7 Book Cover Design Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs

You’ve worked on your book around the clock, and now it’s finally ready. The next step is to wrap it up in a beautiful package and show it to the world.

If you think that book cover design is less important than content, you’re not right. Your great story deserves a professional cover that will attract the right target audience and boost your sales.

In this blog post, we have gathered the 7 most common book cover design mistakes authors make. Try to avoid them at all costs, and you’ll be ahead of your competitors.

Let’s start.

Mistake #1 – Weak composition

A book cover may communicate the genre perfectly and contain many images essential for the plot, but the reader may feel something is wrong. It’s about a weak composition when elements are placed somewhat chaotic and do not harmonize with each other. The correct arrangement of characters and other objects, as well as the appropriate color scheme, completely changes the impression of a book cover.

Mistake #2 – Bad font choice

Typography is an essential element of the book cover design. It shows the character of your writing and can become your brandmark.

So, what are the common book cover design typography mistakes?

Typography doesn’t communicate the right genre and doesn’t express the mood. Try to convey it with special colors, imagery, and even customized fonts.

The title is not readable in a thumbnail on Amazon. The size of the title, as well as the author’s name, matters. It targets the reader. Typography helps to communicate the genre and mood of the book to your readers.

If it’s a book series that has a subtitle, make sure it is readable enough. Choose a contrasting font that grabs readers’ attention.

You should use the same alignment for the title, subtitle, author’s name, and the other text you want to include in the exterior design. Also, it makes the visual concept of the book well-organized.

Mistake # 3 – Bland design and dull colors

Prevent the lack of contrast. Design in such genres as fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, and the like requires a bright palette. Tints of contrasting colors enrich it with vivid hues and catch the eye.

The color of the title is very similar to the color of the background, which makes it difficult to read. To avoid it, you can choose hues that contrast with your background or highlight the title with extra effects. Yet, try to select amid a pleasant color palette so that people can read it in thumbnails and print.

Mistake # 4 – Lack of professionalism

Knowing how to create collages in Photoshop and add text is not enough to make a book cover look professional. At a minimum, you still need to choose the right font. At a maximum, you should make the color corrections for images, create a harmonious composition and enhance the final picture with effects and decorative elements. Without all these steps, the book cover will look cheap and amateurish.

Mistake # 5 – Too much text on the cover

Too much text on the cover repels the potential audience because people don’t like reading long titles and subtitles. Additionally, it may be challenging for readers to figure out what the book is about. We don’t mean you have to shorten the title or subtitle. Instead, you can highlight keywords with different colors or enlarge their size.

Mistake # 6 – Bad quality of images

Images with low resolution spoil the whole impression of the design. It’s always better to choose high-quality pictures to make a book cover design eye-catching. Also, make sure you possess the copyright for the images used.

Mistake #7 – The design doesn’t communicate the genre

It’s significant to stick to your genre. Use certain colors and key elements to convey the desired feelings dwelled in the novel. Don’t mislead your audience. Meet their expectations, and you’ll get more loyal readers.