BOOK COVER

                

A book cover is the outer layer of a book covering the story.  A beautiful cover attracts the attention of readers.

         Covers are not just design to cover a story; covers are done to interpret a story. Thus, a book cover is the image interpretation of a story.

A cover should be able to portray a story, and if it doesn’t, then it’s termed ‘vague cover.’

        Covers don’t tell a good book, but covers tell and interpret a story. They do that with image representation, meaning that the whole idea of a story is interpreted in a cover. A reader can predict, anticipate and tell your story through the cover. It also helps them to know the genre of the book.

        I’m so fascinated by book covers, I love it when a cover looks beautiful, catchy and interprets. I never adore it when a cover is just there; unattractive, dull and untold.

A cover shouldn’t only interpret, it should also look attractive. The cover should leave a cliche in the psyche of readers. When a cover is well interpreted and looks very attractive, it gets the reader fighting with a rising urge to read the book.

        Two things should be noted when designing a book cover, the interpretation and the attractiveness. Why because cover plays a vital role in your book and that’s why many authors make research, spend time and money to get the best cover. Through a cover, you can draw people’s attention to your book and by the time they finish reading and found it interesting they help promote your book. A dull and untold cover can crucify a book especially if you’re a new author.

First have an idea of your cover through the story. Think of what the whole story is all about, is it talking about love or about crime. That will help you figure out the kind of cover to design to represent the story. Mind you that interpretation and attractiveness are two different words.

        Interpretation is to explain the meaning of your story through images. For instance, a romance novel cannot have the image of a cookie because it’s not a story about biscuit. Likewise will a thriller novel carry an image of a stripper; there is simply no form of interpretation.

 Attractiveness can be drawn from the image and the whole design of the cover; from color combination, additional designs and written words. Attraction as the word implies, the cover should attract.

Good cover promotes a book, good cover draws the attention of readers and good cover can make a book become bestseller. Don’t get me wrong when I say good cover can make a book bestseller. I don’t mean that an uninteresting and badly written story with a good cover will become bestseller but what I mean is that a well written story with good cover will probably become a bestseller. For instance, a new author publishes a good book and it’s interesting, well written with a good cover; readers will be drawn by the superb cover and they pick the book. After reading the book and they found out that the book was interesting; they would spread and promote the book, stimulating others to read the book. They can also make a good review and through the review others will want to read the book. Gradually, the book becomes popular and makes mark on the bestseller chart.

Paying attention to cover really helps to promote you as an author. When the cover is good, the book sells itself. Aware that when a person enters a bookshop to buy a book, the first thing that will catch his/her attention is the cover which might lead to a sudden surge of uneasiness and eventually gets the person to pick up the book. Covers keep one staring at a book for few minutes before flipping into the pages.

In conclusion, a cover should interprets, a cover should be attractive, a cover must have an origin, a cover should not have too many colors and a cover should be catchy.