Book Cover Inspiration & Tips!

carriecopadraws

I've been building a library of cool book covers for awhile, and wanted to share some inspiration for this month's contest challenge! I'd visit the library or book store every month or two and just snap photos of anything that caught my eye. It's a great way to study what makes a cover captivating.

TIPS!

Consider how the title and author name will fit in the thumbnail stage! A general rule of thumb is the title takes up 1/3 of the cover space.
If you can, use real fonts. Or trace over fonts for and embellish them. It will make your cover look more polished. The title treatment conveys the tone of the book as much as the illustration. There are several free font resources out there.
Book covers differ from narrative illustration because they are not usually showing a straight scene from the story, but elements of the story put together in an interesting way. It is a layout/design challenge instead of a storytelling challenge.

Was this helpful? Please share more tips if you have 'em!

Jeremy Ross

Very helpful @carriecopadraws! Thank you!

baileyvidler

Thank you for sharing! These are fantastic examples. Definitely going to save these!

Pinky

Thanks for doing this -- very useful information!

carlianne

This is so great! I am also going to rewatch Will Terry's YouTube video on it

https://youtu.be/ybh2Up_0XuM

Sasha Contreras

@carriecopadraws Great finds!! I think my favorites where the Peasprout Chen and The Girl Who Speaks Bear.

The Peasprout Chen gave a beautiful description to the reader of the character's personality, style, and values. The skates were designed so creatively.

The Girl Who Speaks Bear has an great hidden image within the hill created! The type placement is great and I'm a sucker for a good script font!

Thank you for sharing these!

holleywilliamson

@carriecopadraws thank you, great tips. Here are some more favorite covers I have collected on Pinterest

https://pin.it/WUyIVr5

carriecopadraws

@holleywilliamson Your Pinterest cover collection is fantastic! Where the Red Fern Grows is on my list of covers to redo someday.

Johanna Kim

@carriecopadraws WOW, this is fantastic. Thanks so much for sharing. I also LOVE your work.

idid

@carriecopadraws said in Book Cover Inspiration & Tips!:

! A general rule of thumb is the title takes up 1/3 of the cover space.
If you can, use real fonts. Or trace over fonts for and embellish them. It will make your cover look more polished. The title treatment conveys the tone of the book as much as the illustration. There are several free font resources out there.

Thank you for putting this together. I feel the rule you summarized are pretty helpful, although not even some publishers understand this, to my surprise.