Cover It - Some Basics for Cover Design

Ya Feel Me? - Textures

Let's talk a little about texture overlays. We call them textures but that can be anything from a light overlay, to grunge, to small pieces added to the cover. It is an image that is overlaid to enhance the design. 

I've found there seems to be an abundance of designers who feel the more textures you throw on a cover the better it is. That isn't the case. You can end up throwing so much at your cover that the end result is messy and confusing. And just like a PSD coloring, they can end up hiding elements of your design. Your cover must make readers want to read your book. If your design forces them to walk away then your book will never get read. The design doesn't have to be overly complicated with a Titanic load of layers. If it's simple and pleasing then readers will want to pick up your book and read it.

These are the covers of my dystopian duality. They're minimal but they convey the dystopian feel and I've gotten a lot of compliments on these covers both from readers and other authors.

It's very clear from the images and font this is dystopian. Both are a single image simple cover design. In fact, it's the exact same image. All I did was change the color on the Liberated cover and I left the construction crane on the top of the one building.

Below is the original image, you can see it isn't even a single-color image. A thing as simple as adjusting the color can give you a dramatically different look.