A Little Secret With a Big Effect: Make Your Cover Immediately Recognizable

We all know that an exceptional cover is incredibly important, and that it influences sales. However, in this article we’ll reveal how your cover design can make you stand out from the crowd and bind your readers to your books with just a glance!

Publishers have shown it to us for a long time: the power of “corporate design.” They design their covers in such a way that everyone can match a book with its publisher or its author at a glance. A case in point:

a yellow cover = a “for Dummies” book

What’s more, we also connect the yellow cover with all of the books we’ve previously read from that publisher, and with several impressions and opinions about the company. This is all part of a well-thought-out marketing strategy with just one goal: establishing and strengthening a brand – the publisher’s.

Especially in the fantasy genre, publishers rely on the recognizable cover design of an author or even of a series. That helps readers immediately find their favorite series in the shop, without even reading the title.

Ninragon series by Horus W. Odenthal
Design: Horus W. Odenthal / Arndt Drechsler / Jacqueline Spieweg / Martin Schlierkamp
Website: horus-w-odenthal.de

The core of this whole idea is recognizability. You can accomplish this by using a uniform design, and then ideally adopting it for your blog, your social media channels, or your e-book as well.

Enough said. But how to put the theory into practice? We recommend that self-publishers also define a precise design element and then reuse it consistently – especially in the cover design. Specifically, you should settle on one of the following areas:

1. the imagery, that is, the selection of significant images, symbols and motifs, or
2. the color scheme, that is, the selection of particular colors, or
3. the corporate font, that is, a suitable typeface for the author/book identity

The authors Jen Minkman, Victoria Goddard and Alexia Praks implement these elements par excellence:

And now it’s your turn!

Do you also have a recognizable cover design? Leave a comment to let us know where we can find your covers!