The First Impression

About a month ago I blogged about the importance of a good title, in relation to articles and books. A lot of that post was poking fun at embarrassing headlines from newspapers, but the point got made – how something is titled is important. Because I’m on the brink of publishing my first novel, I’m at the point where I need to start making some very important decisions about not only titles, but the items that will make or break someone’s decision to buy my book. The items that create a good first impression. The things that will make my book stand out from the rest on an already crowded shelf.

A catchy or memorable title is an important thing. A short, succinct, and attention-grabbing back cover blurb is another. But, probably the thing that is of utmost importance is the book’s cover. Yes there is that expression, don’t judge a book by its cover, but people do. I do. I’ve purchased more than 1 book based on front cover and back cover blurb alone. And, there is a very popular contest in the romance writing community entitled “Judge a Book by its Cover.”

So how does one design and choose a good cover? What makes my book stand out from the rest? Dark colors? Bright colors? Simplicity? Details? These things all need to be considered as well as fonts, font size, font color, title and name placement (i.e. top of cover, bottom of cover, etc.) The book’s cover makes a promise about what’s going to be inside that book. If a book is about vampires there probably shouldn’t be a sunshine field of  perky flowers or a sunny day at the beach on the cover. Likewise, for a lighthearted cozy mystery one wouldn’t expect a fire-breathing dragon from the pits of hell on the cover.

In the “olden” days when authors had very little control over things like book covers (because the big publishing houses designed covers for them), the book’s title was in larger font than the author’s name UNTIL the author got more established and more well-known. When it was determined that the author’s name alone would sell books no matter what the title, the author’s name dominated the cover and the title received a smaller font. Don’t believe me? Check out the titles directly below. Start looking at book covers the next time you’re at the library or in a book store or even on-line at Amazon or wherever you shop for books.

Anyway, I’m in the cover planning stages for my first book. Let me start by saying that my first book is the first is a series of 3 that I’m calling the “Grounded” series. On Common Ground is the first book, On Hallowed Ground is the second, and On Solid Ground is the third. Because the books are intended to be a series (although they are each a stand-alone novel) I need to think long-term about my covers. They should all resemble each other yet be obviously different. So, I’m not really designing just one cover now, I’m designing three.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I’d like my cover(s) to look. My books are all similar in nature – they have a western feel (horses, cattle, cowboys, etc.), they are all set in Northern Arizona (red dirt, cactus, lots of open spaces, ranches, Indian reservations, etc.), and they have repeat characters. The first book, however, also needs to showcase things specific to it (a big black pick-up truck, a prison cell, a barrel racer, etc.). I’d like to see lots of earth tones and a westerny-type font like one of these:

I’ve spent some time going to author websites and on-line book stores scrolling through book covers in the romance, mystery and romantic suspense categories. Here are some that drew my attention. I’ve sort of lumped them into categories.

This first group has multiple things going on and they are more or less aligned horizontally. This is probably my favorite group.

 

This second group is similar but there are really only 2 things more or less highlighted: people and places.

The next group are covers that have a definite foreboding look/feel about them. I like that an emotion is quickly felt just by looking at the covers.

I like this next group because you get a big picture with a smaller image shown in reflection. Something about these designs grabs my attention, especially the smaller image in the mirror/sunglasses.

And this last one is divided vertically, which is less common, but very bold.

Ideally, I’d like my book cover to wrap around to the back, like this:

Just another way to get one more visual about the book to the reader quickly without taking up precious front cover space.

Now tell me dear readers, what category/group grabs your attention the most? Which do you prefer? What to you take into consideration when choosing your book covers? Do you buy books based on covers and/or cover blurbs alone?

Word of the Day: Maneb

Fun fact about me: I’m really getting excited about seeing my name (my pen name anyway) on the front of a book!!

Original post by Jansen Schmidt, May 2018. Photos courtesy Google Images and Amazon.