The old saying “A picture says a thousand words” couldn’t be truer than it is with a book cover. When it comes to marketing your book on Amazon, book covers sell.
What your description is to Google search results, your book cover is to Amazon search results. There are many factors to getting to the top of Amazon search, but shoppers will look right past an ugly cover. Investing in a professional cover is essential.
Make Your Cover a Standout
Your book cover needs to stand out in a sea of books on the same or nearly the same topic. Because you know your topic well, and your book cover designer doesn’t I highly recommend that you look on Shutterstock or another photo image store for related images. Share the link to the images with your designer. They most likely have a subscription. You don’t need to buy the image yourself
Bright colors attract more attention than muted colors. Find images with bright colors and give your book designer the freedom to go big, bright, and bold.
Your Book’s Cover Needs to Express What Your Reader Feels
Find images that communicate how your audience feels. If they feel pain, use an image that communicates that pain. If they feel joy, do that.
I did it with an image of an elderly woman with a confused look on her face, a stack of medications in front of her, and a pile of medical bills in her hand. It was spot on how most older people feel when trying to choose their health insurance.
Book Cover Designers
Any graphic artist can splash together text on an image and call it a book cover. However, Amazon has very specific requirements for covers, particularly if you plan to offer the book in print. A print book cover will need a front, back, and a spine. For print, the cover dimensions will be specific to your books trim size (see: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834180).
I used Fiverr and regret doing so. I had to chat with five or six Fiverr people before I found one that I thought could do a credible job. When I did, I ordered a gig for two different designs. What I got for my $500 was one design applied to two different background images. And it took multiple revision just to get the designer to fix all the misspelled words. I was furious.
Lesson learned.
There are plenty of professional book design agencies, like BookBaby, who I plan to use for all future work. The reason (for me) comes down to time, quality of work, and having an agency I can work with for future projects.
Finally on this subject, it takes a bit of time to have a good cover designed. Plan on 10 to 14 days with revisions from your feedback.
Now it’s time to format your book.