3 Tips to Make Your Kindle Book Cover More Attractive to Kindle Readers
Let’s face it — when we think of self-published books, the expression “eye candy” does not immediately come to mind. Likewise, we don’t necessarily view our Amazon Kindles as portals of visual bliss. Anyway, that’s not why we use them. Kindles are practical devices: efficient, compact, and industrial. Not beautiful. Right?
Kindle Books Are Becoming More Visual
Regardless of what your perceptions may have been, the Kindle is making a concerted effort to become more visually appealing. Earlier this year, they introduced an all-new layout engine with a sleeker, less klunkier look and feel. They also custom-designed a new font, Bookerly, which can only be described as pure comfort to the eyes. These changes respond to a definite demand from e-readers who these days are looking for more than just a functional device.
If Kindle is becoming more image-conscious, certainly authors would do well to follow suit.
Here are 3 quick tips for doing just that:
- Don’t Get Too Specific With the Font: In most cases, we would advise leaving the choice of font up to your readers. After all, they’re the ones who know what they like. However, it is your book, and your creative expression, and you could very well argue that it’s your right to choose how it’s displayed. In that case, it’s good practice to use a font family instead of something specific. That way, your readers can read the book in the style you intended it to be read, but still have some range to customize it to their specific preferences. In any case, whatever you do, don’t make your entire book display in bold!
- If You’re Not a Designer, Best to Leave Your Cover in Capable Hands: For book browsers perhaps nothing is more important than your cover. In fact, we could write an entire article on this subject alone. For some quick and dirty advice, we’ll just leave it at this: if you can admit to not having a good visual sense yourself, it is absolutely imperative that you hand over cover design to someone who does. This is not something you can afford to do badly and these days there are many affordable options to have it taken care of for you. Have a look at 99Designs and Crowdspring for starters. If you absolutely can not afford a designer, Canva has an extensive library of book cover templates which you may find useful. Check them out here: https://www.canva.com/
templates/book-covers/ - Images: Stock photos have a tendency of screaming, well… “stock photo.” Most people with good visual taste could spot one from a mile away. However, this is changing with the rise of stock sites who specialize in unique, beautiful, and, most importantly, free images. They may not be the first ones to appear on Google, but they should be. Check them out at finda.photo, unsplash.com, and allthefreestock.com.
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
The old adage rings true. People buy with their eyes and your book cover is just as important as the content.
The face of digital is finally growing up, and brands must take exceptional care of the way they look. As a self-published author, you have your own brand to look out for. This includes more than just your written content, but also the way in which you put it on display.
For example, Rick Mofina, has done an excellent job with a recent Kindle book cover update.
Check out the Before and After for Rick Mofina’s book ‘If Angels Fall‘:
Kindle Book Cover – Before and After
In the comments, let me know what has worked for you! What have you done to make your kindle book cover more beautiful?
Til next time – happy reading!
Marquina
3 Tips to Make Your #kindle Book Cover More Attractive: http://t.co/bIGhHWgA5F
— Marquina (@Marquina) September 15, 2015
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