Self-published authors have a lot to do—when you are ready to publish and want an affordable, beautiful book cover that will stop the scroll…get help.

You can do it yourself, but I have seen way too many really bad book covers of late. It reminded me that a great book cover for a self-published book doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars. It can cost a few hundred for a beautiful, genre-appropriate cover.

Instead, I’ve seen mistakes like:

Not using color theory. A basic understanding of color theory helps you decide on colors that work well together while being clearly legible when a person reads the title. An example is orange text with a fire in the background—this is awful on the eyes and many people will move on to the next in a long line of books in that genre. 

Using too many typefaces (fonts). More than 2-3 fonts in a single design are unacceptable and looks awful. Every single typeface must have a purpose, a reason for being there. Random…”I just like how it looks” isn’t a good enough reason. It needs to feel like it fits.

Low-resolution images. You can’t use cell phone photos for a full cover image. There isn’t enough image data! Yes, modern phones are changing this, but if they are really important to you, use them as smaller accent images because you’ll have better fine details and it will look more professional.

Using a style that’s too far outside your genre. A cookbook needs to look like a cookbook and a sci-fi book needs to look like a sci-fi book. It just doesn’t get much more obvious than this. There are exceptions, such as a cookbook based on a popular movie, but for the most part, make it match, folks!

There’s a fine line between being unique and not fitting your genre. A designer can help because they (like I) research the hell out of your genre before I ever do a sample design.

When you’re ready to publish your best seller, reach out. I’m happy to help.