Your Book Cover Matters

Today, I’ll be talking about why your book cover matters and you will want it to be scroll-stopping worthy on Amazon.

How do we do that?

Remember how important your cover is.

It’s not an afterthought. It’s not something you slap on after writing your book. Here’s the thing: you should think about your cover as you start thinking about your book. It’s not a big deal if it changes. Being able to visualize that cover allows you to think and feel it in your hands.

Having that great book cover creates curiosity, gets people to click, and leads to more sales.

Your book cover has to convey something. You need to love your cover like the inside of your book. You’ll feel fantastic about it when you promote it.

1. Homemade vs Professional

Table of Contents

Do you want to be taken more seriously or do you want to look more homegrown?

I had a client who was trying to put his own book cover together. Knowing that he’s a corporate leadership coach, he needed to be taken seriously. He got a graphic designer to design it for him. A more professional-looking one replaced his initial cover.

Below, you’ll see his attempt, the professional cover and his comments on how I had suggested that he upgrade his cover so that he could be taken more seriously.

There’s no need to splurge on it. You can hire someone from Fiverr or Upwork, if you want.

2. Colors

You want something that will really call to the people as they are scrolling.

Colors have all sorts of different meanings. You have to think of what they mean to people.

Red: Danger, Passion, Daring, Romance, Energetic
Black: Sophistication, Mystery, Power, Evil
Gray: Stability, Security
Purple: Royalty, Luxury, Wisdom, Dignity, Spirituality, Passion
Pink: Romance, Compassion, Faithfulness, Beauty, Love
White: Freshness, Hope, Goodness, Light, Purity (Note: You want other pieces to pop out with this color.)
Yellow: Joy, Cheerfulness, Friendliness, Intellect, Energy, Caution, Cowardice
Blue: Peace, Stability, Calmness, Sincerity, Affection
Green: Life, Growth, Healing, Money, Safety, Relaxation

One color may not be enough to convey what you want. You might need to use multiples or add photos and symbols to create that whole effect.

Make sure you are thinking of and picking colors that match what you want. This is important because you want your cover to share with people what they’re going to experience from the book.

3. Put your picture on or not?

This is very much a personal preference.

What I’m going to say is this – unless your book is fictional or another genre where you’re hiding, you’d really want a picture where you’re looking straight into the camera. When you can see people’s eyes, you can tell if they’re genuine or not. It all goes back to the overall emotions you want to convey.

You decide whether your picture does it or if you’d rather not have you picture on the cover.

4. Fonts

Fonts have their own meanings, as well. When you’re picking them, make sure it’s conveying the message that you want.

Pick your fonts and combine them. Combining them creates something.

5. Emotion, Feeling

This is the key takeaway from this post.

Your cover has to have enough emotion and feeling that goes with your book. Think about what you want people to really take away and about the first impression you want to give away. And by all means, make it look professional.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these guidelines -- Comment below!

About

Vickie Gould is a storytelling, marketing and book coach. As a result of working with her, Vickie’s clients are able to grow their reach worldwide, create more impact and turn their readers into clients while they sleep.