AtlasBooks Distribution Blog

I love checking out cover images. I remember my grade school librarian telling me the old adage that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I think in the current age that you can tell a lot more than what a book is about by the cover. For instance, a poorly designed cover indicates to me that the publisher didn’t take time to do things right. I assume that they may not have professionally edited the content, and may not even have taken the time or spent the money for a proper proofread. And a book buyer may assume that if the publisher didn’t spend money on a decent cover, they probably didn’t save enough back for marketing and publicity campaigns.

Of course a poorly designed cover doesn’t mean all the rest, maybe the publisher just has bad taste in design. But an unattractive cover reflects on the book, and people could assume any of the things above and this does not bode well for the book.

So my first word of advice is to use a professional cover designer and to respect their advice. You may love the picture your cousin drew to use on your cover, but only use it if you would rather keep your cousin happy than sell your book.

My next word of advice is to check out trends. This is as easy as walking in a bookstore, or even browsing online. And keep in mind that trends change not only from year to year, but also with the time of year (for example, books coming out after the beginning of the year tend to use more blues and purples while books coming out for summer and fall generally have warmer brighter colors like yellows, oranges, and reds). Make sure to check trends for your genre.

Finally for today, I want to recommend a blog post from Elizabeth Bluemle who writes for Publisher Weekly’s “ShelfTalker.” Elizabeth hits on some popular trends that she sees from working in her bookstore, The Flying Pig Bookstore in Charlotte VT.

And here is a plug for BookMasters. As a part of our range of services, we offer cover design. Our team of cover designers also works with our marketing and sales team to ensure that our cover advice is best for the publisher both stylistically and design-wise. Call your sales executive for more information.