Book title and author name
This may seem obvious but you’d be amazed how many authors send sample covers and descriptions of their books but forget to send their titles.

Genre
Articles on cover clichés with writers poking fun at book covers with similar covers can be fun but they’re missing the point. Covers that are branded in a similar way to covers that are already selling well should also sell well. Look at the bestsellers in your genre and expect your cover to follow a similar trend. Bucking the trend is risky as you risk losing the readers of the authors whose audience you are marketing to.

Description of book
Most cover designers won’t read your book. They don’t need to as it isn’t necessary and the budgets won’t allow for the extra time that this takes. However, I’ll need an outline or synopsis to give me an idea of the story. It doesn’t have to be pages long. A paragraph or two will suffice, as it’s just to give a feel for the book, the characters and locations featured.

Key elements
This is your chance to point out what you consider to be important. For example, this could be a scene specific to the cover as opposed to the whole book. Elements could also include a subtitle, strapline and/or review quotes.

There maybe elements from the book that you feel could work on the cover. It might be that a text-heavy cover with a background colour would work better than people. Or you realize after looking at other covers that having people is a definite ‘no’. Should the cover be obscure or should it have a location-based image?

Being too specific, as for example wanting a character to look literally as you imagine, is not recommended. If your cover requires a particular type of person or group of people there will be an additional cost to create these characters, based on the complexity. A separate quote will be provided for this service. If you would like a cost on this aspect before submitting your full brief and paying a deposit, please send a message using the Contact Form . PLEASE NOTE: Simpler book covers with more abstract concepts are ALWAYS better.

I also strongly recommend NOT over complicating the cover. A reader will browse a small thumbnail of your cover (among many others) for only two seconds before deciding whether to click for more information. Creating a cluttered look for your book with too many characters simply makes the thumbnail less clear and less likely to generate sales. The best book covers have a simple image that evokes an emotion and tells a straightforward message. Cover design isn’t about mimicking a very specific scene but having a general appeal to your target audience and making them pick up your book.

Links and examples of covers you like
This is one thing that is incredibly useful, even if some authors are reluctant to supply any. It’s such an important part of the process. You’ll need to send links to or images of the covers that are both in the genre of your book and that you like.

The samples are a vital key to achieving a good end result. As an author you know your book best and it’s important to reflect where it will sit in the marketplace. This is the most efficient and cost-effective way to ensure you get a cover that both reflects the genre you’re writing in and will work in YOUR marketplace.

Paperback Package
If you are ordering the Paperback package (which also includes an Ebook cover design) you will also need to provide the following:

Blurb for the back cover
A brief description that will entice readers to want to buy your book.

Paperback trim size
These are standard trim sizes for paperbacks, as defined by CreateSpace, for example 5″x8″, 5.06″x7.81″, 5.25″x8″, 6″x9″ 6.14″x9.21″, 7″x10″

Final Formatted Page count
It is important that you provide the final formatted page count at the trim size you will be using. This allows me to determine the spine width for the paperback, which will change for every 2 pages difference in the page count.

Paper colour
The colour of the paper can have an effect on the overall thickness of the book. Just a difference of two pages can change spine width. It’s therefore necessary to state whether cream or white paper is being used. As a general rule of thumb, for fiction books, cream paper is usually used, while white paper is the common choice for non-fiction.

Finally, I hope this guide has been useful and if there are any further questions you would like to ask then please don’t hesitate to use the contact form. Rest assured, I will use the information provided to design the best quality cover that your book deserves.

As can be seen from the drawing that Gary emailed, he  had a good idea about what he was looking for. His book is set in the future – in a space station with parts of the story set on a dystopian Earth that has stopped rotating. Half the Earth is a fiery desert and the opposite half is frozen in a perpetual night. On the space station, humans are transitioning to massive three story robot bodies, but these transitions are sometimes interrupted by demons who take the bodies (think The Exorcist, Paranormal Activity, The Conjuring). The creatures “diems” (as they’re called) are frighteningly devil-like.

Gary’s idea for the cover is a “typical” space or Earth (fiery or frozen) scene, yet the page is being torn back with robotic talon-like fingers and menacing eyes of a diem from behind in the dark.

I doubted the idea of “the page being torn back with only robotic talons” would work on the limited space of a book cover; but I could incorporate the ‘diem’ figure into the background of the space or Earth (fiery or frozen) scene with a space station in the foreground. Gary was happy with my suggestion and was totally open to creativity with the size of the images, font, title placement and background.

From there I set about sourcing images, which would work on the cover. We needed a demonic and menacing looking character, almost fantasy looking, that would blend into the background. Here are some of the images I found. They are all low resolution shutterstock images with the watermarks removed.

I narrowed down the images to a few I felt would really work which included a spaceship, burning world and demonic figure. From there I had to tweak the colours and match and merge the images together using Photoshop. Gary was quite clear about what he wanted and I thought his concept good. You’ll notice the fonts fit with the futuristic sci-fi genre.  I then composed these images and emailed Gary two low-resolution covers.

Cover 1: A space station heading towards a dystopian Earth that has stopped rotating with the fiery side facing towards us. The menacing presence of a “diem” (as they’re called), which is frighteningly devil-like appears behind the burning planet.

Cover 2:  A dystopian Earth that has stopped rotating with half a fiery desert (the orange side) and the opposite half frozen in a perpetual night (the blue side).  In the foreground we see the figure of the hulking frame of a massive cybersentient form – the only hope for survival for the human race.

Gary was happy with visual (1) but made the following request:

Now the first one I like a lot. You did an amazing job with the space station – very happy with it! I like the diem in the background behind Earth, but I’d like you to tweek the image a bit. The eyes need to be more angry. Don’t know how to put into words exactly – like the eyebrow more forrowed, like this (see image).

Based on Gary’s feedback I then tweaked the visuals further. I downloaded the high-resolution images, and Photoshopped them, blending layers into a cohesive whole. This is the point where I really start to tweak and make subtle variations until the author is happy with the final cover.

Once Gary was happy with the final cover, I mocked up the paperback visual which included a spine and back cover using the blurb and mug shot provided. There were more steps and more emails back and forth in-between but essentially this is the process. Some covers take longer than others, some require more visuals, some less. It depends on the author and the cover.

Gary was keen to use the cover for his upcoming book promotion and although I can’t claim that the cover was the sole reason for his book reaching the bestseller list, I’m pretty confident that it formed an important part of its overall success.

It’s important that books in a series look like they are part of a set. There are various ways of achieving this, from using the same fonts, colours that harmonise or contrast, or perhaps a particular layout or style of image. It may be one or all of these things and it’s worth bearing in mind when the first is being designed just how the others might work as part of the set.

Here’s an example of a series rebrand I did for Desmond Cory, thriller writer, www.desmondcory.com.  The covers needed to really stand out, whilst using key elements that sell thrillers and were also pertinent to the main character (man with fedora hat holding a gun). You’ll notice there’s an impressionistic, atmospheric look to all of these covers with the backgrounds giving indicative views of London, the Alps and Paris (all settings relevant to each book). A bold 1950s slab-serif typeface gives the books the correct detective, cold war look (think James Bond) with each cover having its own unique colour tint to make it stand out.3D Covers

A 3D cover looks really cool on websites and publicity material. I can create you a bespoke 3D cover exactly to your requirements. These range from ebooks, paperbacks or both.

Box Sets

You’ve written a series and you want to market them together in a box set. Again, I can create one for you based on your set. One thing you need to consider is legibility of the wording on the front and spines, because with the distorting of the cover for perspective, you start to loose legibility.

Box Sets appeal to readers because they instantly expect more than one book and they are great value for money.