Ideas for book cover design inspiration

If you’re a writer I’m sure you know where to look for inspiration when it comes to writing a book. What about the look of your book? Have you ever thought about the inspiration for your book cover design? Where to find them? How to come up with an idea for a book cover that will be selling your book on the fly?

One of the things I enjoy the most about working with authors is the collaborative book design process and how the final shape of the book evolves. And this means I ask for and welcome the author’s creative input. For this to happen you, the author, need to have some – even raw or blurry – ideas for your book cover. I guarantee that I will have plenty of ideas for book cover design running through my head from the moment I hear about your book. But the real magic starts when we both put our book cover inspirations together, mix them up and then work on a cover together until we create a beautiful, visual shape of your words.

Best ways to find book cover design inspiration

I know it’s not always easy to find ideas for the book cover (or anything, really), so here are some of my favourite tips for an inspiration hunt:

1. YOUR BOOK

You know your characters and plot better than anyone. Maybe there’s a specific theme or element you’d like to see on the cover or should be incorporated in the book interior? That being said, you are attached to your writing (obviously!) and showing your manuscript to someone else (your Book Designer, beta readers) can bring new ideas for book cover design based on elements that you don’t notice anymore.

2. OTHER BOOK COVERS IN A BOOKSTORE

You want to do your research and check your genre in the bookstore for book cover design inspirations. Take time to go to your favourite local bookstore and note (literally, write it down on a piece of paper, in your phone or make a voice memo) which book elements you like and which you don’t. This part is very important and realizing what you don’t visually like in book covers in your genre helps a lot in creating the book look you’d love. Focus on fonts, colours, graphic elements or imagery, sizes and how all the elements interact with each other. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll gain from this experience! Plus, you’ll learn a thing or two about graphic design rules and book cover trends. Win-win, right? I hope you’ll enjoy the research phase as much as I do!

3. OTHER BOOK COVERS ONLINE

The same story as with bookstores, but this time you’ll focus on a different aspect: the book cover in thumbnail size. One (or more) of your sales channels will, most certainly, be online. That means your book will be represented by the title, your name, a short synopsis and a thumbnail of your cover. The book cover is the most important one because visual representation drives our eyes naturally, so our eyes will move towards the book with the most catching cover. That’s why you want to make sure that all the important elements of the book cover will be visible, clear and interesting, even in such a small size. You want this tiny picture of your book cover to distinguish your book from the sea of tiny pictures of other book covers!

4. EVERYDAY LIFE

You may want to start paying attention to your everyday life details: colours, shapes, photographic frames, letters, layouts, and fonts. These elements are all around us: on every street corner, store, your house, internet and so on. Maybe you’ll find something that reminds you of your book character or event from the plot. It might be a great book cover design inspiration – who knows?

5. CREATION

If you’re a crafty person, inspiration may come from… creating! Whether it’s painting, candle making or macramé, you may find ideas for your book cover design during the creative process of making your art. If you’re exploring themes for your book cover you can research them on Pinterest and create moodboards, play with these ideas in Canva or real life – by printing out or cutting from magazines and creating a collage that can help you (and your designer) generate more ideas for book cover design. You can also use AI as an idea generator or to better present your ideas to the designer.

6. YOUR DESIGNER

Last but not least! Whether you have a lot of ideas or just some blurry feeling of what kind of style you don’t like – it’s all fine. Your designer is the one with the creative approach, lots of ideas and experience, so they will guide you through the process and get you the book cover of your dreams!

How do you feel about all this? Does it make your journey towards getting your book published a little bit clearer? Do you have questions about research for a book cover or cover design pricing? Book a call to chat and see if I can help you!