Choosing your Cover Art Layout

Like it or not, people judge your book by it's cover!

May 20, 2006 Kimberly Dawn Wells

There is a lot more to choosing your cover art than just finding a picture and superimposing some text. Learn the secrets to great cover art.

If you are getting your book published by a traditional publisher, you might not have to think too hard about choosing your cover art. Your publisher may have a pre-selected format or may hire an artist to create this for you. If you are designing and printing your book yourself, creating effective cover art for both printed and electronic versions of your book is an important part of the publishing and marketing function.

If you choose to create your own cover art, you'll need to take the following elements into consideration:

1. Color theme

2. Images

3. Font

4. Layout

If you gather any collection of books you will see a variety of layout styles that are used for the cover. Some books have a solid background with just a few words centered 1/3rd from the top of the page. Some covers are a full color image with text in a designated "white space." Others are partitioned by section for an arrangement of images and text. You have many options for laying out your book cover. They are too extensive to discuss here, so instead I will provide you with some resources for finding templates.

You can use nearly any book, movie, or magazine cover as inspiration for your template. Each of these uses similar components to create a highly visible layout designed to catch the eye of a potential buyer. Simply plug your images, colors, and text into the spaces previously occupied by the sample design. You will need to be cautious not to blatantly steal anyone's design, layout, theme, or images. Published items such as these are copyrighted. There is no reason you can't use a similar layout to achieve your desired results.

Many print-on-demand publishers have cover art layouts available for you to use. Some allow you to upload or type in the components of your book and an automated graphics program combines them to create a finished image. Some require you to create your own based on a template. These are helpful tools for beginners.

Graphic designers or cover art specialists usually have a collection of templates to pull from. If you provided your images, color palette, and text to a designer, he or she could easily plug them into a template. The services that designers offer in the areas of resolution and file type are often well the fee you pay them. Publishers and media appreciate the flexibility in image size and file type.

Creating cover art doesn't have to be difficult, but is very important. By putting some careful thought into your design and using high quality resources, you can create an effective cover that helps you sell your book.

The copyright of the article Choosing your Cover Art Layout in Resources for Writers is owned by Kimberly Dawn Wells. Permission to republish Choosing your Cover Art Layout in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.