Cover colors. Suggest colors that you think convey the mood you want to depict, but listen to your cover artist, who has special training in choosing just the right combination of colors. In general, reds and yellows are action colors, blues and greens are intellectual colors, browns and burgandies are comforting colors, and so on.
The most powerful color is white. The second most powerful color is black. Solid dark colors tend to pick up fingerprints and dust. A solid white cover may also soil easily. Coatings can protect covers with large areas of a single color from being easily marred.
Two-color covers can be striking, but a full-color cover makes at least twice the impact. For the extra punch a full-color cover delivers, they are worth every penny.
Other enhancements. Embossing, metallic foil, cutouts, embossing, and rounded corners can add to the cover appeal of your book--and to the production price. Ask for prices before you decide on these features.
Give your designer room to be creative. Once you have given your cover designer or book producer all of the information you need for the cover, let his or her years of experience and familiarity with the art form work for you. For the best possible cover, give your artist bushels of creative freedom.
Cover illustration. The visual appeal of your book is greatly enhanced by a carefully chosen illustration for your cover. Give your cover artist one or more drawings, symbols, or photos to start the creative process.
One of the "wonders of the web" is the ability to shop for stock photos online rather than digging through pages and pages of catalogs. Your artist can download the art to see how it looks on the cover. It's not ready to print (you have to pay for a printable version), but to shop for art, nothing beats the web. Don't be shy about sending your own sketches or snapshots. The first question the cover designer asks is always, "What do I have to work with?"
You will also see highly successful book covers that seem to have no illustrations at all. Look again. The patterns, colors, and shapes of the letters themselves are carefully designed to illustrate the thrust of the book and invite you inside.
For more information about your cover's design, go to--
Back Cover
Spine