Here we come to the last point of our tips for good ebook covers, or in this case, even for paperback books. That is: look at the others. First of all, don’t think you can design the most innovative cover ever. In second instance, get inspired by the success cases or by any author who has written something of the same genre of your book.
As any good artist, everyone who is going to create something has to get inspired. It could be a spontaneous inspiration, but every writer knows that what one writes is the sum of creativity and experience of what he has read before.
Every artwork or book that we enjoy, we take a little part of it inside ourselves. Then, our creativity manipulates it to create something new. It’s something that is going on since humankind had been born, and there’s nothing wrong in it. So don’t feel shy to look at other covers to create your own style.
There’s only one thing to be careful of: not to take the all package altogether, copy it and past it in your cover. In other words, take inspiration, don’t steal ideas. If you copy something, you could end in some copyright issues.
Here there are some links that could help you in this matter:
– A quick Google search on classic book covers
– A website with 86 excellent cover designs
– The book cover design archive, with tons of covers to look at.
Eventually, the last tip we can give you is: make it simple. A good design is simple, a good story is written around a simple concept.
It’s even more important on stores such as Amazon because you’ll have a little thumbnail as cover, among a messy amount of dozens of other ones, especially badly designed ones.
A simple, good looking cover will shine in the mess like a beacon in the night.