- Next to the title of your book,
your book cover is the most important sales marketing
material you can create for your book.
Getting it right is worth investing time and money.
But no matter what approach you take
to get your book cover make sure
you've thought about these things.
(upbeat music)
Hi, I'm Julie Broad.
Author and founder of Book Launchers.
A fantastic company that will help you
write, publish, and sell
a non-fiction book that grows your business
and builds your brand.
I've got a bit of a confession to make.
When it comes to visually creative endeavors
I'm seriously lacking in that creative department.
I disliked art class in school.
Coloring bores me and well,
ask me what my book cover should look like and I go,
It should look good, thank you.
So I'm not a cover design expert.
That's why I have always paid
a premium price for cover design.
If you're an amazing designer,
you might be able to do your own book cover.
But remember, this is the second most important thing
to sell your book.
So it's quite likely best left to a professional.
I'm not very good at telling you how things should look.
I'm good at hiring for it.
And here's what you need to do
to hire someone to create a great cover for your book.
Number one, know the general category and genre
of your book so they can make it fit.
Number two, have a sense of the colors you may like.
Number three, find five to 10,
five to 10 book covers you like
and bonus points if you can tell the designer
why you like those covers.
Number four, know your cover dimensions and formats.
This is called trim size.
Trim size is the publishing term for book size.
After each copy is printed and bound,
the book is mechanically trimmed,
you know (chopping noises) trimmed.
So the size of every page is uniform.
The trim size relates in dimensions
in width times height format.
In the US and even in Canada,
the trim size is denoted in inches.
Typical non-fiction books are six by nine.
But there's other formats of course.
I talked about book sizes in this video right here
if you want more details for that.
Now this is important.
When you go to hire your book cover designer,
request covers for soft cover, e-book, 3D version,
and if you know you're doing an audiobook
or a hard cover ask for that too.
Every one of those formats has different specifications.
So make sure you're specifying every kind
of cover that you need.
Super important tip.
I also always ask for the original source files.
So I can make changes in the future
with another designer if necessary.
You can't always count on being able
to hire and find the same designer in the future.
Now your designer's also going to need some obvious stuff.
The title of your book,
the subtitle, your name,
or if there's other names you need to include.
Any images you want included on the cover.
And blurbs, check out this amazing video on getting
celebrity and authority endorsements for your book.
Notice your author picture is not on that list.
You can put your picture on the front cover
but unless you're a celebrity in your niche,
I wouldn't recommend it.
Now here's what you want to watch out for.
Number one, can you read the title in thumbnail size
and print cover size.
Talking title and subtitle.
Number two, do the important words,
the words that will matter to your ideal reader,
do those words stand out?
Number three, does the cover design fit
with the genre while still having something
that catches the eye to make it stand out.
A horror book cover for example,
is going to stand out in the leadership category
but not for the right reasons.
Number four, is it a cover you are proud of?
How does it make you feel.
Something to think about.
What is this going to cost?
Reedsy, R E E D S Y
has an article that outlines the average cost
of covers for self published authors.
They said a relatively new book designer
will charge between $300 and $500.
Experienced designers will charge between $500 and $800.
And top tier rock star award winning cover designers
will charge between $800 and $1500.
At the end of the day, the most important thing
is you have a cover you're proud of
that looks great in print,
and stands out as a thumbnail.
If you like this tip, smash that thumbs up button
and make sure you subscribe to the channel
so we can hang out again soon.
(upbeat music)
(beeping)
Oh you're still here.
Well here's a fabulous bonus tip
because you stuck around 'til the end.
One thing we do for our clients
to check the cover design
is when we're not sure or we get it down
to two or three covers, we take the top 20 books
in the category and mock up what our client's book
will look like in the top 20.
That way you can be certain which book cover
stands out amongst the books it's competing with
while also fitting in the group.
Cool, right?
So you can do this.
You don't need a graphics designer.
Just take a screen capture, paste it into PowerPoint,
and stick that cover design
that you're wondering about on top.
Now you'll know.