I'm a (nonfiction) cover designer, and just watched this video-these tips are absolutely spot on, and so well explained! Highly recommend this video for any author.
This is a great video! I looked at quite a few cover designers before booking with Enchanted Ink and honestly, I’m already so impressed with the professionalism in the “info-gathering” phase of the process. You’d be surprised how many cover designers don’t have a formal design brief to fill out or the one they do have is quite brief and doesn’t get at the details that make your book visually interesting. At the end of the day, it’s so important to find someone who has not only the skill but the passion to learn about your project in a way that shows you they’ll do everything they can to produce a product you’ll love and be proud of!
Thank you for mentioning the survey or design brief. As a designer, it's very helpful if a client fills out the design brief form because you're providing a lot of information, and the form delivers this information in a logical way that's not overwhelming.
I'm always drawn more to covers with the main character on the cover and I like that you also have a cover like that cause that's what I'll do for mine.
My biggest pet peeve is to get into reading a book and the description of the characters looks NOTHING like the cover. For instance, I recently read a very well written book that described the primary male character as having blond hair and being physically impressive, but the cover had a scrawny looking dark-haired man with a mostly shaved haircut. Obviously the cover dude didn’t have to look *exactly* like the description, but he should be in the neighborhood!
I was picky about that with my fantasy series. The designer put a couple models on there that didn't fit my MC at all. My beta readers agreed that they didn't work. I ended up scouring through the available model shots to find the right one.
Okay, Natalia - Did Greg tell you all the problems I'm having with the measurements of my book cover???? It's like you were in my pocket the last three days! Amazon KDP is still not allowing for bleed even though my designer did the cover to THEIR specifications! I'm going nuts! My cover designer did a GREAT job. It's the sizing that's driving me crazy.
My designer first gave me mockups that were a big nope with the characters. My series is YA fantasy and the first book has a high school hallway as the background. The mockup models were in private school outfits with sexy poses. I hated it. I got opinions from my beta readers and it was unanimous. "Mel would never wear a skirt that short!" Lol. It was a nice validation for me that I wasn't being too picky, and that my readers got a good sense of who my character was. I got more hands-on to find the models. It was tricky finding the right ones with enough variety to last the series. In the end, I'm very happy with my designer's work.
Hot tip covers I like and covers I don’t is so helpful for a designer to see!! I love how you included that, everyone always shows what they like and not what they don’t and as a visual person seeing both sides is so important. Sincerely, a designer.
Some additional things to consider, The main purpose of the cover is definitely to sell the book, but you should be aiming to sell it to the right audience. And that means it needs to communicate at a glance what the books about, her wild west cover did that really well. But I wouldn't recommend putting just anything on the cover. I'd recommend trying to prioritize the genre, age group, setting, and tone. Those are all general enough but also important enough to apply to any book. My WIP, Covenant, is strongly inspired by real world occult practices, so there's a giant pentacle on the cover, representing the supernatural genre. It's in a modern day setting, so there's a backdrop of the D.C. skyline, showing setting. It's a darker story, exploring horror, self harm, trauma etc, so I'm using lots of deeper shades as well as making that pentacle from before upside down, as people tend to associate that with evil. The only thing I'm not really sure about is how to communicate the book as adult. Idk how to show age without having a person on the cover, and I specifically want to avoid that because having a person posing on a cover makes it like like either YA or like a supernatural love triangle
All great points, especially the last one. I am thinking about my cover now and I have the same problem. Having a person on the cover conveys a lot of information, people react to seeing another human being instinctively (we are social animals), we automatically make assumptions when we see someone. Having your prospective reader make accurate assumptions is great but having them make the wrong ones is a disaster. So is it better to just not have a person on there? People like seeing a person there. As I said it conveys so much information they might use to decide whether to buy, without it they may feel they don't have enough to go on. Its a conundrum.
Great tips! I'm in the middle of trying to design my own book covers so this was perfectly timed. Because i don't know how to do digital art (I'll cross that bridge soon ugh) I've been testing a lot of different iterations of what I want on my covers. Everything from colors to types of paper. It's been a lot and kind of overwhelming but I've enjoyed the process. Thanks for the tips. They were much needed lol P.s. can't wait for Whiskey City!!! Can't wait to see the covers you have for this series.
Hello Natalia, I would love to talk to you about formatting my book and also a blurb as well. I emailed you via IG earlier. Thanks for all your informative and helpful videos! J
I'm a (nonfiction) cover designer, and just watched this video-these tips are absolutely spot on, and so well explained! Highly recommend this video for any author.
This is a great video! I looked at quite a few cover designers before booking with Enchanted Ink and honestly, I’m already so impressed with the professionalism in the “info-gathering” phase of the process. You’d be surprised how many cover designers don’t have a formal design brief to fill out or the one they do have is quite brief and doesn’t get at the details that make your book visually interesting. At the end of the day, it’s so important to find someone who has not only the skill but the passion to learn about your project in a way that shows you they’ll do everything they can to produce a product you’ll love and be proud of!
I loved working with enchanted ink! Thea created a perfect cover for my first book.
Your cover is so gorgeous! Thank you for working with us! :D
One of the best book channels.
Thank you for mentioning the survey or design brief. As a designer, it's very helpful if a client fills out the design brief form because you're providing a lot of information, and the form delivers this information in a logical way that's not overwhelming.
I'm always drawn more to covers with the main character on the cover and I like that you also have a cover like that cause that's what I'll do for mine.
I love the Pistol Daisy cover. It looks really 😎
My biggest pet peeve is to get into reading a book and the description of the characters looks NOTHING like the cover. For instance, I recently read a very well written book that described the primary male character as having blond hair and being physically impressive, but the cover had a scrawny looking dark-haired man with a mostly shaved haircut. Obviously the cover dude didn’t have to look *exactly* like the description, but he should be in the neighborhood!
I was picky about that with my fantasy series. The designer put a couple models on there that didn't fit my MC at all. My beta readers agreed that they didn't work. I ended up scouring through the available model shots to find the right one.
This is a great point! If your designer is open to it, it's a great idea to pick stock models you feel fit the MC's appearance.
Okay, Natalia - Did Greg tell you all the problems I'm having with the measurements of my book cover???? It's like you were in my pocket the last three days! Amazon KDP is still not allowing for bleed even though my designer did the cover to THEIR specifications! I'm going nuts! My cover designer did a GREAT job. It's the sizing that's driving me crazy.
My designer first gave me mockups that were a big nope with the characters. My series is YA fantasy and the first book has a high school hallway as the background. The mockup models were in private school outfits with sexy poses. I hated it. I got opinions from my beta readers and it was unanimous. "Mel would never wear a skirt that short!" Lol. It was a nice validation for me that I wasn't being too picky, and that my readers got a good sense of who my character was. I got more hands-on to find the models. It was tricky finding the right ones with enough variety to last the series. In the end, I'm very happy with my designer's work.
Hot tip covers I like and covers I don’t is so helpful for a designer to see!! I love how you included that, everyone always shows what they like and not what they don’t and as a visual person seeing both sides is so important. Sincerely, a designer.
Great round-up of tips! Going to share with viewers for the Authortube Writing Conference, if that's okay! 😄
Thanks, Natalia! Excellent! I've put some of your advice into practice today by looking at covers in my niche genre.
Some additional things to consider,
The main purpose of the cover is definitely to sell the book, but you should be aiming to sell it to the right audience. And that means it needs to communicate at a glance what the books about, her wild west cover did that really well.
But I wouldn't recommend putting just anything on the cover. I'd recommend trying to prioritize the genre, age group, setting, and tone. Those are all general enough but also important enough to apply to any book. My WIP, Covenant, is strongly inspired by real world occult practices, so there's a giant pentacle on the cover, representing the supernatural genre.
It's in a modern day setting, so there's a backdrop of the D.C. skyline, showing setting.
It's a darker story, exploring horror, self harm, trauma etc, so I'm using lots of deeper shades as well as making that pentacle from before upside down, as people tend to associate that with evil.
The only thing I'm not really sure about is how to communicate the book as adult. Idk how to show age without having a person on the cover, and I specifically want to avoid that because having a person posing on a cover makes it like like either YA or like a supernatural love triangle
All great points, especially the last one. I am thinking about my cover now and I have the same problem. Having a person on the cover conveys a lot of information, people react to seeing another human being instinctively (we are social animals), we automatically make assumptions when we see someone. Having your prospective reader make accurate assumptions is great but having them make the wrong ones is a disaster. So is it better to just not have a person on there? People like seeing a person there. As I said it conveys so much information they might use to decide whether to buy, without it they may feel they don't have enough to go on. Its a conundrum.
So good! Great info. Thanks girl! I planned to make my own covers, but after watching this I may hire you guys! 😉
Very nice i am very interested this channel
Great tips! I'm in the middle of trying to design my own book covers so this was perfectly timed. Because i don't know how to do digital art (I'll cross that bridge soon ugh) I've been testing a lot of different iterations of what I want on my covers. Everything from colors to types of paper. It's been a lot and kind of overwhelming but I've enjoyed the process.
Thanks for the tips. They were much needed lol
P.s. can't wait for Whiskey City!!! Can't wait to see the covers you have for this series.
I settled on a premade, it should work.
JESUS IS KING .AMEN.✝️😇🙏👍
Hello Natalia, I would love to talk to you about formatting my book and also a blurb as well. I emailed you via IG earlier. Thanks for all your informative and helpful videos!
J