A well-designed cover is vital for the success of your e-book! Good e-book covers sell better and justify higher prices. Realize that buyers WILL judge your book by its cover - because they have to! Apart from the sales copy on your web page, the cover of your e-book is the only thing they've got to go on when deciding whether or not to buy.
Research shows that most buyers will visit your e-book sales page three or four times before clicking the 'buy' button and the design of your e-book cover is a significant factor in their decision. If they're wavering, a good-looking e-book cover will tip the balance in your favor!
That's why you need the best possible design for your e-book - you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression!
So just how do you go about creating an effective e-book cover?
There are six design elements involved. These are - your title, your choice of fonts, the illustration you use, the way you use color, the quality of your cover image and the size of your file.
Yes, there's a lot going on! Now let's look at the elements one by one.
Design Elements
*The Title
*Choice of fonts
*The Illustration
*Color
*Image quality
*Image optimization
1: The Title:
Your e-book title needs to be short and punchy. Short because you don't have much space to display it in, and punchy so it delivers your USP (unique selling proposition). The more words there are, the smaller the text will be and the harder it will be to read. You have to 'write tight'!
1)Two-part titles make good use of limited space as you can make your main point in two or three words and then expand on your USP in the second part. For help visit www.ebook-marketing-exposed.com. For example:
"Designing Great Covers: How To Make YOUR e-Book Stand Out From The Crowd!"
2: Choice of fonts
E-book covers are small so you need to use fonts that are compact and easy to read. 'Sans serif' fonts like Impact, Helvetica and Arial make good use of space. Serif fonts are not so readable in smaller sizes. Mixing two different fonts can be effective but beware of using more - it gets confusing.
Some graphics programs like PhotoShop allow you to alter the proportions of your fonts as well as the spacing between letters so you can compress or expand your text to get the most readable effect.
3: The Illustration
An e-book cover that's just plain text can be pretty boring. An image will liven up your design and also reinforce your USP. Whether you use a photo or some other graphic, the image you use needs to key into the theme of your e-book and help to get your message across.
Use on-line image banks you can subscribe to for frequent use, or buy rights to individual images - good if you only need one or two. You can also buy libraries of royalty-free images on CDs.
Don't be tempted to use an image you find on the Internet! They are all covered by international copyright laws and using one without permission is illegal!
4: Color
Color is another useful tool in the design of your e-book cover. Colors have their own energies - red is forceful, blue is conservative, green is calming, yellow is exciting, and so on.
Pick one main color that ties in with the theme of your e-book and use other colors sparingly. Like fonts, using too many can obscure your message.
5: Image quality
Your cover image must be razor sharp and crystal clear to sell your e-book! Too many of the e-book images you see on the Internet are fuzzy and flat.
One way to get good image quality is to design at a larger scale that the final image size. For more details you can login to www.eazy-ebook-money.com. It's easier to work on and reducing the design to the required size will enhance its clarity.
Use sharpening filters with caution! It's easy to degrade your image by over sharpening so make it the last thing you do before optimization.
6: Image optimization
Although not part of the actual design process, the final important step is to optimize your image for the web.
A book cover is like your bait. You have four ways to get consumers to bite, which are the front cover, back cover, spine, and inside flaps (if your book is not a paperback). E-books are changing the face of book sales a bit, which makes it even more important to have a powerful book cover. If it looks good in the thumbnail on a web page, it will look great enlarged.
If there ever was a time to bring in a professional designer, this is it. But you can also save yourself a ton of time and money by knowing what makes a good cover – and your designer will appreciate your input! Let’s look at the four hooks.
Front Cover) On the front cover you have your title, subtitle, and your name. Pretty basic, right? OK, so what if you add an endorsement or a short testimonial from a VIP? Now your cover is working for you. The whole design should give people, at a glance, a sign of what’s inside.
All of your graphics should be bold and colorful, but uncluttered. Simple is better. You also want to make sure the colors you choose are going to convert well to black and white. That way you know your cover will still look good in black and white ads, catalogs, and flyers.
Spine) This one’s for the library, folks. Put your name, title and publishing company logo. Again, bold, contrasting colors will show up well. Use a clean font that is uncluttered and legible.
Back Cover) Help the bookstore out by putting a category name in the upper left-hand corner of your book so they know where to shelve it. Now you do a little sales. You need a great headline, addressing who should buy the book. Then some sales copy, telling readers what the book is about. Finally, a bullet list of benefits.
Testimonials are great, and can sell the book for you. Keep it to no more than three, though. And don’t forget your picture! Readers love to see who’s talking to them. Credit for your book cover’s illustrator, photographer and/or designer should also be included here.
Then you give them the “bottom line", a line of sales copy close to the bottom that closes the sale, so to speak. Position the price in the lower left corner and the 13-digit ISBN number in the lower right hand corner, and your back cover is complete!
Inside Flaps) If your book is hard cover and you have inside flaps to work with, you have even more room for sales copy. You can also do a short “teaser", giving readers a small taste of what they’ll find inside – just enough to whet the appetite. Now you put your photo and bio in, and give people the chance to get to know the author.
It’s all about presentation, and your book needs more than just a pretty package. Work with your graphic designer to make your book cover as powerful as what’s inside, and you have a winning combination!
Both Mohit Gupta & Karen Saunders are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.