Hellooo, everybody! Today I'm talking about the  best and worst part of so many writers publishing experience...

The book cover!

Most writers look  forward to the book cover process. It's fun  

and exciting to get your book baby all decked up  and ready for sale. But a shockingly large number  

of writers don't know what they're doing, and in  turn, their book cover looks about as appealing as  

a soggy turd. Your cover is a marketing tool. It's  the very first thing your readers are gonna see,  

which means it needs to be on point. So  why are you guys releasing the ugliest,  

crappiest, junkiest, no goodest covers  out there? What are you thinking?  

Look, I'm not trying to be an asshole. Okay, maybe just  a little. I'm trying to save you a world of hurt,  

and get you some actual sales. So I'm breaking  down the ten worst mistakes writers make,  

when it comes to designing their book covers.  These mistakes are so common which is honestly  

such a shame because they are completely  avoidable. Pay close attention to this list.  

Seriously, take notes because this absolutely  can and will make or break your book's success.  

And I know number ten hurts, but  I'm telling you because I care.  

And also because your book cover sucks. Let's get into it!

(The sound of a pen scratching. LOGO.)

Hey guys, a friendly reminder. For the entire  month of March 100% of the profits from my merch  

store are going straight to United Help Ukraine.  That's 100% of the profits. It's all going to an  

amazing cause. So if you want to support United  Help Ukraine and get yourself some fun writerly  

goodies, please check out my merch store. I  have it linked below. I also wanted to mention,  

you will hear me talking about the company  MiblArt in this video. What you may not know is  

MiblArt is a Ukrainian based company. Please  show them your love and support. They are working  

really hard right now and obviously going through  a very difficult time. So if you could send them  

your love, that would be fantastic. Also, all  of the book covers featured in this video were  

made by MiblArt, so you will see firsthand  just how incredible and talented they are.  

Onto the video! Today's video was requested  by one of my patrons over on Patreon,  

Darkscribe. Like so many writers they wanna know  all about how to create a marketable book cover,  

and what sort of mistakes to avoid. I got you  covered oh scribe of darkness. I'd also like to  

say a huge thank you to my friends over at MiblArt  for sponsoring today's video. MiblArt is an  

amazing cover design company specifically geared  toward indie authors. They work with every and all  

genres and it's their goal to turn every author's  book cover into their number one marketing tool.  

I've worked with MiblArt myself, and I had a  fantastic experience. They are super affordable.  

They offer unlimited revisions. And you can get  your first cover design concept in just five days,  

which is crazy fast! On top of that they offer a  100% refund, and there's no prepayment for photo  

manipulated book covers, which is a huge benefit  if you're feeling cautious about the book cover  

process. Additionally, they provide authors with  cover ideas for free if they want to envision  

their cover before making an order. And their  designers are constantly analyzing the market  

to make sure their cover design fits reader  expectations. It honestly does not surprise  

me that they have a five out of five star rating  on Facebook. They were so easy to work with. Plus  

their designers are so talented and professional.  They offer photo manipulated book cover design,  

they do illustrated designs from scratch,  they offer a logo, branding, character design,  

all kinds of features. They are amazing. Like  I said I highly recommend MiblArt, they are  

extremely affordable. But right now you can get an  additional 10% off using code: Jenna10. Click the  

link below, use code Jenna10, and get 10% off your  beautiful book cover. Don’t forget to subscribe  

to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays.  And if you wanna be alerted as SOON as I upload,  

ring that bell. The Savior's Champion and  The Savior’s Sister are available in ebook,  

paperback, hardback, and audiobook. They're  available at all major retailers. So if you wanna  

pick up this super swoony, super stabby-stab,  bloody-blood, kill-kill, dark fantasy romance,  

you absolutely should! I mean, it won awards. It's  a fucking bestseller! You totally should. They're  

linked below. Do it, yeah. Now I'm breaking  down the ten biggest mistakes writers face  

when they tackle book cover design. Keep in  mind, this list is geared toward indie writers,  

because if you go the traditional publishing  route you will pretty much have zero say when it  

comes to your book cover. Sorry about it. But for  all the indies out there, don't do these things,  

okay? Your potential readers will never forgive  you. Actually they'll just never buy your book,  

which is a whole lot worse. Number One (1): To  hell with the genre. A lot of writers design the  

book cover that they've envisioned for years,  one that holds a deep profound meaning to them.  

Which is fine, if it's effective. I'm gonna say  this a lot throughout this video so be prepared,  

but your book cover is your number one  marketing tool. Which means more than anything,  

it needs to communicate what your book is about,  especially its genre. Your cover’s job is to say,  

“Hey, readers see this book, it's all about  knights and dragons. So if that's your thing,  

open me up, bitches.” This is why we see so  many of the same type of covers. People joke  

about shirtless men on romance covers, but they  exist for a reason. You see a shirtless man,  

you know instantly that it's a romance. This is  why reinventing the wheel when it comes to your  

book cover isn't exactly a good decision. You  don't have to replicate what everyone else is  

doing, but your quirky indiscernible cover isn't  doing you any favors. Make sure your book cover is  

comparable and communicative of your genre.  It'll go a long way in boosting your sales,  

and not pissing off your readers. On a similar  note, Number Two (2): To help with the market.  

“But Jennaaa, I did what you said. My cover  definitely reflects my genre.” Okay, but does it  

fit your genre circa the 90s or today? What  about its category? Is it looking more young  

adult or adult? I hate to break it to you, but  there's a hell of a lot more that goes into cover  

art than just genre. This is when paying attention  to the market is key. Just as genres and tropes go  

in and out of trends, so do book covers.  Sure maybe your cover screams fantasy,  

but if it screams fantasy circa the 80s readers  are going to assume it's outdated, which is a big  

problem if this is a new release. Maybe your  cover is indicative of romance, but it screams  

innocent teen romance when really you've written  a steamy adult erotica. You're gonna attract the  

wrong readership and scar ‘em for life. Great job.  This is part of the reason why so many authors  

change their book covers mid series. Trends and  expectations change, so authors feel compelled to  

adjust for marketability. Again we are not here  to copy, but we do wanna make sure our cover is  

relevant, marketable, and engaging for our target  audience in this current marketplace. Research the  

industry. Pay attention to current styles within  your target audience, and take notes. Number  

Three (3): Copy and paste extravaganza. A lot of  covers are made up of a series of stock photos,  

which is completely fine. What isn't fine is when  you can clearly see a series of individual images  

layered on top of one another in a massive copy  and paste photo dump. Maybe you can see the edges  

where the image was lassoed out of its original  photo. Maybe the colors or lighting don't match  

up. Maybe it's pixelated or wildly distorted.  Maybe you've copied and pasted someone else's head  

onto a completely different body. We can see that  shit. The cover needs to read as one cohesive  

piece of art. The stock photos need to be stitched  and blended together to create a unified whole.  

If readers can clearly see the separation and  distortion from one stock photo to the next,  

they're going to assume that the book  cover was unprofessionally self made,  

which doesn't bode well for the contents of the  book. Number Four (4): But, why is it so blurry?  

This is a huge issue when it comes to print  books, meaning paperbacks and hardbacks.  

A lot of indie writers wind up with blurry  covers, the images aren’t clear, the colors aren’t  

saturated. Everything is faded and dull. It kinda  looks like we're staring at the cover through  

RuPaul season one filter. Now it's normal for  there to be a slight color difference between  

the ebook and print books, because they use a  different color setting. But it's not normal  

or acceptable for print books to look blurred and  washed out to death. This is usually a result of  

inappropriate file size, or resolution, or both.  If your cover template is five by eight and you  

end up printing a six by nine book, this is going  to destroy the image quality. And if your file is  

too low of a resolution, it doesn't matter what  size your book is, your cover is gonna be fucked.  

This might sound like technical mumbo-jumbo  that you don't understand, but most publishing  

platforms provide cover templates, and then  you can send them over to your cover artist,  

and they can take care of the whole thing. And if  you order proof copies ahead of the book release,  

you can make sure your print cover looks clear  and clean. Basically this entire problem can be  

easily avoided. So if you've got a blurry shithole  of a cover, that's on you. Number Five (5): Your  

fonts suck. It doesn't matter how beautiful  your cover imagery is, if your fonts suck,  

it's gonna ruin the whole thing. And fortunately  for you, there are several different ways your  

fonts can stink up your cover. First up, are  you utilizing too many fonts? Congratulations,  

your cover is a confusing mess. Second, does  your font fit the concept of your novel? If not,  

what were you thinking? I've seen horror covers  with flowery cursive fonts, and I've seen romance  

novels featuring fonts out of a nightmare. You're  giving your readers mixed messages. They're not  

gonna know what the hell your book’s about. Third,  are you using unprofessional fonts like Comic  

Sans or Papyrus? You might think I'm kidding,  there's no way people actually do this. They do.  

And lastly, the worst possible mistake you  can make when it comes to cover art font,  

is it unreadable? What's the point of words if  not to read them? If your book is titled Love  

on Venus, but the font looks like it says Love  on Anus, that's a whole different kinda book.  

Fonts are often overlooked because they're not as  exciting as the imagery of the book cover, but you  

need to pay attention to them because trust me,  your readers are paying attention to them. Number  

Six (6): You threw in the whole damn kitchen  sink. This is a mistake a lot of newbie writers  

run into. They think every teeny tiny detail  of their novel is important enough to feature  

on the cover. If this is you, you're an idiot. You  know that one scene where that one tree is a brief  

metaphor for life and growth. Yeah, no one gives a  shit. Yes, your cover should communicate what your  

book is about, but your book is not about every  single image and symbol you plop on the pages.  

If you overcrowd your cover with too many images,  readers aren't gonna know what the hell the book’s  

about because they're going to be too overwhelmed  sifting through the mass. Think about the main  

points of your novel, the elements that occur  consistently. Whether that's a color scheme,  

various genre elements, or extremely important  symbols. Feature those aspects on your cover  

and nothing else. Which brings us to, Number Seven  (7): What exactly am I looking at? Every cover  

needs a focal point. Something that captures the  reader's attention. Quite often, this is a large  

focal image, like a person or a weapon. But it can  also be an eye-catching title. This is especially  

common in genres like thrillers or mysteries, or  in nonfiction. This focal point does a lot of work  

for you, because it's going to catch the reader's  attention right away. This allows them to latch  

on to the cover which means you are bettering your  odds of them reading the blurb, learning about the  

author, and then buying the book. This all sounds  like common sense, right? Wrong. A lot of covers,  

especially among newbie writers, have no focal  point whatsoever. Sometimes it's due to clutter,  

other times it's due to that copy and paste issue  I mentioned already, but quite often it's due to a  

lack of direction. If you're not sure which  direction to go, think about one thing you  

want to pop on your cover. Is it a visual, like a  shirtless man? Or is your title alone shocking and  

impactful? And don't forget your cover artists is  on your side, allow them to offer their expertise.  

That's what they're here for. Number Eight (8):  Does the thumbnail even matter? Yes, it really,  

really does. You know why brick and mortar  bookstores are rapidly going out of business?  

It’s because an overwhelming majority of books  are purchased online. That means nine times out  

of ten, your reader’s first impression of your  book is going to be a thumbnail. This circles  

back to points six and seven. Quite often,  if your book looks shitty in thumbnail form,  

it's probably because your cover is a cluttered  mess or there's no focal point. The easiest way  

to rectify this issue is to look at your  cover in thumbnail form. Is it attractive?  

Is it eye-catching? Does it stand out? Hell, can  you even tell what's going on? If you answered no  

to any of these questions, it's time to make some  changes. Your cover needs to be clear, beautiful,  

and striking in thumbnail view, or else readers  are gonna scroll past it. Number Nine (9): Balance  

is for acrobats, not for book covers, is something  only idiots say. Have you ever looked at a book  

cover and thought it's nice, but something's off.  I can almost guarantee, the issue is symmetry.  

The cover lacks balance which basically means  that the imagery and fonts are very overpowering  

on one side of the book cover, but on the other  side it's sparse and underwhelming. This makes the  

cover feel unfinished, unpolished, and honestly,  unsettling to look at. Usually when we see an  

asymmetrical cover, it's due to the positioning  of the focal point image, versus the fonts. Maybe  

you've got all of your writing all the way at the  tippy-top of your book cover, you got an image in  

the middle, and then there's absolutely nothing at  the bottom. That's not gonna work. It's gonna look  

weird, and readers will notice. If you're not sure  if your cover lacks balance, flip it upside down.  

If it looks wonky, you're done fucked up. This is  another easy fix. All it takes is some rebalancing  

and reorganizing to make sure that your cover has  symmetry. And Number Ten (10): You don't hire a  

professional at all. I can't believe I have to say  this, but for the love of God, there are virtually  

zero situations where it's okay, let alone and  advisable, for a writer to design their own cover.  

What's the one and only reason you can get  away with designing your own book cover?  

If you are literally a book cover designer.  “But Jennaaa, I'm a graphic designer.” Okay,  

do you have any experience with book covers? You  know about page bleed, market trends, or spine  

width based on page count? No, I didn't think  so. “But Jennaaa, I'm really good at Photoshop.”  

So am I. That changes absolutely nothing. Look,  just because I sewed a pillow in middle school,  

doesn't mean I'm qualified to design my wedding  dress. Guess I gotta say it one more time. Your  

book cover is your number one marketing tool. It  is the very first thing readers are gonna see.  

This is not the place to throw in the towel.  Skipping this step hurts no one but yourself.  

Hire a professional, it could be a lot more  affordable than you think, and it will make a  

huge difference in boosting your sales. So  that's all I got for you today. Thank you to  

Darkscribe for requesting today's video. If you'd  like the chance to have a video dedicated to you,  

or if you want access to tons of other awards,  check me out on Patreon. You can get early access  

to my videos. We have an exclusive writing group.  There are monthly live streams. There are signed  

books. I got it linked below. And thank you so  much to MiblArt for sponsoring today's video,  

and for such a great work experience. If you want  an affordable book cover made by professionals,  

I definitely recommend checking them out.  And right now you can get 10% off using code:  

Jenna10. Just click the link below, get yourself  a discount, it's that easy. Don't forget to  

subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on  Wednesdays. And if you wanna be alerted as SOON  

as I upload, ring that bell. The Savior's Champion  and The Savior’s Sister are available in ebook,  

paperback, hardback and audiobooks. So pick up  a copy today. I know you want to, I can see it  

in your eyes. They're linked below, get on it.  And be sure to follow me on social media. I'm  

on Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and BookBub. And  of course you can tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye!

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