Cover It - Some Basics for Cover Design

Sub It - What's a subtitle anyway?

I'm sure you've seen many covers with a subtitle, it's a common practice to have a subtitle but certainly not required. A lot of the time an author's subtitle is also their tagline that they use to advertise the book. It can also be something that indicates the book's number in the series. There are times a book will have both a subtitle and a series number. My Merlin's Chosen books have both.

The subtitle should be smaller than the book's title. It is a subtitle or subordinate title, which means it is lower in rank than the actual title of the book. A subtitle should be roughly five to seven words. It is meant to give the readers a little bit more information than the title gives. If your subtitle is any longer than that it will likely end up quite small on the cover and be unreadable. Don't forget, readers see only a small thumbnail when searching through things to find something to read. You want your cover to attract their attention. If they need to dig deeper to figure out what things say they most likely won't do it.

When I put out the 2nd edition of my Merlin's Chosen series I redesigned the covers. Some used the same image but I changed colors, others received totally new cover designs. I changed the fonts as well and moved the series subtitle to the top of the cover. You can see my main title is the series name, Merlin's Chosen. I have two subtitles, one being the book's number in the series and the second being what this book is called. This one happens to be one word, some of them have a longer descriptor subtitle. Book 2 is Dragon's War, Love's Battle. None of my descriptor titles are longer than four words.

A long subtitle can make the cover appear crowded. Attempting to cram a three-sentence subtitle somewhere on the cover is often difficult. I will deny requests with huge subtitles because I know it will end up looking awkward, and tiny, and make the cover unbalanced.

You can see the short little subtitle fits nicely in the center of the wolf's forehead. It's short and simple and gives a good idea of what the novel is about.

Same cover with a longer subtitle. It ruins the simple look of the cover and makes the top appear overcrowded. You lose the intense look of the wolf because your eyes want to focus on the massive subtitle. The extra words are unnecessary, the original subtitle was a good descriptor of what the novel is about. 

If you want to use a subtitle, sit back and think hard about it before finalizing it. You want to intrigue readers without giving away too much.

"She haunts my dreams"

"They vanished in the night"

"Love's last chance at survival"

These are short subtitles that make the reader want to know more. You don't need extra descriptor words, these are enough to make a reader interested in finding out more about the book. 

"They vanished in the night after the party." The words 'after the party' are unnecessary filler words. The reader doesn't need this information. The fact these people vanished is enough to make them go, "Ooooo, I wonder why they vanished?" Those last three words kill the mystery vibe of the subtitle. 

"She haunts my dreams and tries to speak to me." More useless words. The reader doesn't need to know this information, they'll discover it in the book. The fact a woman is haunting someone's dreams is enough to snag their interest. The rest is meaningless and again, it kills the vibe of the subtitle. 

If you aren't certain how your subtitle is reading, ask others to look at it and see what their opinions are. Give them all the versions you've come up with and ask them which would make them want to pick up the book and find out more. 

As I've said before, your book is an entire package and if one element is off then your potential customers might walk away. Everything must be cohesive and appealing to make a reader want to crack open the cover and read the story. People are visual creatures, it won't matter how great your writing is if you can't get a reader past the mess on the cover.