They always say that one should not judge a book by its cover. Although this trite of a saying rings true, it is not reason enough for book publishers to ignore the selling value of good cover designs. A book is a product that needs effective marketing strategies. Book covers can be considered as point of purchase advertisements. Bookstore patrons do not loiter around with a book in hand just to pass time. They do examine the book just as they would examine the features in an mp3 player. In fact, market researchers found out that the longer a customer holds a book before buying, the more likely he or she is to purchase it.

This is not to say that you will have to put yourself to the limits to design a book cover that is worth turning. The lack of graphic design skills should not prevent you from creating a readable cover design.

The first thing to keep in mind is your target market. To whom do you want to sell the book? What are the contents and who would probably be interested on it? Once you have gain insights on your target market, it would become easier for you to decide on how you want your cover designs to look like.

Most publishers would hire design service providers. Nevertheless, it is still important for you to learn the fundamentals in designing a book cover. Begin with familiarizing yourself with its three parts: the front cover, the back cover, and the spine. Each of these parts has to be properly utilized for marketing purposes.

Begin with a catchy front cover. Catchy in a sense that it gets the attention of those who would be interested with the contents of your book. Most inexperienced designers would stuff in loud images and text effects. However, this tends to be distracting and is prone to elicit the wrong kind of attention. The front cover artwork has to be engaging which means that it has to tell a lot about the theme or the subject of the book. Some designers would take from the title and subtitle whenever they brainstorm ideas for the artwork. This is an effective strategy but it is not to be exploited either. Some cover designs are too telling, it has the tendency to impede the function of the title.

Incorporating the title text with the artwork might do well but then again, it has to be readable and must not be blurred out by excessive graphics. The safest option is to use san serif fonts for the title as they are more readable especially when used as large and boldface fonts.

Next on your list of priorities should be the back cover. The usual mistake of first-time self-publishers is that they leave the back cover blank. Going back to our previous assumption with regards to customers' psyche, we have to provide for them a reason to hold the book longer by giving them more things to read before purchasing the book. Bookworms do read blurbs. Think about the information that might entice your target reader to buy the book. Ask recommendations from fellow writers and experts on the same field. Write synopsis or product descriptions. If the author's track record is of extreme significance, make it the selling point by putting emphasis on his or her bio.

Last but not the least is the spine. This part is crucial because it is the first thing a customer will see in a bookstore. Usually, it has the title and the author of the book. The text on the spine has to be readable enough which is why it is preferred to lay it out vertically.

These are just a few basic tips on creating a book cover. Although it is not necessary for a self-publishing author to do all these on his or her own, it is important that he or she has control on how the cover would draw a good impression from target readers.