The Self-Publisher’s Guide to Briefing a Book Cover Designer (With Infographic)
Are you getting ready to order a custom book cover for your new self-published book soon? Not sure what to prepare for the book cover design process?
Perfect!
This quick and concise article will show you what information you need when working with a cover designer and how to prepare a good book cover design brief for them.
While most designers have their questionnaires (as they should), this can get the most information to them before even starting that.
With a good design brief, you will:
- Have an easier and smoother time working with the cover designer
- Communicate what you need clearly (so less miscommunication is likely to happen)
- Find a better cover designer when it comes to fit
- And you are more likely to get a standout cover
A quick video version of this is:
We’ll dive in now, step-by-step into the process. Get a coffee! 😉
Step 1: Understand the Market and Subgenres
General market research is often skipped out but a necessary thing to do. You might want to work with the trends or go against the grain and take a risk that way.
While we cover designers do cover design trend research for what’s currently working in certain genres we work in, that doesn’t mean most know what current hot-sellers are, what topics dominate, what authors are crushing it, etc.
You should also research what covers are selling in your main subgenre (or two if the book features two subgenres). There might be subtle differences between them that could confuse readers and give you negative reviews.
Think about romance books, a cover for a sweet romance is a lot different from a dark romance where covers can sometimes be barely distinguishable from crime/horror covers. Below you can see 3 subgenre covers and how they vary:
Or differences in thriller genre, while Legal Thriller is easier to say, Psychological and Domestic Thrillers are very similar:
Step 2: Timeless Tropes
It’s also helpful to learn timeless tropes in your genre. They will always stay but might evolve design-wise over time. Even if they sell less currently, they can fluctuate in popularity.
Some trope samples from different genres you will already likely recognize:
Now that you’ve seen trope examples, consider which ones are relevant to your book. Some you might love, some you might hate.
You can also decide if you want to go along with them, or against them. Going with them is the safer option, but it doesn’t guarantee success just because. A book like ”50 Shades of Gray” set the trend for its genre cover when it came out. There were a lot of copycats. A more recent example is romance fantasy covers which had a new trendy look set off by the red cover:
Step 3: Collect Must-Have Information for the Book Cover Design Brief
For any book cover in fiction, you will need to provide these things to your book cover designer:
- Book title, author name, series name, and/or tagline
- Synopsis (1-3 pages is good, 5 pages is great, few paragraphs is barely enough)
- Genre/Subgenre of your book?
- Is it an eBook or eBook/Print cover (print covers need more information)?
- Back cover blurb (can be same as Amazon description because both are the same)
- What Mood does the book/story have?
- Your Risk Tolerance with Design
- Deadline
- Similar Books and Authors
Additional Details You Can Provide
Some details aren’t always a must but can be helpful for a designer to have. Like:
- List of your favorite covers
- Character descriptions (must have when you want a character on the cover like in romance)
- Symbols that can be used on the cover (could be a series symbol, a symbol for the back cover to make it more fun, etc)
- Ideas for covers (not a must, but sometimes authors have them)
- What you do not want (sometimes authors hate a particular trope etc)
- Style preference (illustrated or photo-manipulated where both could be used)
- If it’s a series cover that needs matching if the former designer can’t do it (it’s most often possible to continue the series look)
- Who’s printing the book (Amazon or Ingram, or Local printer, etc)
- Reviews or Endorsements
- ISBN/Barcode (if needed for Ingram cover template etc)
- Weird one: A song or playlist that fits the book’s mood a lot, think of a soundtrack for a movie/series (these can be helpful for music fans)
What about ordering Premade Book Covers?
If you’re buying a premade book cover you need a lot less information:
- If you’re buying an ebook cover only, you just need a title, author name, and tagline/series name.
- If you’re adding a print book cover, then you’d need to add page count, page size, and back cover blurb too.
I hope this simplifies things for you! You can save yourself this Infographic version of it for later use below:
Best wishes,
Adrijus from RockingBookCovers.com
Great check-list!
Thanks for sharing!
You’re very welcome! Great to hear you like it! 😉
Hey Adrijus! This is a great blog post! and everything you mention here is actually helpful for both, authors AND designers.
Good article!
Thanks Faus! Glad to help out everyone in industry. Just hope covers get better and better in general.