A book cover? Important? I’ve often heard, “Don’t judge a book by its cover!” Today authors know that a cover can determine the fate of a book. Let’s look at the first three book covers I created.
IngramSpark, a leading self-publishing company, suggests 7 Book Cover Design Tips
- Give readers a sneak peek of what’s to come.
- Let the reader know the book’s genre.
- Introduce your protagonist.
- Set the right tone.
- Follow the rules of design in a way that makes sense for your genre.
- Pay attention to the details.
- Have a distinct style.
https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/book-cover-design-basics
So much goes into the design of a a successful book cover, and I had no idea when I first started this journey. I created what I like, not thinking about what the reader liked.
My First 3 Book Covers
For my first three books, I created the covers.
This Tumbleweed Landed 2014
This being my first book, I created the cover on Amazon’s createspace.com and thought it was beautiful. Excited with my first book, I loved everything about it.
In 2014, Lin and I spent a memorable spring afternoon on the dirt road going out to our ranch, trying to photograph a tumbleweed. The piercing cold spring wind had blown them around recently and lodged them into the fence posts. Yes, there were lots, and we took lots of pictures. I will never forget going through those photos and the awe I felt of the pictures he took, and then this one came up and I knew it was perfect. It had a tumbleweed locked into the barbed wire with an old wooden fence post and in the background Mesa de Maya, a landmark noted by Spanish invaders on early maps.
I liked the cover I created, but someone who reviewed the book identified a problem. The box around the title blocked out the tumbleweed. After looking closely, I realized how true that was!
In 2014, I didn’t realize the importance of a subtitle. This book has no subtitle on the book cover; it does on the Amazon website description I added later.
After ten years of researching and training, I plan on having the cover redesigned to feature the tumbleweed.
When Will Papa Get Home? 2015
Again, I created the cover for my second book, When Will Papa Get Home?, on createspace.com too. On the cover, I featured a photograph I took of the homestead house that’s featured in this book.
The book cover generator on createspace.com in 2015 had limited templates. I liked the one I selected: it featured the homestead photo, and in the background, it had the photo, too, but I don’t think anyone realized what was in the background.
Again, I didn’t include a subtitle on the cover, and this book desperately needed one because this is an immigration story, but the title doesn’t say that.
So, readers, be looking for a redesign for this cover later this year.
Let Me Tell You a Story 2016
I chose a simple cover for the re-release of my third book, Let Me Tell You a Story. In 1992, my dad, mom and I collaboratively published this for my dad’s 75th birthday. He dictated to Mom the story of how my granddad put our ranch together during the depression when many homesteaders were losing theirs, then I word- processed it and laid out the book, adding pictures. Then Dad selected the picture for the book cover—him on his favorite horse, Rusty. We printed enough to give to everyone in our family, and I printed twenty-five extra copies to read in my literature and language arts classes in Denver, Colorado.
After publishing the other books about my country roots and life, I wanted to get Dad’s retelling granddad’s story out to the world, so I re-released it. Again, I published it on createspace.com and used their template for the book cover.
I’m not sure if I will redo this cover—I like its simplicity; however, you can’t easily read my name or my dad’s as authors, so it probably does need to be redone!
How important is a book cover? Can you judge a book by its cover? In today’s hurried world, the visual representation of the book must catch the reader’s eye. So, yes, it’s vital to the success of the book.
Next week, I’ll share the next four book covers and why I moved to a professional company to do the last two.
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