5 Easy Steps for Designing an Amazing Book Cover

So, you want to design a book cover? Okay, let's get started! Follow these 5 easy steps and I promise that you will be on your way to becoming a great book designer.

Shown in the above gallery are various covers options presented to the publishing Board of Directors and author.

1. Who is your Target Market?

I usually think of who the audience is first. Sometimes the publisher will provide this information in what is called a Cover Memo or Cover Synopsis. The Editors and Marketing Team usually have a good sense of who the target market is from past sales of similar books. This information is passed onto the designer in memo format. Examples of what you will see on these memos are:

Title: Name of the book

Subtitle: General explanation of what the book is about in 1 or 2 quick sentences

Author: Writers name

Format: Hardcover or Trade paper (soft cover)

Trim Size: Size of book (i.e. 6" X 9")

In-Stock Date: When the book is available to buy

Editor: Some publishers have several Editors assigned to different books and projects

Synopsis: Description of what the book is about including the author's bio.

Audience: Who will be buying this book? (i.e. women between the ages of 25-55)

Ideas for Cover Image/Treatment: These ideas usually come from the Acquisitions Directorial Team and/or the author itself.

Competing Titles: Other books that are similar in nature.

Main Retailers: I.e. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.

Text for the Book Cover: Title, subtitle, any added information/byline about the author, i.e. New York Times Best Seller or other info such as, Updated and Revised Edition.

Text for the Audio Cover: If book is also being translated into DVD's CD's etc. format.

Expected Author Involvement: Does the author have final approval of cover design? Sometimes Publishers have final say.

Don't have an editorial cover memo? No problem. Just ask for the information from your author. Authors are more than willing to provide you with everything you need. So ask!

Once this information has been sorted the next step is obtaining a first chapter sample or the entire manuscript. Is it always necessary to read the book first? No, not at all. However, sometimes I feel it is very necessary. For example, fiction books sometimes need to be read in order to have a full understanding of how the design should play out. Other times a quick skim will suffice. The author can also provide you with several options of concepts or symbolism within the book that are pertinent. Sometimes the book is a RUSH job. It's going to print fairly quickly so reading it isn't an option.

2. Research

I find this to be the most time consuming step in the entire process. However, there are exceptions to this rule:

• You are provided with artwork, photo(s) and or illustration(s) that are to be used.
• It has been agreed upon that the designer will only design ONE version of the concept. (for example, the author already knows exactly what he/she wants to cover to look like and is very specific on design concept)*

* Please note: there are challenges with even these exceptions. Things don't always turn out the way a designer and/or author planned. It is easy to visualize how something will look but upon it's execution, it fails. Basically, concepts don't always translate. Or perhaps the image itself that was provided needs extensive photoshop/illustrator tweaking, thus adding more hours of clean-up work. So back to the drawing board you go thus adding more time. 

Research includes anything that inspires a designer. Countless hours looking at illustrations, stock photography, online design boards, other book covers of similar topic. Research can also mean taking a trip to the local book store, museums, art show, etc. For me personally, nature inspires me. Sometimes I just need to walk outside into my forest, clear my mind and viola! A concept is born. 

If an author has NO IDEA what the cover is supposed to look like I will ask them a series of questions. What kind of feeling do you envision for your cover? i.e. dark, light, airy, smart, business like, surreal, whimsical, etc. What are your favorite colors? Do you like traditional, modern, contemporary art? What other book covers do you like? Why do you like those?

By asking these questions you build a foundation of trust and open conversation is achieved. Both designer and author are now on the same page.

2 common types of authors are the direct kind or the open kind. The direct ones know exactly what they want. This leaves out the guessing work. The second type lets you have free reign. This gives the designer full control with less constraint. No matter what personality author you have, both methods and approaches can produce successful covers.

3. Execution

After long hours and days of research you are finally ready to interpret these concepts into a book cover design. Sometimes what you think is going to work, doesn't. Sometimes this failure leads you to a BETTER solution.

I could spends hours on a concept that I really want to work and get so frustrated because it's not coming together (designer's block). Don't worry! Walk away from your computer, go outside, take a walk, eat lunch, work out, or get a cup of coffee, and then regroup. Sometimes I will sleep on it, leaving me waking up the next day with a sound mind, fresh ideas and a solid solution to fixing my design flaws.

Other times, the first cover I design is the winner! You just know that feeling of success when you just designed the one. Everything comes together with ease. Even still, the perfect cover needs tweaking. I walk away for a few hours and comeback to my design for small changes here and there. Remember, you can never design the perfect cover. There will always be something you wished you changed even after print. Also, be mindful of over designing. Less is more, generally speaking.

4. Presentation

Once you are ready to show your designs please explain them! You can never assume that the publishing team or author will understand your work. Sometimes there is a board of folks that all have to agree on your cover. More than likely, they didn't read the book either. So, if you found symbolism in the book and used it in the cover, please explain it. It's important to point out the special hidden gems you used. Perhaps you used a particular color that had meaning in the book. If it's an abstract cover, please explain your concept if is deemed necessary. This clarifies and also SELLS your cover design.

Sometimes covers are self-explanatory, i.e. a cookbook featuring recipes. So explanation is redundant and completely unnecessary. Maybe the author's photo is on the cover, so the design concept is obvious.

If you are presenting more than one design send them all in one document, i.e. PDF. Please do not send separate attachments. It's too confusing. Arrange them in an organized fashion. If you have 2 of the same design with different fonts choices, then group those together followed by the others. It's easier for the decisions makers to go through their process of elimination. I've seen some designers number pages for reference. Make sure your presentation is clean and easy to follow.

5. Final Cover Design

Once the final cover has been chosen by the author/publisher, there will be changes to it. Subtitle changes, updates to existing text, colors, etc. These are usually straight forward and easy to make. Agree ahead of time on the amount of changes the Author/Publisher makes so that there are no surprises. I usually have an open door policy with unlimited changes within reason. I want my authors/publishers to happy with their final product. If everyone loves the cover then it will SELL better. I recommend a design contract/agreement between you and the publisher and/or author outlining expectations and such (perhaps my next blog?).

As time goes on the process of designing a cover gets easier. Every cover offers it's own challenges that should be met with fun and excitement. I never tire of this process. I LOVE to design book covers!!!! I hope you will too.

Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions or questions. It's my first blog so please tell me if I've missed something or suggest how I can make my article better.

—Amy Grigoriou
www.amygrigoriou.com