasting colours and the images of the people really help to sell these books. I personally own the complete trilogy, and truth be told, I had only really been interested in the book because of the cover. As someone who isn’t a huge fantasy reader (I know! There’s still some of us left out there), I really wasn’t overly enthused when my friends told me they were reading a book about trolls. But after seeing that beautiful cover, which by the way has beautiful gold letting and edging on the butterfly wings, I decided to give it a go. And boy am I glad I did, if anyone out there is thinking of reading it, DO.
I chose these covers because in a way they speak to me about the strength of the character. The borders around the title of the first three books give them this bewitched feeling. The images of the girl in each symbols who she is within the novel and how she evolves through the story. The strong jewel colors draw the eyes to them very quickly. I personally have not read this series but these covers are making me curious so I might just check it out.
Another book we want to look at is Emma by Jane Austen. As you can imagine, such a classic book has had many covers in its lifetime. You can easily see how the covers have changed with the modern times. My personal favourite is the 2011 cover from Harper TEEN.
As you can see, this version of the cover relates more to me, simply because of its contemporary nature. The vibrant pink colour against the stark black background with the contrast of the white words makes this cover truly stand out to me.
I am a sucker for old fashion covers, not pictures, just the title and beautiful gold embossing. So of course my choice for my favourite classic novel would show off this style. The simplicity doesn’t give anything away. These beautiful hardcovers stand the test of time and are always a stunning addition to any library.
Paper Towns by John Green was a bit of a phenomenon in the young adult fiction world. After the success of his novel ‘The Fault In Our Stars’, his name sky-rocketed and all of his books became reverently read. Hence, the success of Paper Towns. This novel had so many different covers around the world. My favourite was the one of the UK versions of which I have a copy.
The simplicity of his cover is something that catches my eyes, the child-like drawing of the car and the font that looks like hand-written notes adds a sense of authorship to the cover that in other versions doesn’t quite shine through as strong. As you guys can probably tell, I’m a sucker for contrasting colours so the yellow and the blue together is something that definitely sticks out to me as well.
My favorite is The Dutch cover, in the same way as Caitlyn’s choice its has that childlike drawing of a pin in a map. With handwritten text. The bright colours draw the eye. The bright yellow is something I don’t see often as a major colour and I think benefits the book well. The oversized pin and maplines kind of foreshadows the plot the tiniest bit but still doesn’t give anything away.
Another long-lasting novel that just doesn’t seem to go away, one that’s been turned into multiple movies, is IT by Stephen King. The novel has over 10 different covers JUST FROM AMERICA. Imagine how many covers there are out there in the world. My personal favourite is the 2010 Finadway World Audiobook.
The reason I love this cover because, you guessed it, the contrast of the red on the white background draws the attention towards the blood-spattered ears of the clown, which foreshadows the pretense of the story before you turn it over and read the blurb on the back. I think another thing to mention is that Stephen King uses the same font for his name, on most of his covers, which adds to his marketing image as an author and is something to note for all authors, especially those as well-known as King.
My choice is a more simple one. I choose the 2016 Scribner's Reissue. The large toothy clown grin and red nose have this sinister feel. Text has this painted look to it which as to the menacing feel. The red letter of King’s name almost feels like it was painted in blood. I will admit I dislike horror novels, but I appreciate the artistry of this cover.
Different covers around the world have different cultural meanings, they also include foreshadowing and some kind of eye-candy. Whoever told you ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ has clearly never seen these amazing covers, and clearly hasn’t had an in-depth look into how covers actually work. While we aren’t suggesting that you base ALL of your book purchases because of the cover, we do suggest thinking about how the cover might have been used to gain your attention and interest in the first place.
Below is a list of site which we found all these covers on, check them out if you’re interested in all of those covers we haven’t shown you.
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