The Secret to Bestselling Cover Art for Your Self-Help Book
When it comes to book cover design, it takes a lot to stand out these days, but there are still some tried, true, and consistent ways to make your book—that you’ve put so much time effort and money into—really attractive to your target audience.
There are three main styles when it comes to cover art for the self-help genre: text only, author portrait, and illustrative. These styles will enhance the work if chosen appropriately and will increase the salability and popularity of your book.
For example, if your book has a super-catchy title, you may want to go with typography that feels fitting for the title itself. If you have a devoted audience from a social media account or other platforms, with customers ready to purchase your newly released book, your portrait may be the best choice for the cover. If your book details steps for improving financial literacy, you may want to opt for cover art that includes an illustration that highlights those steps. There are several ways to go about choosing the cover art that best suits your work and, most important, the one that will help you sell the most books! We’ll use some of our projects by way of example.
Text Heavy
Cover Design by Andrew Bell
This type of design works great for self-help books as it clearly and immediately displays the focus of your work. The text-only design will help the buyer to know exactly what the title is about and encourage them to read front to back. Recent bestseller lists in the self-genre show that text-only covers sell very well and are among the most popular. Not only do these covers have clean print that is bold and easy to read but that print is often overlaid on a bright background or color that evokes feelings of excitement for what is contained inside. For example, Big Magic, written by Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love), has a bright, bold, and text-only cover with an incredible selling line at the bottom of the cover: Creative Living Beyond Fear. So, here we have an example of a self-help book focused on creativity with a burst of bright, pastel colors bouncing out beyond the background and complete with a quote from Popsugar: “A must-read for anyone hoping to live a creative life.” This text-only cover excels not just because the point and messaging are clear, but also because the colors on the printed cover feel cohesive with the topics that the book will be covering. These elements, boosted by a quote from a high-volume, well-known publication, make it stand out and can increase its selling potential. This type of cover will appeal to your intended audience, but with the addition of a blurb from a popular publication, you may be able to attract a second or third audience segment that you may not originally have thought of as prospective buyers.
Author Portrait
Cover Design by Bobby Birchall
Photographs of the author are widely used to highlight the writer if they are a person of interest, famous, and/or extremely recognizable. Take Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming, which sold 1.4 million copies in its first week and after two weeks became the bestselling book of 2018, with now over 10 million copies sold. Given the author’s stature, the book would no doubt have looked great and sold well with an illustration or text-only cover, but using Obama’s face on the cover not only increased salability but also visibility. This style is recommended in cases where the author has some renown or for a second printing of a very successful book when the author has become more recognizable.
Illustrative
Cover Design by Chika Azuma
There is often an overlap between an illustrative cover and a text-only one; the text may feature design elements in the background or shadow typography. This style often is seen in books that have to do with well-being, finances, and business. A well-conceived illustration will highlight an intriguing aspect of the book as well as making it inherently more visible and compelling to a potential reader.
According to designer Peter Mendelsund, what’s vital is “finding that unique textual detail that … can support the metaphoric weight of the entire book.” There are three important components to keep in mind when choosing the artwork or style of the cover and jacket for your book:
The cover needs to grab people’s attention.
The title should be easy to read.
The cover should instantly reveal what the book will be about, and be understood within just a couple seconds.
These three key elements will guide an author as they work with a designer on creating the best cover for their work.
In a Shutterstock review of the bestselling covers of 2017, a few things stand out. The books with the best sales have some common themes for their presentation: the text is clear, bold, and uniform; the illustrations are detailed and unique; and they all have an element of intrigue. A comparison of Amazon’s current 100 bestsellers in the self-help genre shows that almost half (48) of the book covers are text-only. Forty-one of the 100 books feature an illustration on the cover and only 11 are portraits (one was of the Dalai Lama).
As you embark on selecting design elements for your cover, keep these factors in mind. Choosing the right cover art, typography, and persuasive text will only increase the sales and popularity of your work.
Contact us if you need help editing, designing, and producing a bestselling book!
