New books expand a child’s mind to new worlds while subtly teaching lessons about the real one where we all live. It encourages them to dream, fantasize, and imagine, important things that they can bring with them when they grow older. A children’s book’s cover needs to be playful and eye-catching since the pictures are basically what the kids look for in what they read. At the same time, it needs to be well illustrated to impress the parents and catch their attention.
The market for children’s books is massive. Adults spend an estimated $3 billion on kids’ books each year. If you’re a children’s book author, this means that you will be competing in a crowded, colorful, and busy marketplace. To get your book noticed, you need to stand out in this diverse crowd. This article will teach you how.
After the long excruciating process of writing a book, your job is not yet done. Before you can even start thinking about marketing it, you’ll need to first have a cover designed. While the process can be overwhelming—think about the dozens of ideas, colors, fonts, and photos you can incorporate into the design—we’ve come up with six elements that every future bestselling book cover must have.
harrypotterbooks.scholastic.com
harpercollins.com.au/9780008201517
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/319178/matilda-by-roald-dahl-illustrated-by-quentin-blake/9780425287675
scholastic.com/teachers/books/dear-dumb-diary-a-triple-scoop-of-rage-with-giggle-sprinkles-by
scholastic.com/teachers/books/clifford-for-president-by-acton-figueroa
wimpykid.com/books/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-special-cheesiest-edition
mediaroom.scholastic.com/goosebumps
books.disney.com/book/gravity-falls-lost-legends
books.disney.com/book/part-of-your-world
scholastic.com/teachers/books/the-gingerbread-girl-by-lisa-campbell-ernst
Cover creation is the very last creative step when publishing a book because almost everything about the anatomy of a book cover is controlled by the final edited version of the book. Book cover design is comprised of text and images. In order to get the layout right, you need to think about the single message you want your cover design to communicate. Aside from that, here are other tips to remember when designing your book’s cover.
The front cover is the first of the physical parts of a book. It has one purpose: to sell the book by intriguing the right readers. The following are the essential elements of a good front cover.
You’ll know that your front cover did its job if your readers flip the book to look at the back cover since it would mean that they got interested enough to give the book a second look. Now it is the job of the back cover to draw them in so much that they will feel compelled to buy the book.
The most important part of the back cover is a description of the book that offers up enough detail to ensure that the shopper can’t say “no” to buying it. The back cover of a paperback should also include a headshot, your bio, and your credentials if the works are academic or professional. Readers love to know more about the author, and details about who wrote the book can help the description seal the deal.
The back cover should also leave room for the International Standard Book Number (or ISBN code) and the barcode that goes with it. Since 2007, all books have a 13-digit ISBN code. The back cover should also include any book reviews, and it’s related to the book, your company logo.
Finished books that are more than 130 pages long also need spine text that shows the main title and the author’s last name as a part of the cover design. Make it easy to read, and be sure it can be reviewed sideways.
It’s a common knowledge by now that readers shop with their eyes, which means that they look for familiarity while also yearning for a surprise, for something that is new and refreshing. A good book cover design must communicate that the pages within are worth a reader’s time and attention.
Let us take a look at what we can do to get your book cover to tell readers a story even before they crack open the first page.
A book cover has three mandatory parts: the front cover and the back cover connected by the spine. A paperback book’s pages are glued together with a paper cover and then cut to size. A hardback book’s pages are sewn or glued into a case made of cardboard which is then covered with cloth or paper. The paper cover wraps around the book and includes flaps on either side. When you open a hardcover book and see colored or printed pages glued to the boards, you’re looking at endpapers, a lovely extra set of pages designers can use to tie a book project together.
Next, it’s important to consider what your design direction will be and how it will fit the author’s vision of her book. There are lots of beautiful books out there but not all design will work for every book. So consider input from other people, look at comparable titles with successful covers and book pages, go to your local bookstore and handle books to get a feeling for the different paper thickness and materials. Make notes about what you like and don’t like. This information can prove itself useful way later in the design process if ever you hit a wall.
One of the great things about book covers is that there is almost no graphic style that can’t work. Writers have wild imaginations, and it’s the designer’s job to create a cover that represents all of the wondrous worlds that the author’s great mind created.
The downside of this is that narrowing down a style can be a challenge. Book covers can feature a photograph, illustration, or abstract design. They can feature everything from cartoonish doodles to stark modern typography.
Consider what message graphic style sends to a book buyer’s brain. A photograph of New York City should not be used for a book that is not set in New York. Soft typefaces and natural settings are often used in women’s fiction, while vintage photographs imply a historical setting.
One of the great pleasures of browsing bookstores involves admiring the artwork on the cover design displays. However, if you are in the position of the person who produces said artwork, you probably already know that achieving that won’t be easy. So if you are an author who is in the market for a dust jacket, whether you or your publisher is paying for it, it’s worth understanding what goes into designing one.
The truth above a vast majority of book designs is that they often feature elements taken from stock image libraries. A lot of sites offer a license to millions of images that designers can work with. They even offer illustrations as well. The term stock photo is often thrown around like a bad four-letter word, and in the mouth of non-designers, they’re seen as a hallmark of creative laziness. Not only is this unkind, but it is also terribly untrue.
The main advantage of illustrated covers is the distinct visual style that the artist can bring. The styles of drawing can vary from the deceptively simple to the overly intricate. Readers of certain genres have even come to expect illustrated jackets, especially for fantasy and science fiction books where the book covers are often drawn to elaborate illustrations that encourage readers to explore the fictional world.
Book covers with real photography are rare because time and money are such expensive resources. If you think that paying illustrators is extravagant, wait until you see how much it costs to organize a photo shoot. This route is only taken when there is no longer any other way to capture what the publisher wants using an illustration or stock imagery. The two genres that immediately jump to mind are celebrity memoirs and romance fiction.
Let us look at the standard sizes of book covers in publishing to help you decide on the right dimensions for your design.
When it comes to creating a strong impact upon an audience, the cover is just as important as the content, so make sure that you pay equal attention to both.