What is a Click-Worthy Design?
Rebekah Haskell's, INKERS CON PRESENTATION
Rebekah Haskell has been designing book covers for over ten years. Her portfolio from Vivid Covers leans heavily in fantasy superhero fiction with some thrillers, but her presentation at Inkers Con covered design basics that apply to any genre.
The purpose of your book cover— is not to hold your drink while watching your favorite episode of Game of Thrones for the twentieth time. According to the artist, it’s not a visual extension of your story either. Yes, I know, I found this shocking, too!
The first question to ask yourself is, who’s my audience?
“An effective cover is less a reflection of your story than it is a reflection of your intended audience.” It is much more critical that your cover speaks in the language of genre.
She suggests that although working with an illustrator can be collaborative, just like editing the life out of a manuscript, you can also “micro-manage all the life” out of a cover design. She said that the number one predictor of how well a cover turns out and will end up in her portfolio is how willing the author is to trust her and allow her to be creative from the beginning of the job. I’m thinking some authors might be a big pain in the you-know-what-to work with. Ha!
She said authors come from two camps; some have a background in art, and some know nothing. How do you know if a design is good?
She suggests you don't throw it up on Facebook and ask random people. (I know many groups and classes suggest this,) but the presenter says don't do it. You will not get a better cover using the ask-the-committee method. It will make you doubt your own instincts. You don't know if the people giving you the advice have a visual eye. "You don't know what you don't know." She suggests developing your own eye instead.
Rebekah suggests finding cover art that performs well but is different from your preference and identifying aspects of that artwork that make it work well. Learn from it.
Ms. Haskell does not suggest DIY covers. The market is so competitive that competing with a very professional cover will be easier. You're competing with people with the excellent covers. High-quality pre-made covers are becoming more affordable and readily available, so making your own covers doesn't make sense.
Pre-made covers are covers priced from $75.00 - $100.00.
Pre-made covers are not sold more than once. Although they may be photo-manipulated and changed in some way and sold again.
Pre-made covers are more effective than 99% of DIY designs and at the time save you time, and the results gained, immeasurable.
Ms. Haskell addressed the question, What is Good Design?
“Good Design is the visual presentation of ideas that helps the human eye perform its function in a way that is the most natural.”
Humans identify shapes. We do this through the use of contrast, which is the delineation of light and dark values. This is why it is essential to have clear, recognizable shapes in a design to help the eye perform its design function. If it cannot do this, it creates a certain kind of discomfort. Light and line are also important. The viewer needs to know where to look. We need to prioritize.
“If everything is a focal point, nothing is.”
One or two focal points maximum. “It’s really, really important not to clutter your cover with a lot of small unnecessary details, even if those details have meaning within the context of your story.”
Humans like looking at other humans, this is why you see so many covers with humans on them.
This doesn't mean you have to have a human being on the cover, but it does explain why there are so many on them. Study your genre. If you don't have a human on the cover, you'll have to find another way to make it exciting that is acceptable for your genre.
If you decide to go with a human, be careful using AI. Since we are humans, we know what we look like. Therefore, we know when something is off. AI sometimes gets things wrong. If it seems wrong, it is wrong; don't take the chance of using it.
Humans like symmetry or asymmetrical balance. What we don't like is slightly off or totally wrong.
"So good design is going to communicate effectively while facilitating the eyes natural function without triggering any of that disgust or confusion or discomfort."
Humans respond well to symbols. Through symbols, we can think through complex ideas in a short amount of time without anyone explaining anything. Think of how much an emoji can say or what people believe they say. Visual cues on your book cover will likely attract the reader.
"Covers have about 3 to 6 seconds to say what they need to say and entice the viewer to click on it and read your blurb. 6 seconds maximum, probably 3 seconds maximum."
The cover differs from the place to explain how your book is unique and special. "Your cover just needs to get the box into the right room."
Haskell discusses looking at reader's buying habits and the covers of books they buy. Becoming familiar with the symbols used on these covers. It's the secret language, a kind of secret language. It would be wise to study it. Where do you find the covers with the best symbols?
The ideal place to find the symbols for your covers that are going to be the most effective is to look at the Amazon bestseller lists for genre. Do your homework and compile a list. Take notes.
The first thing to remember about your covers is they aren't for you. The cover is for the reader who knows nothing about your book and the story you wrote. You may care that your character has red hair and green eyes, but by the time the reader figures out the difference, will they care? Ms. Haskell asks you don't make the artist concentrate on this or a scene from the book. Let them focus on the emotion of your genre.
"What the artist needs are symbols with "high contrast clear composition with a genre appropriate color palette, maximum of two primary focal points that fits within 2 to 3 aspect ratio of an e-book cover and also allows for the title and author text."
The idea that a scene from the book fits into this is slim, and according to Rebekah, authors tend to get hung up on having a scene read accurate. If you can let go of accuracy, then a scene could work.
Typography is important. According to Ms. Haskell, typography should support the art, not send mixed signals or destroy it. Only some artists are good typographers. It's a separate skill set. One of the best ways to get better at typography is to look at examples. Fonts have different personalities. Times New Roman is serious and scholarly, and Arial is slightly laid back. You don't want fonts competing with one another. Only one star per show is a good rule to follow, and another font can play a supporting role. Rebekah suggested searching on Google for Best Paranormal romance fonts and seeing what came up.
What do you put on your cover instead of bare-chested men if you don't like bare-chested men?
It's not about you. You put what your reader expects to find on your cover. It's as simple as that, regardless of your own personal preferences. That's hard when the cover doesn't speak to you, but the cover has to speak to your audience. But you can do research, and if you find other options and the books are doing well, then you can go that route. But the bottom line is to meet the reader's expectations.
"But the ability to do that is really, really going to be pivotal to your books success."
Rebekah Haskell covered many other topics, like the use of AI and how you know if your design is original and if you should use the work if you discover it’s not. Since I believe these were not the key ingredients of the presentation, I'm not going to cover all these particulars.
My final thought on this presentation is that it assisted me in letting go of many hang-ups I had about covers. Since I'm working on a new cover for the second book in my series and planning to recover one of my first books, this presentation clarified much for me. Thank you, Rebekah!
Next week, I'll discuss the Worldbuilding for any Genre presentation Leslye Penelope gave at Inkers Con.
Have a great week, writers and authors!