All You Need to Know About Book Covers

Today my guest is Derek Murphy. Derek is a book cover designer and author who blogs about self-publishing and book marketing.

In this interview we concentrate on the topic of book covers and hopefully it will help you understand the topic better, know what makes a good book cover and understand what important role does it play.

Interview Highlights

If you have a good book and you have a good book cover and you put it in front if readers, than you shouldn't do other marketing.

The problem with great cover is that it raises readers' expectations really high and people expect much more based on the cover.

The kind of reviews you're receiving are related to the cover.

You need a cover that matches your book.

The book cover still has to work for those and attract those, who have not read the book yet.

It doesn't really matter if the cover matched the details of your book precisely because the readers have not read the book yet so they don't know the details and by the time they finish reading the book they won't care about the cover anymore.

You should stick to typical standard genre covers.

Readers are not looking for original book covers. You want your book to look like it's into the genre. It kind of has to look like the top 25 books in your genre but it should look better.

Most of the pre-made covers are mediocre but they are better than what indie authors make themselves.

You gotta give the designer freedom rather than make him listen to you and do what you want.

What makes a good book cover?

Good book cover should be:

• 1 scene - 1 piece of art (it should look like you're naturally looking at the scene)
• it should provoke emotional reaction immediately
• the fonts have to fit into image but at the same time stand out
• it should be within genre specific colors

The cover has to be pass/fail test. No one is gonna grade it. It either works or it doesn't. It has to get the click.

Useful Links

Creativindie (Derek Murphy's blog)

CreativeindieCovers 

DYI Book Covers (for free templates, DIY tools, and coming soon - videos about book design)

Where to Get Professional and Affordable Book Covers (podcast interview)