BOOK COVER DESIGNING

How many of you take books for granite? You notice the title, the subtitle, and cover. An author is lucky to have the right combination that will capture a reader and hold their interest...enough to purchase their book.

The cover has to be attractive, eye catching, and balanced in harmony and color. I'm sure many readers have never thought about the type, size, style, or color of a font.

 

Prior to being published, I never paid attention to the copyright page. Was I ever so naive! Should a book have an introduction, preface, prologue, epilogue, or table of contents? What is right or wrong?

 

Sentence spacing for the interior of the book is another thing a designer has to consider. Will it be easy reading? Is the font size too small, light, or an uncomfortable style and spacing?

The author has eight seconds to grab the readers attention with what is on the back cover. Therefore the synopsis must be an attention grabber that will cause the reader to want to purchase the book.

Taking all of this into consideration, I have designed two possible book covers for our upcoming book. The book is titled Treasured Memories: A Collection of Short Stories.

The six interior categories are: Childhood, The Fifties, Love, Faith, Memorable Moments, and Special Men. For each category, a gemstone was selected that best suited each section. In order to pull the whole idea together of treasured memories and gemstones, I've designed the two covers.

The first cover is an actual photo album that was my mama's. I liked the delicate gold framing and felt a couple of old photographs, some antique jewelry, and an orchid like the one I ALWAYS gave Mama for Mother's Day would be perfect.

The second cover I've designed for the book has the idea of a treasure chest filled with treasured memories, i.e., photographs, postcards, greeting cards, and jewelry (gemstones).

For this cover I substituted the orchid for a silk corsage from my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary.

The next time you look at a book...take time to REALLY LOOK AT IT. So much goes into the writing and designing of a book for your reading enjoyment.

Thanks for reading,

Vada and Joseph