What’s best about being an indie writer is that you can choose whatever book cover you like. Once you take a step into the world of book cover design, you’ll find endless ideas. One question comes to mind: how do I do this?
As we all know, a book cover must intrigue the reader; it must give only a simple idea about your book. The font should strike; the image must interest, and so on. This blog post can branch out to many other concepts, yet I will focus on answering one question: should you design a book cover that represents your genre or not?
I’ll give you a better explanation. There are many genres out there, and the book covers seem to belong to particular criteria. Now, once the reader picks a book with a cover of a knife on it, he’ll immediately know that it’s a crime novel. Below I will explain this further, so take a deep breath because this will be a long one.
Romance Novels
It is typical when you catch a romance novel in your hands. You’d immediately realize that it is so from the cover. We usually stare at the couple, hand in hand, kissing, or in an intimate embrace. In the romantic historical type, they’re usually dressed in Renaissance clothing.
Thriller
Thrillers have bold and big titles. Their covers are usually mysterious, and lots of dark colors are used. Nowadays, thriller titles are becoming very commercial; you’d immediately know a thriller if the title has the word lies, or silent, wife, woman, girl, daughter, or husband.
Chick-Lit
Chick-lits are easy to tell from other books; their covers are always cartoon-like, with very vibrant colors and crazy fonts. You’d immediately know that you have a girly romance novel with lots of humor, and it’s a fun thing to read during the summer.
Fantasy
Books with the fantasy genre are so mystical. They involve strong-looking protagonists with a hood or cool attires. Never forget the creative weapons they carry and the cryptic backgrounds behind them.
General Fiction
General fiction is a tricky genre in book covers, because they have endless possibilities, and they don’t rely on a particular design.
Here are a few examples of book covers related to their genres. Creating a stereotypical book cover that belongs to a specific genre is not bad because you can easily capture the interested audience. So if I like a chick-lit, I don’t need to look for more because I can easily recognize what I want from the cover.
By the end of the day, however, you’re the author, and it is up to you to create your book cover. You can always come up with something that does not have to follow any rule. For example, my novel Beige and Blue is a romance-suspense novel, yet I intentionally wanted the cover design not to convey the genre.
Now it’s up to you, and you can decide.