Book Talk: Book cover first impressions

The first time I received an email asking for an opinion on a new book cover, it kind of surprised me. Not because I thought that I was a completely random source for an opinion - I do review a lot of books - but because I figured that's what publishing teams were for. With the surge in self-publishing many authors are left designing book covers in their "spare time". There is a reason graphic design is a job in itself; it takes a good, objective eye to come up with an appealing cover design.

I am the last person to claim to be any kind of designer (see below). I'm lucky if I can match my clothes up somewhat reasonably. But I do read a lot of books and I do have an opinion as both an outside source and as someone without a personal attachment to a book. Listed below are some issues that I find with book covers.

The Mystery of Awesomesauce by The Book Cove    

1. Illegible title and author name - This one always baffles me. These are the two most important identifiers of a book and sometimes the writing is near impossible to read. You can't go wrong with regular bold font. Yeah, cursive is pretty and patterns add color and shading adds dimension. But if a book isn't easily identifiable or your name is lost in the art, then it doesn't do you much good as an author.
2. Too much shading - Background shading can achieve some pretty awesome artistic effects -- if done right. Again, you don't want your title to get lost in it. You also don't want it to overwhelm the main image.
3. Ghost images - Ghost images can be great. They can set a foreboding or serene tone without cracking the book. These turn out awesome when they are relevant to the book -- think of the faded fisherman overlayed on a rough dark sea entitled The Perfect Storm. No other explanation is necessary to convey the main theme. Other times it becomes confusing and makes a reader second guess a book -- think of a faded cat, deck of cards, and fisherman overlayed on a rough dark sea entitled The Perfect Storm. So a fisherman and his cat die playing poker in the North Atlantic?? Not exactly what I was looking for...
4. Don't overdo the objects - This goes along with the ghost image statement where sometimes there are too many objects on a cover and it takes away from the cover's artistic effect. In my opinion - one main foreground object is enough. Maybe smaller secondary images to convey a specific theme relative to the image. Sometimes it looks like a "copy" and "paste" button got stuck on a computer and every image saved in Clipart was tacked on the cover. Not appealing.
5. Minimalism does work - To each their own when it comes to a cover. Don't throw out the idea of a simple one color background with the title and author. Think Janet Evanovich or many of James Patterson's books. Their writing speaks for itself and it didn't take crazy covers to sell millions.
6. If you're going the generic route, try to be unique - Generic and unique -- does that make sense?? Hah. What I'm getting at here is the use of generic covers that are offered by self-publishing/indie outlets. I don't know much about their options, but what I do know is that if I go to a place like Amazon and peruse the self-published/indie books in a certain genre, I can usually come up with at least two of the same covers for different authors (at one point I turned it into a game and counted four). If you're a visual person (like me), then that can be confusing. Have I read that book or not? Is that the one I loved or the one I threw across the room? I'm not saying that you shouldn't utilize these design options provided to you. But maybe search around your genre for a few minutes to see if the one you like has been used a lot lately.

Think of your book cover as a job interview. Accentuate your best resume feature, dress nicely, comb your hair, pick one hair piece, wear make up only if you're comfortable in it, and last but not least, own that b*tch!

I came across this post by author David McGowan, where he discusses the evolution of his book cover. He makes some great points and uses pictures to show what the slightest tweaking can do for the overall effect. It turns out pretty great!

Please leave your thoughts, agreements and disagreements in the comments.