Don’t Judge a Book By its Cover…Unless it’s Your Own
The reason most book covers fail to attract readers is because they are lacking this one crucial design quality.
If designing book covers was easy, we wouldn’t have so many examples of bad ones. You know what we are talking about. Think about the last bad book cover you saw. Did it have poor title treatment, making it hard to read? Was the image too loud? Not loud enough? Covers can be really tricky. Many times they fall into the Goldilocks paradox – it’s got to be just right. So what does that mean, “just right?”
Besides the content and title, one of the most important elements of your book is the cover. We all know the age-old English idiom "don't judge a book by its cover." This metaphorical phrase means one shouldn't prejudge the worth or value of something by its outward appearance alone. You probably heard this once or twice from your high school English teacher.
The ironic thing is we do judge books by their covers all the time. Your book will be judged by its cover!!! One way to avoid falling into the bad cover camp is to be clear. It sounds so simple but think back to the bad covers that came to mind. Are they clear? Probably not. Now think about the covers you like. I bet they all share that same common trait.
Recently, when we were working on a new book cover for one of our clients, the marketing VP said this: “You want your cover to be clever and clear, but if it can only be one, pick clear.” We couldn’t agree more. Being clear is one of, maybe the most, important strategies for creating a really great book cover.
You might not know who Chip Kidd is (and that’s okay), but I bet you know his work. He’s a rock star book cover designer and has created some of the most iconic covers in publishing – Michael Crichton’s "Jurassic Park," for one; another is David Sedaris’s "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim." He’s an industry leader when it comes to creating book covers. And it just so happens he has a great TED Talk on doing just that.
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“A book design gives form to content.” – Chip Kidd
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So remember when you are creating your book cover, don’t forget this one crucial design quality: Be clear. You can do so many things with a book cover, but if you ignore this one simple rule, do so at your own risk. You will be judged for it!!!
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