Having a professional book cover design is key to any nonfiction author because of the sheer numbers of. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, its absolutely crucial that you have a great book cover designer who can help communicate what your book is about in a 2,560 x 1,600 cover image. Yes, a great deal of the charm lies in the character of the illustration, but what a great illustration. Each book cover is 100% exclusive and sold only once.
The best nonfiction books by category in addition to the top 10 nonfiction books listed above, i have put together more specific book recommendations by category. Robert mccrum reflects on his 100 greatest nonfiction books list. It is the arrangement of the events in linear or nonlinear order, depending on how the author organized the whole story. In this article, im going to walk you through the process of finding, selecting and hiring the best book cover designer for your specific project. Here at lit hub, we unpacked the biggest book cover trend of the year, compared us covers to their uk counterparts, and remembered the best and worst covers of lolita as well as edward goreys own cover designs. Here are some of the best designs ive found on the internet. How to find the best book cover designer tck publishing. They will tell you that you look great, that it might be in your head only, that it. A solid narrative in nonfiction is a great factor for its worth and readability. If you need more words than that to sell your book, fiction or nonfiction, you might be in a bit of trouble. This is one of the most important pieces of copy youll write, since it has a lot of work to do representing your book and showing people whats unique, interesting, or especially. The top one or two books in each category are listed at the beginning of each page. In addition to black and white, which work great for copy, most book covers look best with two or three colors. I had the pleasure of speaking on the art of book cover design panel at the historical novel society conference last june with emily victorson from allium press, sarah johnson from reading the past, anna michels from sourcebooks, and kris waldherr from art and words.
Cullens seminal nonfiction book the definitive text about the columbine high school massacres of 1999 deserves an iconic cover, and henry sene yee provided it, with this minimalist design, incorporating a simple shot of the normallooking school with a faintly ominous grey sky above it. The pulitzer prizewinning classic about the outbreak of. Magenta asked 15 book designers to nominate the best covers that they hadnt created themselves. Nonfiction the book cover designer premade book covers. Too often, one quick glance is all the time you get to make an impression. The winners are designers of compelling fiction and nonfiction ebook covers. Nonfiction is a broad area, but you can still notice similarities among the bestselling book covers in nonfiction as a category. This curated list covers the gamut of nonfiction, from compelling war stories to key feminist texts, to unbelievable struggles for survival, to tales of life in the culinary trade.
Its not every day you run into someone whose specialty is back cover copy for your book. This can help you come up with ideas for selfpublished books cover and also learn why these designs work ive updated this post in 2019 to feature some latest covers. Nonfiction book cover design bookfly design book cover. Start with your own judgement and then move to the author.
While the intention is right, the result is usually a book cover that stands out in the wrong way. Similiar to our list of 100 fiction books to read in a lifetime, this list of 50 nonfiction books contains recommendations you might actually read if you havent already. See more ideas about nonfiction books, books and book cover design. After two years of careful reading, moving backwards through time, robert mccrum has concluded his selection of the 100 greatest nonfiction books. Make sure it sells out by creating an awesome cover design. See more ideas about fantasy book covers, sci fi books and sci fi.
If you ask book designers to explain what makes for a great cover, however, they can tell you about how the various design elementsthe typeface, the color scheme, and the compositioncome together to create a visual metaphor for the text. A successfully designed book cover will convey the tone of your book, will whisper hints without giving it all away, and will excite readers into actually opening up the book and reading. Derek murphy is a book editor turned book designer with a ph. Please let me know the title, author name, and whether there is a tagline, and i will send you the cover within 48 hours in jpg or png format. Sometimes a great cover is not a great cover for a particular book. Our covers are all unique, professionally designed, and only ever sold once. Hes been featured on cnn and spoken at dozens of writing conferences around the world.
These days he mostly writes young adult fantasy and science fiction, while helping authors write and publish bestselling books. From there, let outsiders sample the cover free of context. Canvas free book cover maker is ridiculously easy to use even for the novice or notsotechsavvy writer. Typeface and font for book covers if youve ever thought, fonts should make a statement, or comic sans is more approachable, or cursive letters make romantic book covers, think again. Heres a back book cover example for robert kiyosakis rich dad, poor dad. As book cover design professionals, during our years working with thousands of independent authors and publishers, we have repeatedly been asked the question of what distinguishes a nonfiction book cover design from the fiction ones so we decided to write about it, to help you better understand the differences.
Some revisit conflicts that have shaped the modern world, as patrick radden keefe does in. If youre looking for book cover design inspiration, here is a collection of 75 awesome book covers. Design book covers with canvas free book cover maker. Given that a book cover usually has very few words on it, and those words title, subtitle, authors name have a huge influence on buying decisions, this can be a major problem. Making great book covers for wattpad copyright wattpad. A books total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. The pulitzer prize for general nonfiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of nonfiction by an american author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category. The art of war by sun tzumore than 2,000 years old and still relevant today, the art of war is a mustread book on military theory and strategy. The perspective and the positioning of the images and text make this cover pop off the screen. An interesting feature about nonfiction covers is the way of how the text often interacts with the cover. And it signals big fiction while leaving room for that abstraction to be filled in by the racial issues in the book. Youve done the hard work and created an amazing book. The cover of this book is simply a photograph of handdrawn images on loose leaf paper.
Black and white but still communicates everything needed. Typeface and font for book covers cover design studio. Below are some of the covers made by bookflys designer. Your true story deserves a truly striking and unique cover. John campbell provides explanations and summaries for 100 of the worlds best books. You get to delve inside the brains of countless writers, without having to worry about whether or not something is true. Super simple and shows power of gorgeous font and good colorplacement. Fiction may be the star of the book world, but this year. A great selection of reasonablypriced premade covers as well as design packages for covers and ads. Lets look and learn from 50 fascinating book cover designs. One of the most consistent and easily corrected mistakes i see with book covers that are designed by authors is weak or inappropriate typography.
This could be a long book, or a very short book, depending on your reading speed and what title you choose. But if youre still looking for a book to fulfill this category, ive gathered up a. The dominant colors in an image influence mood and play a role in creating the contrast necessary to draw attention to the design. And five seconds is all the time you have to grab a readers attention. Cover design secrets you must know if you want anyone to. Take a quick look at five centuries of great writing. We each presented on different aspects of designing historical fiction covers, and my task was to. Minor alterations can be done at no further charge. I went through the last twelve months of these awards, picked five nonfiction book covers i liked best and then contacted these book cover designers. While the book was later made into a movie, its wellworth reading if only for the stories of rick rescorla, the platoon leader featured on the cover of the book whose nickname was hard core. Best nonfiction literature written for children from elementary to high school.
Book cover design for nonfiction requires an understanding that comes from a design team with years of experience within the genre, we have helped hundreds of great authors just like you and know what makes a great nonfiction book cover. Differences between fiction and nonfiction book covers. Canvas book cover maker makes designing book covers amazingly simple even for nondesigners. The best fonts to use on a book cover by genre inspired. Need some inspiration for nonfiction book cover design. These 50 awesome book covers will inspire you learn. The more sets of eyes you get on the design, the more youll be able to evaluate whether a cover is sending the right message to broad swath of people. We gave you a brief visual history of virginia woolfs book. I asked the designers for a price, details about their approach and how long getting a cover would take. A complete guide for authors and designers, starting with the.
Here are a few of the best nonfiction book covers, and the story behind their pretty exteriors. Whether youve researched and produced a tale of war, have brought out a gamechanging fitness guide, or are banking on a resurgence in hardcover encyclopaedias a brave move, damonza have the knowledge and expertise to create the perfect cover for your nonfictional. Typically, the use of minimalist fonts is preferred currently and lowercase letters are common. Feb 8, 2017 professionally designed premade book covers for nonfiction ebooks. Color plays a big role in creating the look and feel of any book cover design.
Ivan created a beautiful design that totally captured the mood of my novel. See more ideas about premade book covers, nonfiction and ebooks. I generally send ebook covers with the standard specifications of 1600 x 2560, but happy to send in any other size you specify. This is an introduction to book cover design, based on a presentation i gave at a writing conference in ecuador.
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