Covering the basics: What a book designer wants authors to know

Our standard caveat applies: We think it's best that authors hire a professional cover designer, unless they happened to also study graphic design in school.

However, it never hurts to understand what elements go into a strong book cover or to understand some design basics.

So here are two guest posts from Jessica Bell, a writer, poet, and book cover designer, on the matter.

Jane Friedman has a brief excerpt from Bell's book Can You Make the Title Bigga?: The Chemistry of Book Cover Design that addresses the key elements of eye-catching book cover design.

And the Alliance of Independent Authors features Bell's commentary on what currently works in indie author cover design.

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