Billboard Book Design: How to Make Your Book Cover Sell
Billboards are a powerful marketing tool. Their purpose is to establish a brand impression in the viewer’s mind.
Even if a Nike® logo is seen only in passing, the individual who witnessed it may be on their way to pick up a pair of tennis shoes. Can you guess which brand is going to come to mind once they arrive at their local shoe store?
The same concept applies to a book cover design. One key factor distinguishes a truly powerful cover design: effective marketing.
When authors think of a book cover, many consider it more of a work of art, or something that should be beautiful to behold. This is absolutely true, but stopping here with the development of the design could result in an ineffective and unoriginal book jacket design.
The next question is: how does this billboard principle apply to a book cover design? Aren’t they two completely different mediums?
Absolutely. But the key elements that make billboards worth the thousands of dollars poured into them can do the same for a book cover, at a fraction of the price. Read on to learn more about how this is accomplished.
Stunning Design with a Targeted Approach
A cover design doesn’t have to be flashy to be effective. Flashy may work in some instances, but what makes a book cover marketable is who it influences.
The key is developing a design that intrigues the audience you want to reach and causes them to want to find out more. Cluttered, busy, or image-heavy designs will blend in with thousands of others.
Here are examples of designs that capture the essence of the audience they’re targeting, while keeping a clean and organized design:
The Great Commandment Leader
Neither the color scheme, typography, or photograph were selected for this composition by accident. All the elements were chosen to capture the market this author was aiming to target: leaders.
Laughter in the Wind
Many genres — particularly fiction — have a certain look and quality about them. This design effectively fits the genre it portrays, with a creative execution.
In Your Reader’s Shoes
A big part to acquiring a design that captures your audience is placing yourself in their shoes. Stop and consider:
- What would I expect to see for this book’s cover design?
- What would capture my attention?
- What would stand out from the crowd?
Too often in the design process, authors and designers get hung up on intricacies, such as preferred typefaces, who likes what colors, and so on. If you sense yourself going down this path, examine the cover’s execution from a marketing standpoint. Ask:
“What would be the best for conveying my story, while interesting my readers?”
Just like plastic explosives, typefaces, colors, and layouts should be used only by those who are well trained with their use.
Go for the Unexpected
The most effective billboards are simple and concise. Many billboards are intended to shock the viewer into remembering the brand associated with the advertisement.
While most book covers are not designed for shock value, they do need to stand out from the crowd and to clearly communicate the book’s message in a creative manner. Let’s take a look at some billboards that do just that:
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Nationwide Insurance: Spilled Paint
The Perfect Title and Subtitle
A billboard generally includes two typographical elements: the company’s logo and tagline. In similar fashion, cover designs also include two primary typographical elements.
Let’s dive into these key elements and how to use them effectively to market your book:
The Title: Capture Your Readers
Consider the billboards we’ve explored so far. They conveyed a strong and impacting message with few or no words. When you craft a book title, keep it short and to the point. Make the title easy for a potential book buyer to remember.
Your title must also clearly communicate your book’s message. This is critically important for online book sales — titles that include searchable keywords are much easier for book buyers to find and remember.
The Subtitle: Tell them a Little More
Authors often overlook the importance of the subtitle and some self-published authors leave out the subtitle altogether. However, since the cover is arguably the most important part of book marketing, you must choose a subtitle with great care.
For example: consider a book’s title was Hope in Abundance. What would be your guess as to what this book was about? Let’s add to the mix a sunrise scene displayed across the background over which the title was fixed. If you were holding this hypothetical book in your hand, would you scratch your head as to what the message is?
Let’s add a subtitle: Hope in Abundance: A Young Man’s Epic Journey Through Colon Cancer. Do you think this would make it clearer for your readers?
Gaining a Billboard-Level Book Jacket
Your book’s cover design may be your only chance to convince someone your message is worth reading. Here are some examples that deliver stunning results:
Soldier to Soldier, Heart to Heart
Rather than imitating another book cover design, or the author’s personal tastes, this design strives to fit its market.
The Red Envelope
Simple yet effective, The Red Envelope depicts exactly what the title tells you. Labeling this book, “A Thriller” entices the reader to turn the book over to find out more.
New Lenses
Capturing the style befitting this book’s age group, New Lenses puts a new spin on visually portraying the book’s content on the front cover design.
Finding Faith
Clean typography along with a character image gives the reader a glimpse into the story while leaving plenty to the imagination.
Conclusion
Cover design is very important, but only as important as what’s inside the cover. Authors pour a considerable amount of time perfecting every word and crafting every sentence. It’s only fitting that the designer responsible for molding the book’s cover uphold the same commitment to craftsmanship. Your book cover is quite possibly the most influential piece of marketing you have. Use it well!
Please feel free to leave us a comment to let us know your experiences with the book design process, or any feedback for the article. Feedback is welcome and appreciated as it helps us craft future articles to be the most helpful possible for aspiring authors and writers.
Additional Resources
Learn even more about similar principles for marketing and design with these additional resources:
- Billboard Web Design: How to Win Your Audience’s Attention
An article published with Smashing Magazine showcasing similar principles and design for the Web. - Developing Headlines and Copy that Sell: Advertising and Web Design
Tools and tips on the subject of strong and effective advertising design. - “Make the Subtitle Bigger” and Other Requests to Avoid in Book Cover Design
Useful and clear examples for how to utilize strong typography on a cover design.
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Couldnt agree more with that, very attractive article
This is a really helpful article. I have actually never thought of designing for book covers!
Hello,
I’m new here and wanted to welcome everyone.
Esteban