What is the purpose of a book cover? Practically
speaking, since the cover is made from a paper (for paperbacks) which is
heavier than the pages of the book, part of the purpose of the cover is to
protect the pages. But what other purpose does it serve?
The primary purpose of a book cover is to get the attention of a potential
reader. You as the writer want the cover to be something that makes people
want to pick the book up off the shelf and take it up to the cash register.
For me, something eye catching means bright bold colors. In the first color
draft for Misfit McCabe's cover, I didn't like the title because for me the
color was much too soft. I wanted something brighter. I also didn't like the
girl as a brunette, the dark hair felt too harsh too me (besides, Katie is
blonde).
Think of the book cover as part of your marketing material. While not everyone buys a book only for the cover, if your
cover is not attractive or striking, it is likely to be passed by.
With books sales over the internet increasing, it is again your artwork that
will grab the attention of a potential reader. This then begs the
question, how close should the book cover be to the material inside?
The cover should contain something of the essence of the book, but does not
have to be exact in every detail. Think about movie posters; they are
designed to capture your interest, but may illustrate a scene that never
crosses the screen in the movie. This same type of concept should be
used when designing your cover.
A class I was working with as the book cover was being designed had some
criticisms of the cover that they shared with me. They felt that the
burning shed looked more like a house than a shed, and that the characters
on the front looked older than what they had imagined. A few thought
that the cover should have realistic people rather than cartoon figures.
I understood their criticisms and went on to explain why I made the choices
that I did. The burning building on the cover does look more like a
house than it does a shed because it appears to be much larger than what a
shed would be. By being larger, the fact that it has flames coming out
of it makes it more dramatic.
As far as the cartoon, or even comic book aspect of the cover, I wanted the
designer to come up with something that was more stylized looking rather
than something that looked like a photograph. I find that when I am reading
a book, if the cover has a picture of the main character of the book and it
is like a photograph or painting and the description of the character in the
story doesn't exactly match, I become a little irritated. Plus, When I read
something, I visualize everything in my head and I wanted my readers to be
able to do the same without being given a concrete image from the cover.
The class was at somewhat of a disadvantage, as far as the cover was
concerned, because they had already read part of the story and had already
had a chance to picture in their mind what Katie and Timmy and the shed
looked like. Before deciding what your
cover should look like, you should look at several covers of books that are
similar in content to yours. What do you like about the covers?
What don't you like? What is it that catches your eye? Which
ones would you pass without picking up?
To give you an idea of the changes, I have posted the original color version
of the cover (left) along with the published version (right).
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