A physical book has about seven seconds to sell the book before the consumer puts it down. In that time, the consumer is connecting to the art on the cover, the title, and other design elements, such as foiling. Simultaneously, the customer also connects with the book through its weight, texture and scent. If the reader likes what they see and feel, they may flip the book over or open the cover to read a synopsis of the book. All of the sensory inputs allow the reader to form an emotional attachment to the book, making them more likely to buy it.

The digital shopping experience cannot offer the immersive experience that brick-and-mortar stores can. The digital storefront is only capable of connecting with the reader through sight, meaning that e-book covers must adapt to a visually heavy digital storefront.

How are E-Books Presented?

In online storefronts, the cover is reduced to a thumbnail. In physical stores, the books are typically presented spine-first, with a few books cover out; however, in a digital storefront, every book is presented with the cover. Additionally, a thumbnail has no reverse, so even if a reader chooses to click on the book, they have to search for the information that is found on the back of a cover.

Shortform Content and the Rise of Visual Shopping

George Chrysostomou makes the argument that TikTok is influencing book cover designs because content creators want something that will grab the viewers’ attention. Shortform content relies on the visuals of a cover to sell it, much like digital storefronts do. A common BookTok trend is the “Books That” trend, where a creator recommends books that made them cry or that they couldn’t stop thinking about. Creators typically only show the covers of the books against a simple background. Sometimes they will provide a “hook” or a rating system for each book, but the majority of the focus is on the book cover.

The value of aesthetics in shortform content has carried over into digital storefronts as readers expect aesthetically pleasing covers when choosing what books to purchase. A successful e-book cover should be simple and offer a promise of what the reader will find behind the cover.

Creating for Smaller Screens

The first step is to make sure your potential readers can clearly see the cover at its tiniest. An e-book cover is vastly important because it is the first thing, and often the only thing, that readers see when browsing. Smashwords founder, Mark Coker says that “a poor cover creates unnecessary friction that prevents a reader from clicking [on an e-book].” You want your book title to be clearly legible on the cover, as you cannot always count on the platform to format the title correctly or show the complete title. On Kindle, the preview thumbnail is only 60×90 pixels, which is incredibly tiny. Many stylistic choices that work for print books or for larger images will not translate into the thumbnail.

Know Your Genre

Knowing the style of cover that is particular to your genre is imperative, especially in a digital storefront. You want your audience to immediately know that your book will interest them solely off of the cover. Kris Miller argues that one of the most important aspects of book design is a “harmonious cohesion between design elements and market. The art shouldn’t fight the typography. A romance novel shouldn’t look like a thriller or visa versa.” Beyond branding your book for a certain genre, your cover starts to curate your brand.

Develop Your Brand

Colleen Hoover’s branding strategy is clearly defined by her text placement, font, and cover colors. Most of her covers feature pink or blue backgrounds that often have an easily identifiable motif, such as floral accents, that integrate themselves into the other elements on the cover. Hoover’s books are bright, bold, and clearly advertising contemporary romance, except for Verity. Her 2018 novel, Verity, is the opposite of bright and bold, yet it is not completely removed from Hoover’s brand. The dark background offers a nice contrast to the desaturated gold of the title and central design element. More importantly, Hoover kept her name in her typical place at the bottom center of the cover. The success of Verity is dependent on the recognition of Hoover’s brand.

Color and Images

The color of the cover is often the first thing that readers recognize and can be a huge part of an author’s brand; however, different displays will show color differently. Light mode will generally work well with all colors. In dark mode, bright colors can induce eye strain and dark colors will blend in. The cover must also translate into grayscale since most e-readers do not support color. A high contrast between the background image and the text is a good way to make the cover “pop,” even without color. Coker argues that the image alone should convey the premise of the book. The cover art should promise the reader the experience they are searching out.

Typography and Text Placement

Though the color and art are the most easily recognizable part of the cover, the typography and text layout are key elements that can make or break a cover. Aside from the cover art, the text is the largest element on a book cover. It is important that the font categorizes the book into a specific genre and the text is easily readable in thumbnail form.

The largest text should be what will get the reader to click on the book. For established authors with a loyal fanbase, the author’s name is typically the largest piece of text on the cover. For authors who haven’t developed name recognition, an interesting title should be given prominence. While teasers and reviews on the cover can give a print book credibility, the small text shrinks down into a blur on the thumbnails for e-books. The focus for e-book covers should be on hooking the reader with strong visuals.

Text hierarchy and font can also define your brand. Danielle Steele’s books are easily distinguished from other books in her genre because of the specific font she uses for her name, which is always positioned at the top of her cover over the title.

The success of an e-book is dependent on its ability to hook a reader from the search page. Credibility is no longer sought through reviews or a clever synopsis, but the aesthetics of a book cover. With the increasing focus on visual content in shortform media, e-books have no choice but to adapt.

As digital publishing platforms become more expansive in formatting, availability, and range, digital book covers have reemerged in importance. Originally, book covers were ornate designs made for the rich, then a protective measure for books, before finally becoming chest pieces in book marketing. Designs not only had to be somewhat reflective of the book but also needed the ability to draw potential readers. Author and columnist Tim Kreider even states that there are two main “principles of design—in books:”

1. Your product must be bold and eye-catching and conspicuously different from everyone else’s, but
2. Not too much!
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-book-cover

The same principles hold in digital publishing now, as many websites now mimic the appearance of front-facing books in physical books shop: Kindle, Play Books, Libby (OverDrive), ComiXology, Radish. Previously, platforms like Tapas and Webtoon predominantly displayed thumbnails where the covers were constrained to a one-by-one square designed to take a small portion of the screen. Much like Audible displays their audiobooks and how Radish formats their serialized stories now. Nevertheless, in recent years both websites have changed to include a larger thumbnail that mimics the design of a physical book. The change can most likely be attributed as a testament to the quality of the art and story to lure more readers, similar to how traditional publishing markets a book.

Moreover, the cover of an e-book can deter readers from even purchasing a book, and according to Giles Clark and Angus Phillips in Inside Book Publishing, “books without covers on Amazon do not sell well.” It reinforces the idea that digital book covers have become a vital form of metadata that, as Sophie Darling quotes, “acts as a ‘visual portal.” Metadata, in simple terms, is “any data that describes your book.” This, in turn, with the fact that book covers now take up more space in digital publishing platforms, makes book cover designs more crucial to the success of the book in the digital market. Especially since more traditionally published books with proper funding are becoming more easily accessible in these markets. For example, Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles and her Renegades series are slowly becoming available on Kindle Unlimited. Meyer’s book covers have also taken on a more stylized, illustrative, and dynamic design to appeal to a slightly more modern readership after ten years.

Meyer’s original covers for her Lunar Chronicle series.

The new covers for The Lunar Chronicles series. These are the current covers displayed within the Kindle store.

This is a rising trend in print books and among self-published authors in the digital bookscape. Rendering Kreider’s initial belief that “the illustrated book cover, like painted movie posters or newspaper comics, is pretty much dead” as grossly inaccurate. That, along with the idea that book covers were a concept that would phase out. Furthermore, massive digital book platforms like Kindle and Google Play Books display the cover of a book for approximately a few seconds before opening the body of the text. Thus, reinforcing the idea the book cover is essentially promoting valuable ideas concerning the work. As Nielsen, a book retail sales analysis group, states:

“Given the indications that we have for online sales, there is a strong suggestion that supplying complete and enhanced metadata will be even more vital for e-books, where the bibliographic data is the consumer’s only source of information. The implication is that as the book industry takes its next step into the digital age, metadata will not only remain an essential part of the industry but become increasingly important.”
(Breedt and Walter)

However, as important as these book covers are, many self-published authors starting out cannot afford to commission an artist to create any type of cover. These authors often create book covers themselves using free stock images or with their own artistic talents like Kimberly Lemming. To better market their books to make up for their poor metadata book jackets, authors utilize many social media marketing trends like those on TikTok that draw the focus towards the body of work rather than the less than impressive e-book cover. They present presumably the best excerpts from their novels as well as themes they consider impressive or exciting to garner interest.

Nevertheless, a book cover still is, as Bill McCoy says, “an introduction to the experience you’re going to have in consuming this [its] content.” Moreover, as platforms continue to push book covers forward, they are becoming a form of metadata worth investing in. A prime example would be Ruby Dixion’s special edition covers for her Ice Planet Barbarians series. She recently invested in a new cover for a print version of her book, as she finally had the funds to do so. However, as this author grows, she seems to be slowly replacing all of her book covers for this series and updating the metadata in Google. This is an indication that these new stylized, illustrative covers are seemingly testing better with her growing readership and bringing her more readers than her previous book covers.

Bibliography

Breedt, Andre, and David Walter. 2012. “White Paper: The Link between Metadata and Sales.” Nielson BookData UK., January.

Clark, Giles N, and Angus Phillips. 2019. Inside Book Publishing. London ; New York: Routledge.

Darling, Sophie. 2019. “How Are Book Covers and Their Components Represented in the Digital Market?” Interscript Journal, no. 2 (June): 20–35. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.2398-4732.004.

should you invest in an e-book cover?

The New Art of E-Book Covers