Information and tips, focusing on publishing, publicity, promotional ideas, author profiles, design resources and more.
Illustrator and writer Selena Fenech is offering an interesting embellishment technique for authors (see image above)
“Popular paper edge design accessible for indie authors! With this technique, designs are printed into the page formatting, not sprayed after printing. Can be applied to any print on demand title in black and white or colour. BYO design or custom illustration available.”
Memoirs, Genre Fiction, Current Affairs, Science Fiction and Business: always plenty of variety and interest in the world of cover design. Here are some recent examples designed for our clients.
A good cover design brief should include the following elements (along with any additional information you might consider important for the designer to know)
What your aims are for the book
What place it will occupy in the book publishing landscape (ie. subject matter, genre etc)
The kind of feel or mood you would like the design to inspire or provoke. Give examples of existing titles – as many as you want, and what you found compelling about them – or other non-book material that is heading in the right direction – a ‘mood board’ can be quite helpful
A rough idea of how you plan to market your book, and whether it will be mostly promoted online or via bookstores, and what kind of additional marketing materials will be needed (posters, graphics for social posts, email headers, banners etc)
Examples of type design or font combinations that might set the designer on the right path
Examples of colour combinations, or the dominant colour
The blurb and a reasonably detailed synopsis, even a couple of key scenes in the book if you want them to be the basis of the cover
Character descriptions if they are to feature on the cover
Many authors are content to leave everything to the designer, but at least a little bit of guidance can be extremely helpful and prevent wasted time and the designer creating iterations that are wildly off-track.
Be open to unexpected solutions – sometimes a designer will come up with a solution that you might not have considered and showcases your title in an interesting, marketable way.
If the first round of cover versions are not hitting the mark, be specific with your suggestions – the more the designer has to work with, the more chance they have of creating something memorable and useful
There is a post on the WorkingType blog that goes into some related detail.
Alisa Beagley writes and illustrates action-packed books set in a world of superheroes and supervillains. Her latest book, Clash of the Powers is out soon and follows on from Captives of the Killer and Second Chances.
Alisa promotes and sells her books via her well-designed and informative website.
Eleanor Hecks discusses the importance of graphic design in enhancing the reader experience:
Authors live in an age where attention spans are dwindling and competition for readers is fiercer than ever. Today, readers crave stories that capture their imagination while captivating their senses.
For writers and book designers, this is where visuals become a must-have tool for deepening engagement and enhancing the storytelling experience. Whether through a book cover or carefully crafted book opener, graphics and design can amplify a narrative’s impact, making it linger long after the final page.
Visual storytelling is the art of conveying a narrative through images, typography and design. It goes beyond the written work, enhancing a story’s emotional impact and immersing readers in its world. For authors, visual storytelling is the connection between content and experience. It creates a richer, more engaging passage for readers.
In publishing today, this system has become increasingly important. Consider that publishers and independent authors sold over 767 million print books in 2023. When you factor in e-books, the figure climbs even higher. With so many options available, authors must find ways to stand out, and designs are one way to achieve that.
Visual storytelling is crucial because it fits the human brain’s natural preference for visuals. Humans prefer graphics over text because of a phenomenon called picture superiority, which psychologist Allan Paivio studied. According to Paivio’s dual coding theory, humans store visuals in two ways — as an image and as a word or phrase that describes the image.
In contrast, humans only store words as verbal representations. This means images are inherently more memorable, making visual storytelling better for capturing and holding readers’ attention. By integrating visuals into books, authors can create more relatable narratives on multiple levels.
When adding images to content, authors create an experience that complements and enhances the narrative. Understanding the key components of graphics can create lasting impressions on readers. Success depends on the type of experience created, as 80% of consumers now consider it to be just as important as the quality of the product when making future purchasing decisions.
To give readers what they want, the visuals must contain various components, including:
Typography
Illustrations and graphics
Color theory
Layout and white space
Cover design
Carefully combining each of these elements enables writers to produce books that are visually appealing and emotionally impactful.
Today's authors find creative ways to weave graphics and design into their storytelling, making books more dynamic and engaging. In fiction, many successful authors add maps to orient readers in complex fantasy worlds or use character illustrations to breathe life into protagonists.
In nonfiction, authors leverage images like infographics, charts and diagrams to simplify complex ideas and present data in a digestible format. For memoirs and biographies, authors typically include personal photos or handwritten notes to add authenticity and emotional resonance. By incorporating visuals strategically, they can enhance the reader’s connection to the content while making their books distinctive.
The following strategies offer ideas for authors and designers to use graphics and design elements to captivate readers.
An evocative cover is a great way to capture potential readers at first glance. The new Game of Thrones covers’ design perfectly exemplifies this. The series “A Song of Ice and Fire” uses traditional linocut art to create intrigue about the world the reader is about to enter. The covers perfectly capture Westeros and the danger that lurks within it, garnering attention and setting the tone for the epic narratives.
Whimsical chapter headers or illustrations can provide readers with visual cues. Such elements offer a glimpse into upcoming events, building anticipation and enriching the storytelling experience.
Inconspicuous visual elements that follow the story’s plot or characters can delight attentive readers. These hidden gems encourage deeper engagement, as readers feel rewarded for their attention to detail.
Impactful lines with elegant designs draw the reader’s eye to significant moments. This technique spotlights key passages, amplifying their emotional connection and making them more memorable.
Creative typography can accentuate pivotal moments or emotions within the narrative. Authors can deliver intensity, urgency or tranquility by varying text placement and style, adding another dimension to the reading experience.
Authors must use visual storytelling through graphics and design to connect with today’s readers. Visual storytelling elevates a book from a story to an unforgettable reading experience. As readers increasingly value the experience a book provides, investing in visual storytelling is a strategic creative choice. Start experimenting with visuals to convert stories into ones that readers will cherish.
Eleanor Hecks is a writer and web designer who is passionate about helping other writers grow their online presence. Her work can be found on her site Designerly, as well as publications such as IndependentPublishing.com and I Need a Book Cover.
Author client G.W. Lucke asked us to find a way to typeset his recent Relevation Trilogy into one single massive volume (1000+ pages). It was a challenge, but we got there in the end, and the illustrations he commissioned for this special edition look great! The hardcover pictured below was printed by Ingram Spark. Check out the width of the spine — only just short of the maximum allowed.
Book design is usually characterised by an extreme diversity of subject matter, and this batch of recent designs is no exception to that general rule…[
An acquaintance recently asked me to write some advice for her just-staring-out graphic designer daughter. This was my take, and I am not sure how good it is, or if I missed something important.
Make sure you put aside at least one quarter to one third of incoming payments to cover future tax / GST obligations. Super important to do this from the beginning, or you will be forever in the stressful position of playing catch-up.
Consider operating as a company – there are some tax advantages to this, but also more paperwork and accounting expenses. And you will have to pay the state workplace insurance fee each year, which has jumped to almost 1K per year.
Referrals are very, very useful, and they keep working for years. The bigger your network of contacts, the more chances that new jobs keep coming up. A client is much more likely to accept a quote from a business to whom they have been referred. You are in a sense a known quantity to them
Every author is a potential source of future work. It may be years in the future, but an author often writes a second or third title – if they had a good experience with you, they will come back. I have found it good practice to keep in touch with them by emailing newsletters with useful information for authors, new tools, author news etc.
Keep every testimonial / positive review you receive. Post them to your website, and ask satisfied customers to leave reviews on your google profile
Consider joining the Australian Book Designers Association or the Small Press Network
Make sure you refer your clients to other trusted suppliers – in your case, to printers, editors, proofreaders, illustrators, photographers etc. They will often repay your referrals in kind and if your clients have a good experience with one of your referrals, your status as a trusted provider will be enhanced. I have heard this referred to as the ‘honest broker’ role, and it is definitely worth aspiring to
Consider finding a compatible business partner or partners. Being a sole practitioner has its benefits, but also costs – difficult to have down time, difficult to grow past a certain point, becoming stuck in the same role, potentially unable to take on very large jobs or multiple large projects. Perhaps your business partner might specialise in web design, or assisting authors online or some other complementary service. There are services like Fiverr that connect you with typesetters, people who run amazon ads, ebook conversion etc, but I have always preferred to work directly with suppliers rather than through a third party. That said, I have found fiverr very useful for performing one off specialist tasks – creating a 3D rendered object, or a bit of specialist accounting
Consider offering a package service – authors or publishers often have several requirements and it is a ‘pain point’ for them to have to juggle multiple contractors to do them – eg. they may want a print version, ebook version, banners and ads, assistance with online advertising, a round of proofreading, an audiobook version etc.
If you prefer to go it solo, then consider employing an assistant as your business grows – either as a contractor or actual employee, remote or in-house.
Book design is easy to do from home / a home office, so it can be very low-cost. However, it can be good to separate home and work, or the latter will tend to take over the former. I had an office for many years, and it definitely had its pluses. My best setup has been a home office, but in a standalone building. So you leave the house to go to work, and when you are in the house, you are not working.
I got my first client by writing to publishers, and doing some occasional work for them, and then some design projects for councils and libraries, then some printers started referring authors to me to get their books set up properly (it is very important to have good contacts with printers) and it rolled on from there. It took a while to build up enough, and I was also working a day job for a few years.
I had to take on as many jobs as possible, as book projects can suddenly halt while the author messes around with proofreading, or runs out of money for a while, etc.
In terms of pricing – I have always tried to be mid-range, to get as many clients as possible and to give very reasonable prices to independent authors. I have seen designers who charge much more than me and obviously put a great deal more work into each project. That’s a valid approach, but my client base would definitely not bear those kinds of costs.
The book industry is changing fast, and who knows where AI is going to go. I already use it a lot for image generation, but it will no doubt get into layout and design as well. Hopefully there will still be plenty space for human-led design.
You will need to be someone who solves a lot of author or publisher problems in the one service, and to be super reliable and personable, thus justifying your rates. Most authors want to deal with a person, and especially to meet up with them and feel they are being listened to.
Serious independent authors spend time checking out their competitors, the so-called ‘Comps’ or comparable titles. It is a great way of getting a sense of a particular genre, prevalent trends, the key cover design elements that signal a particular fictional niche. A writer should have a good idea of their specific target readers — and, spoiler alert, it is not ‘anyone who can read’. If you have read a lot in the genre you are writing in (always a good idea), you will already have a fairly good idea of how your title/s relate to the existing literary landscape. Making a list of comparable titles, whether bestsellers or midlist, can also be helpful for book cover designers looking to get a more specific feel for your title. At the same time it gives the author a better sense of the overall commercial literary landscape.
A very interesting article on the optical illusions that type designers must take into account when designing a new typeface. Written by Jonathan Hoefler, type designer extraordinaire, designer of superstar typefaces such as Gotham, Archer and Sentinel.
Another ‘AI is functionally equivalent to magic’ post. DragGAN is an experimental AI App that allows for extensive intuitive photo editing on the fly, including changing perspective, facial features, hair colour and length.
“the results are mesmeric. DragGAN is an interactive way of editing photos or works of art by tagging points on an image and just… dragging. The AI does all the hard work.”
Boxshot invites users to upload their book cover and spine, then fiddle with a variety of controls to arrive at a striking 3D rendering of said cover. The basic offering is free, with a paid version offering more bells and whistles.
“This 3D book cover generator is constantly rendering a realistic book model with the pictures you loaded. Every time you move the camera or change a parameter — the rendering starts from the beginning. It may take some time for the noise to come away and you get a nice and clear 3D image.”
An excellent overview of Maria’s writing philosophy and background can be found here. Her book “The Invisible Thread” is available on Amazon.
““her writing story was carved by her immigration story. Her Cypriot heritage has been an integral part of her writing journey. Maria writes with the ink that drops from her heart.””
In April 2022, I released my debut novel, ‘The King of Rhye,’ after a productive six months working alongside Sid Harta Publishers. It entered the world to a fair reception (for an untested indie author); though as anticipated, it did not smash any records or win any Nobel Prizes. Nearly a year later, it will be receiving a shot in the arm, with the imminent release of an audiobook likely to find another modest reader base.
By my own estimation, the true success of ‘The King of Rhye’ has been its permeation into various corners of cultural awareness. It has moved sideways, into several other forms of media, both auditory and visual, to create not so much a story as a multisensory experience. There now exists an official soundtrack of original music, produced for songs lifted directly from the story. A rich (and expanding) gallery of bespoke ‘canonical’ art adorns social media pages, clothes, other merchandise, the cover of vinyl records and the walls of my house. It is also soon to receive its second language publication, having been diligently translated to French. It is anticipated that the French version will hit the market later in 2023.
Not too bad, for a book less than one year old.
I attribute this ‘lateral progression’ to a combination of two main factors. The first: a consistent and front-loaded assault on selected social media. The second: an awareness of target audience, and a reasonable understanding of how best to capture that audience’s attention.
For completeness, it is worth highlighting that Lady Luck certainly played a role (I should have included her in Acknowledgements). One or two steps of the journey came courtesy of the right people stumbling over my work at the right time. I guess that is something that may or may not happen to any author, in their fledgling career.
A few words, then, about my approach to social media. I am now a man in my early forties. I am well aware that a plethora of social media platforms exist these days; every time I turn around, the youth of today have launched a new one (most of which, I’ll be honest, I don’t understand). I am most active on Facebook (being somewhere on the cusp of Gen X and Gen Y). As it turns out, my target demographic also use this as their go-to place for doomscrolling. Of course, I did know this before I started, so it was no accident that I chose Facebook as the main place to launch my campaign.
I also started early, which I think a lot of wannabe authors don’t think to do. They write their book, then they start trying to sell it to an audience. I started over a year before the eventual release date. I told people what I was aiming to do, what I hoped to achieve with it, and what they might expect from it. From humble beginnings, I built a following. Slowly. It still isn’t huge, but it has grown consistently. That takes time – there are almost no ‘overnight sensations’, despite the illusion.
I don’t pay for Facebook ads. That worked, exactly one time, right at the beginning. Eventually, the algorithm only shows your sponsored ads to people who already follow you. So, it was necessary to use other platforms to increase exposure that way. I have a Reddit presence (useful), an Instagram page (quite useful), a LinkedIn profile (useless) and am dabbling in YouTube – which has the potential to be the most useful of all, if I actually had the time to produce a series of videos.
I’m aware that TikTok can work, but I’m horrible at dances, so I’ll leave it alone.
Next, to discuss target audience. One might say that I had the advantage of being able to ride on the coattails of one of the world’s largest rock music fandoms, in finding people who might pay attention to my book (‘The King of Rhye’ is an ode to the wonderful music of Queen). But it is more complicated than that: linking your work to an existing cultural phenomenon only works if you also know how to harness the connection.
It needed to be clear in my language, in my visual style, and in the way I presented my project, that I understand what fans love about the band. I also needed to reach for the stars themselves, and see just what support I might be able to garner from the inner sanctum. I contacted Queen, via the International Fan Club. Whilst guitarist Brian May has been too busy with the endless stream of commitments, I did learn that he is generous and willing to embrace the efforts of fans to further Queen’s legacy. He did offer to help promote ‘The King of Rhye’; an offer that was seen by many, and not only gave me a boost of confidence, but also gave the project credibility in the eyes of others.
To broaden the potential reader base, I had to also emphasise that this is not just a book for Queen fans. It is at its heart, a fantasy epic in the ‘Hero’s Journey’ tradition. To that end, I became involved in a number of online fantasy author groups, getting involved in discussion as often as I could; helping other budding authors with editing, and taking opportunities to introduce myself and what I was doing in return. It all helped.
Once ‘The King of Rhye’ was finally released, I focused my attention in again, to invest some energy in my local community. I live in a town of strong social connections, so I found that pursuing radio interviews and a showing at the regional library was also beneficial. Word of mouth travels quickly.
To speak of ‘people stumbling over my work at the right time’: the Queen connection brought British illustrator Luc Hudson, and French musicians Louis Henry Chambat and Thibaut Sergeant (‘Fat Bottomed Boys’) into my sphere of awareness. They introduced themselves to me; gentlemen in completely separate walks of life, on the far side of the world, due to a shared interest and a united sense of purpose. They found me because I made my mission statement clear, and because I highlighted the strengths of my work – the worldwide love for a classic rock band.
Where has all of this gotten me? I travelled to Europe in late 2022, to present my book at a convention. I built more of an audience. Demand for a follow-up has swelled. Certainly, another story was in the offing; but now that promotion has produced momentum, I draft my second novel knowing that a hum of anticipation already builds.
I have loved this journey. It has been worth every moment of effort.
Craig Mulhall
‘The King of Rhye’ © 2022 Sid Harta Publishers
A few new covers, some drafts, some finalised, with the usual range of subject matter…
Jenny Wellington, author of the very entertaining novel Damengin, was interviewed on ABC Sunshine Coast — audio below.
“Damengin is a country town in Queensland weighed down by the worst drought in living memory and its inhabitants are all desperately waiting for government drought relief.
The bad news is that the funds have been sent and spent by Council's Shire Clerk Shifty Grey and his corrupt cohorts.
This is a rollicking fast-moving story about political skulduggery, greed, love and lust. It features outrageous characters, blossoming romances, pathos and importantly, has an incredibly happy ending.”
“A lovely Aussie story that everyone can relate to. Loved reading the book right from the start. I could hear the author reading the story to me at the start and as I got further into the book, wrapped into the characters of the story, I couldn’t put the book down as I sat in on the edge of my chair wondering what was going to happen next.”
Franca will be discussing her thought-provoking novel “Life With a Psychopath” at Mornington Library.
Details as follows:
Recommended for adult audiences
Francesca Di Pietro has a passion for storytelling, especially tales which highlight the dark side of human nature, including manipulative and aberrant behaviour.
Her debut novel, Life with a Psychopath tells the story of a young Italian woman, who enters into a relationship beset by racism, manipulation, and physical and verbal abuse with the charming and charismatic Shaun.
Carmella will not be beaten by Shaun’s behaviour and brings female empowerment to a new level. A compelling and gripping story of triumph, highlighting how victims of violence and abuse can overcome adversity by reaching out to those around them.
Join us at Mornington library where we are supporting 16 Days of Activism to end gender-based violence.
Tuesday, 29 November 2022 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Mornington Library, Vancouver Street, Mornington, 3931
The talk is free. Bookings here.
An interesting variety of topics covered in the latest round of cover designs in progress…
