or How to Get an Awesome Ebook Cover
by Doug Swift
The importance of a dynamite ebook cover cannot be understated. This is especially true for new ebook authors
and those that aren't already famous with large Internet followings. In this post I'll describe the three guiding
principles that govern the selection and development of superior ebook covers
and go over the example of how I got a great one.
Law Number One: The
ebook cover must attract viewer attention.
Law Number Two: The
ebook cover must honestly convey the content of the book, and must complement
but never violate Law Number One.
Law Number Three: The
ebook cover must emotionally connect with the potential reader, and must build
upon but never violate Law Number One or Two.
Law Number One: The
ebook cover must attract viewer attention.
The cover is the face of your book. This is what people see at the online
bookstores. A good cover will arouse
curiosity and cause a browsing viewer to stop and take a look. You must think of the book cover as
advertising. The artwork is
advertising. The title is
advertising. The font and lettering are
advertising. You must understand this guiding
concept. The cover is advertising! It the ebook cover doesn't attract viewer
attention, it is a failed cover.
Despite this truth, go to any online best seller list, and
you will be surprised to see only one or two ebook covers that comply with Law
Number One. There are several reasons
for this. The most common online view of
your book is at the thumbnail size, and most covers are not designed to attract
as such a small view. Also many authors
mistakenly think the cover unimportant and don't put enough effort into
obtaining a super design. The cover must
arouse interest or curiosity, and it must do so at the thumbnail size.
Law Number Two: The
ebook cover must honestly convey the content of the book, and must complement
but never violate Law Number One.
This is important.
Now that you have a viewer's attention, you must tell them what type of
book you have. If the viewer likes or is
looking for Romance novels, your cover should be recognizable as a Romance
Novel. If you have a horror novel, you
need to tell horror fans that here is a book for them. You can be subtle, but there should be no
mistaking the type of book being offered.
Be honest. If not,
they will be disappointed when they read the book blurb or sample chapter and
not buy the book, and maybe give you an angry review.
So with Law Number One you catch their attention. With Law Number Two you tell your target
audience this is the type of book they like reading.
Law Number Three: The
ebook cover must emotionally connect with the potential reader, and must build
upon but never violate Law Number One or Two.
This step is vital.
If you want to make the sale and convince a potential viewer to buy your
book, or at least try a sample chapter, you must make a connection. This can be done directly or indirectly.
With the direct method you appeal directly to their emotions. For example, if writing a horror, give them a
chill just looking at the cover. Or if
writing romance, arouse their passion with a steamy picture. If a cookbook, show some delicious dish they
simply must taste.
The indirect method is easier, and involves using a proxy on
the cover, someone they can identify and connect with. For a horror, you have a person on the book
scared out of their wits. For a romance,
the person or persons are engulfed in passion.
For a cookbook, the person is dying to try some dish.
If you can establish this instant connection, you have
them. They'll investigate further and
read the book blurb. If your words live
up to the expectations you've built with the cover, they'll buy your book.
Now we'll go into the process and describe how to obtain a
superior ebook cover and use Don't Marry Charity as an example. I hope my cover artist, Fiona Jayde, doesn't
mind my using her work as the example.
You have three choices.
Design the cover yourself, use a pre-made cover, or hire a cover
artist. I like the third choice, because
they're relatively cheap ($100 to $300), you get a cover tailored to you and
your book, and you can get an expert on your side.
Preparation work.
Before you contact the artist, imagine a good cover yourself. This might
be hard, but hey, you just wrote a book, surely you can think up a cover
design. This will give the artist a
framework from which to start. You'll
want them to build your vision into something great.
I emailed Fiona Jayde and told her I was looking for an
ebook cover for a comedy action adventure.
She emailed back and expressed interest and sent me a questionnaire, which
I filled out. Her questionnaire is designed
to give her the background she needs to come up with a cover concept. You tell what type of book you have, describe
main characters, settings, key symbols, likes and dislikes, etc.
Fiona them comes up with a concept idea, for free. The concept idea is the basic layout and images, and might include a
leading picture, a background idea, and lettering.
The lettering is the book title, author's name, and any headline
words. Some artists use actual models
for the leading picture. This is great but
expensive. Most use stock photography or
artwork, which they modify to fit your cover.
To convey an action adventure book and also comedy, I
suggested to Fiona a woman in a wedding dress with a gun in her hand. I wanted the woman to have a compelling
expression on her face, to arouse curiosity.
In the background I thought of a
goofy park ranger trying to help. My
title was Must Save Charity. Also a
raccoon in the background. This was my
initial concept.
Fiona found some stock photography examples she could work
with and emailed them back. I didn't
like those because the expressions on their faces were either hidden or not
compelling. We looked for an expression
that would make the reader curious.
Finally we settled on a stock photograph we both liked, but I had no
idea how Fiona would get it to fit on the cover. But the model had a great facial
expressions. Just look at those eyes, and that face.
Up to this point everything was free, but now we had to
commit to each other and I had to pay half the cost. The remaining half upon completion. I now had to sit back, and anxiously wait,
and see what my artist would come up with.
This is where you
need a real artist. This is where they earn their money and build you a
design that goes beyond your initial concept and becomes a thing of beauty.
Fiona
did her magic.
1.)
Fiona didn't just paste the photo onto a cover and add some background and
lettering. She only used the top of the model (almost entirely face) so
readers can see and hopefully connect emotionally with the model.
2.)
She made a cover that would be clear and good at both the thumbnail size and
expanded sizes.
3.)
Fiona played with the coloring of the model's
face and softened and illuminated it, contrasting
beautifully with the night background and the harsh gun and adding
suspense to the cover.
4.) The expression on the model is priceless and
she drew that out.
5.) Fiona changed her clothes from a plain dress
to a wedding dress, and added earrings, giving glamor to the model and matching
the book theme.
6.) Fiona moved the gun to a different location
in the picture.
7.) Fiona made the lipstick on the model match
the name in the title.
8.) She simplified the cover from my concept,
which was too crowded with a goofy ranger and a raccoon also. You don't need to tell the whole story to get
your message across.
9.) Fiona used imaginative font with the main
character's name askew.
10.) She put out a slick finish that looks New
York professional.
Here's the before and after:
Does
the cover of Don't Marry Charity arouse curiosity? Why not marry Charity? She's beautiful. But she has a gun. And she looks troubled. I want to find out more. I need to read this book.
I
liked Fiona's cover art so much I did not need her to change
anything and asked her to sign the cover.
Why not, artists of paintings and pictures sign their work. I then changed the title of the book to
Don't Marry Charity so it matched the cover art better and furthered compliance
with the Three Laws.
I
hope you found this blog post on the Three Laws of Ebook Covers helpful. If you did, feel free to like and share links
to this post on my blog: http:DougSwiftAdventureBooks.blogspot.com/
If
you really liked it you can try out my ebook and read the story behind the
cover: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/swiftdk/
Fiona
Jayde's website: http://fionajaydemedia.com/
P.S. One thing I forgot to mention. Have fun with the process and don't stress
it. Being creative is a beautiful thing.
Doug
Swift
Adventure
Author
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