From Mediocre to Masterpiece: How to Design a Book Cover That Stands Out

I’ve been creating children’s books for a while now, but I still remember when I was just starting out. Back then, I thought I had a pretty good eye for design—until I looked back at my early book covers and saw how much I had to learn. One lesson stands out: advice from a professor at the Cambridge School of Art. He told us something simple yet profound that I apply every day: everything on a book cover should have meaning. Every color, every shape, every choice needs a purpose. He would grill us with endless “why” questions: Why is the character’s hand there? Why is the shirt red? Why this font? Why this empty space? His point was clear—intentionality matters.

Now, I’m passing this lesson on to you.

Five hard questions to ask yourself about your book covers.

1.      Does your illustration/image tell a story on its own?

This seems like such a simple thing, but so many times I am left confused wondering what a book is about. Often authors forget that the person who is buying their book has not read their story yet. The person who sees your illustration when they are scrolling down through books on Amazon needs to be able to figure out what your story is about purely off of ONE image, your cover image. Why did you pick the image that you did? What story does it tell on its own?

Many professional picture books like to use an image from the end of the book. This is because often stories have some sort of challenge or difficulty in them that a character must face. However, by the end of the book, usually the main character has defeated all obstacles and achieved something great. This is the emotion that you want to convey to your reader. This is why even if your book is about anxiety, you may want to put a happy character on the front. What you are doing is letting the reader know that your book will make sure that your anxious kid is happy in the end.

In addition, your illustration (and your title or subject line) can also lead the viewer to want to know more. Why is that mouse riding a motorcycle? Why can’t the rock roll down the hill? Why is that cat looking at the dog out of the corner of his eye? A good illustration hooks the viewer into wanting to read your book. Ron Keres did a beautiful job with this in This Book is Perfect. The “e” is falling down, the frog is straining to smile. It’s clear that the book is anything but perfect. It makes you want to know why.

2.      Is the story that you are telling with your illustration for the reader or the buyer?

No, that is not a riddle. When it comes to children’s books, especially picture books, the person who buys the books is not the person who is receiving it. You may think that it is a good idea to have an illustration which speaks directly to the child who will read it (or be read to). However, children don’t buy books, adults do. Therefore, you need to think about what your illustration is telling the buyer. To go back to the example of the children’s book on anxiety, you will want to convey to the adult who is buying the book that not only will their child have less anxiety (or be able to deal better with their anxiety) if they buy your book, but that you, as an author, also know what you are talking about.

Take a look at The Trouble with Children (According to Dog) from Katie Weaver. It does a great job of catching both the buyer and the reader’s attention. This cover speaks to parents with its catchy title and the fact that the font looks like the children drew it on the wall. All parents know just how much trouble kids can get into it. Plus, the cute illustration grabs children’s attention and makes you feel immediately sorry for the poor dog.

This is another reason why a book cover is more than just an illustration. If your book is trying to teach something, then you will need to project an image of a brand that understands education. If your book is about science, then how will you show that you have a scientific background? One of the best ways to do this, is to make your book look as professional as possible. Whether or not it is true, people assume that experts will have the money to make sure their book looks good. If your book looks cheap, it won’t matter if you have the credentials. People may not take your book seriously.

I love the book This I Know from Clay Anderson. It shows he is a master in his craft and understands the people who are going to buy his book. The font, the background, the image, the emotion… they are all spot on. This is a beautiful book cover.

3.      Do you have unnecessary or distracting things on your cover?

Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. Look at your cover. Look at your interior pages. No one likes clutter. Our brains cannot take in a lot of information at once. You may feel like you need to just say it all, but by doing so you may end up losing your reader.  Is there any information that you can take out and still leave the main message?  Keep things short. One way to do this is to look at every item in your illustration and every sentence in your text. Does your story work without them? Do they add or distract from your story? Look at your title. Less is more.

In my opinion, this is one of the hardest things to follow. I write and illustrate. There is nothing tougher than working hours on an illustration and then realizing that the story works better without it. It hurts. But, in the end, the story is more important. Sometimes, you just have to learn to let it go.

A lot of the images in The Worrysaurus from Rachel Bright are quite simple but they do the trick of bringing the reader into this little dinosaur’s world. This cover tells the story beautifully. The dinosaur is so concentrated on his worry that he doesn’t even notice the butterfly.

4.      What direction does your eye travel?

It should usually travel from left to right or clockwise in a circle. This advice is only for books in the West, but is a great rule of thumb to follow. We are used to reading left to rught. When we gesture about time we point a hand left for the past and to the right for the future. You want your reader to think forward. It is easy to flip an image in Photoshop. You want your reader’s eye to either lead to the next page or to move in a circle. In the book See You Later Alligator from Sally Hopgood, your eye moves in a Z beginning on the top left reading the title, then following the gaze of the turtle down to the alligator’s eyes, and then finally back to the right to the names of the author and illustrator.

 What does it mean to move in a circle? A circular cover leads your eye around the image in a circular fashion. Look back at the cover of The Worrysaurus. Your eye reads the title from left to right, then follows the trail from the butterfly around the dinosaur on the rock and back up to read the title again. Of course, there are other visual tricks, but these are the most common.

5.      What story does your title tell?

Every now and then I will look at a book and the title alone will sell it. For example, The Day Santa Stopped Believing in Harold is one of the best titles ever. Even though I wasn’t particularly fond of the cover, the title alone made me want to find out more. A really good title says it all in very few words.

At the Society of Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators Conference, they have a little competition called the 10 word pitch. What you need to do is to sell your book in 10 words. Every author should do this before they choose a title. It helps you to realize what words or concepts in your book are the most important. In addition, most algorithms use the words in the title as your top keywords. Sure a title needs to go hand in hand with the illustration, but it also needs to be able to stand alone. Make sure your title does just that.

Remember this…

Having a professional illustrator do your images will not help you if your design  looks like it was done by a high schooler learning Power Point. There is a reason why a book cover designer is an actual job. The way an illustration is laid out on a page makes a difference. Even subtle things like zooming in on a character or leaving off the background can make a world of difference. In addition, your title needs to not only stand out with a proper font and  it needs to make sense to everyone reading it – the first time. If people are confused by any aspect of your cover, they will not likely click on the thumbnail to find out more. A professional book looks professional because the people who designed it thought everything through. If you want your book to be on the bestseller list and to sell a bunch of copies, then ask yourself:

What meaning does my cover project?

The End.

If you need help with your book cover, layout, or starting your book, I am happy to help. You can find out more about my children’s book self-publishing consulting at kelleydonner.com/consulting