What Covers Are Your Favorites?

Book covers are an important part to every book.  Authors have to make certain that they get a cover that fits their book and will intrigue any potential readers.  Readers always judge books based on the cover design first.

So if you are an author and need a cover for your book, how do you know what to get?  Most authors hire a professional illustrator, unless you are able to do your own illustrations.  Many publishing companies have hoards of cover designers that study the different trends of book covers: the ones that sell and the ones that don’t.  They then will design a cover that follows the trend.  But if you are an independent author how do you know what to put on your book’s cover?   First, think of the books you have and their covers.  What was it about those cover designs that made you pick up the book?  Second, hire a freelance artist to help you design a cover.  If you have a series make sure you hire an artist who is willing to do the entire series so that way you will have consistent cover designs.

To give your book it’s best outfit, think about what your book is about.  It is a mystery? Fantasy? Horror? You’ll want a cover the fits the genre.  Is your book light-hearted read, or an intense thriller with many twists and turns.  Do you want a person on the cover or a nature design.  What age group is your book appealing to?

For instance, when I had my illustrator for my Mellow Summers series, I wanted something that would appeal to the teenage/young adult crowd since they were my target audience. 

For my Fantasy series, my illustrator stuck with a simple design and stayed away from the modern cover designs.  Most modern fantasy tends to be dark fantasy, which my books are not.

Just remember, if you wrote a book: think of the covers that grab your attention. Below are a list of covers that would make me pick the book up in the store.  Your cover must do the same.

Not an author?  Well, tell us what some of your favorite book covers are.  Book covers are the outfit of the book.  They are what make us notice them.