Cover It - Some Basics for Cover Design

Fonts, Fonts, Baby

I spoke about choosing a font that matches your genre and the feel of your cover. Let's talk a little about how many fonts you choose. 

A book cover should have no more than two to three different fonts on it. The fonts should look appropriate together and compliment one another. As a general rule, you want to choose fonts that are similar in size and weight so when they're put together they don't look off. A reader may not understand why the cover looks off to them, but subconsciously they'll go "Eh" and move on. Humans are very visual, so if the image presented doesn't please them, they'll walk away. 

There are times where you can mix fonts that aren't exactly the same weight, we've all done it, and it works. Be certain the look you end up with isn't too jarring when you go from one word to the next. 

I threw together a cover we can use to showcase how fonts work, or in this case, don't work, together

While this cover doesn't look awful, the large font leading into the much smaller one is a little jarring. The word Fate's is so huge your eyes are drawn to it and Crossing kind of gets lost. You want one word to naturally lead to the next. These font choices also don't give you any clue about the book's genre. The images are giving a paranormal or fantasy vibe, while those fonts give more of a thriller vibe.

If your book is published and ends up on the shelf of a book store what you're readers are probably going to see first is the spine. Which makes it as important as the front of your book. You have a tiny bit of space to grab a reader's attention with. They won't see your entire beautifully designed cover that your designer (or you) created. They'll see an inch or so of space on the spine of the book. So, use that space well. 

The word Crossing ends up much larger so it will be visible when printed. On the cover, Fate's is larger, yet on the spine Crossing is. It shifts focus from one word to the other and creates a disconnect between the cover and the spin. It's one that might have your potential reader placing the book back on the shelf and moving on to a different book. Readers may not understand typography, how fonts are placed and sized, but they know when something is off and they don't like whatever it is. I placed the lines to give you an idea of how big the spine is since it isn't wrapped around a book, I used an actual template from Amazon to showcase where the spine is placed and how big it is. This template is for a 6X9 sized book with a spine width of one inch (25.4mm). Remember the less pages your book is the smaller space you have to use for your spine and the smaller your text will be. 

These two fonts don't work well together because the font used for Fate's is a distressed/eroded font while the one for Crossing isn't. They end up looking awkward together. 

Be careful when choosing your fonts and if you aren't sure if something is looking right, ask a few people who you trust to give you an honest opinion. I have two people I throw my designs at and ask, "Does this look right to you?" Both of them will tell me if they don't like something about the design. One of them is a designer while the other is a reader. I get both sides of things when I ask them for help. 

Let's take a quick look at what happens if you use a multitude of fonts. 

This cover has zero identity. Is it romance, thriller, fantasy? We have fonts that convey multiple genres. Let's be honest, it's ugly. I've seen designers do things like this. Whether it's because they think it's fancy or simply enjoy using as many fonts as they can to show off the fonts they have access too, I honestly don't know. I've seen covers with as many as six or seven different fonts. 

Design isn't about showing off as many things as you can in a single design. It's about making a final product that is pleasing to the eye. Something people want to look at. If you begin throwing everything you have at your canvas you end up looking like an armature instead of a practiced designer. 

Placing your text appropriately, choosing complimentary fonts, and making certain it all looks good together takes practice. Throwing a crapload of fonts and adding multiple effects to it ruins your look. In most cases, simple is the best end result.