Choosing The Right Book Graphic

People say, don’t judge a book by its cover but authors know the truth. Covers can make or break their books. A cover (and title) is what makes first contact with readers.

For readers, a book’s front surface is its story’s face. The graphic offers readers clues about what’s behind it. Readers start digesting a book from the cover. Yes, a book’s cover really matters.

Don’t be mistaken. A good graphic (and title) won’t guarantee a book’s success, but it does give it a chance to get to first base. It must be taken off the shelf to be in the game. Even if it’s denied and put back on the shelf, it’s better to have been discovered and rejected than to be overlooked because of a cover.

I chose a black background for my book’s cover because it made a statement. And then the cover graphic on top of that suggests how the story feels. If I made it a pink cover covered with love hearts, it’d say the wrong thing. I didn’t want that. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to designing and choosing the right graphic for this book — a thriller-styled novel.

It sounded like it was a simple process but my decision didn’t come easy — and black wasn’t my first choice. It wasn’t even my second or fifth. It took time to experiment with many wrong backgrounds and image overlays (titles too) to find out what mattered most. The earlier versions were white, cream, and beige. Getting it to go towards a dark theme took time to figure out.

Here’s an early idea that began the process:

The first mock-up was a representation of a key scene inside the novel. It shows a toy bear with a bracelet on its wrist. From the bracelet hangs a small charm resembling a phone’s SIM card. It’s worlds away from the endgame cover but it was a start.

Although the link to that part of the story is evident to anyone who’s read the book, it sends the wrong signal to those who haven’t. This cutesy cover suggests it’s a child-appropriate narrative. It isn’t.

Several attempts were made to work a darker-coloured teddy bear into the graphic but none satisfied the brief (whatever that was) and, after failing to come up with something suitable, I canned the teddy idea and switched to another key element of the narrative — the storm!

It shows a nighttime scene, well away from the lights of civilisation. There are trees, grass and a lightning bolt zigzagging between clouds to the ground. The image said much but proved to be difficult as was messy, especially when placing a title over it (notice the letter ‘N’ vanishing). I tried shifting the graphic so the darkest parts of it gave me a place for each letter but when I did that, I’d lose key parts of the lightning. I moved on.

After doing titling research with beta-readers, using a simple single-shot layout, I became hooked on the idea of using a simplified version of lightning (more sky, less tree). It felt right — without the trees and grass, the abundance of dark space around the bolt gave me the flexibility to fit words anywhere on top of it. The trick was finding the right lightning bolt shape (the one I used in the mock-ups was lo-res and not mine to use). I had a few of my own but none worked. I went back to designing an entirely new graphic.

It’s a long leap, isn’t it?

The story isn’t just about rain, lightning, teddy bears, SIM cards and bracelets. The greater story is about sex and intimacy. I found some old material in my photo library and placed an image of a woman’s chest on the screen. This one made perfect sense. I added a crucifix (another key symbol of the story), coloured it red, and then placed the title on the surface. It worked but there was one element still left to add. I wanted that storm to be included. I tried a lightning bolt but that ruined everything, so I opted for a single rain droplet instead. The evolution of the cover was complete.

Nine years after I sat down to write SEETHINGS, this cover appeared on the shelves.

People scroll through online book catalogues and will stop when something catches their eye. If they are into Thrillers and Dark Fiction of any kind, this cover (and title) should stand out and get them to do just that. That’s what I call the book reaching first base. I truly hope my book gets its chance to play the game right and be found by someone special like you!

See you next time –Michael (Dark Adult Fiction Author)