Did you know there are book cover design conventions you need to follow to fit squarely in your genre? If not, maybe you’ve noticed certain genres tend to have a certain look? And ideally, you can determine the genre, just by glancing at the cover. Right?
Well, read below to find out about some of these genre conventions. They’ll help you determine if your book cover design, or the one you’re planning, meet these standards.
Fiction Book Cover Design
Fiction book cover design varies quite a bit depending on genre, but there are also some standards that apply to many of the fiction books you see out there. You’ll find that imagery and typography used will usually be within the same family for instance.
When we think about fiction in general, and general fiction, you’ll mostly see serif and sans serif fonts. Now, we don’t want to go into a lesson on typography here but we’ll show you how it can make a difference in the tone and mood and work with other aspects of design to establish genre.
Romance
Romance novels often use script fonts because they look handwritten and stylized. They capture a mood of intimacy and well, romance. This, along with softer color palettes and imagery that evokes love, tell the reader that the book they’re seeing is in the Romance genre. They also, almost always feature images of people, if not couples. Do your cover design ideas fit your genre?
Horror and Fantasy
Horror and Fantasy novels use fonts in their book cover design that stand out. They look more edgy and modern, or edgy and retro. Think of the font for Stranger Things. Or Stephen King novels! Book cover design for Horror, Fantasy and even Sci-fi also make use of dark, deep colors and bold imagery to bring the viewer into another world.
How Middle Grade and Children’s Book Cover Design Fit Genres
Books for younger children tend to be populated with fonts that are more rounded, and not ornate or complex. Two examples are Helsinki and Caroni. Children’s book cover design often contains bold colors, simple graphics, and illustrations from the book itself.
Nonfiction Cover Design That Fits Your Genre
When it comes to nonfiction cover design, the elements used are more classic and straight to the point, with some exceptions. This is because nonfiction books usually need to get a point across rather than set a tone or create a mood. So the sans serif fonts are pretty popular. You’ll see more of fonts such as Gotham, Helvetica, Caslon, and Futura in nonfiction book cover design.
Business Books
Business book cover design is usually authoritative in tone, uncluttered and focused heavily on the title itself. Because the cover of a business book is meant to show you what you can get from the book, it’s kept simple and clean but with a clear message. You likely won’t see a lot of imagery outside of graphics. So don’t worry about telling a story with images in your business book if you want your cover design to fit your genre.
Memoir and Self-Help
Because of the nature of these two genres, memoir and self-help book cover design is often meant to invoke empathy and perhaps nostalgia. Now, a memoir can be brutal and unflinching, so it’s not always the case, but it is for the majority. You might see Bondoni or Caslon fonts in both self-help and memoir for instance.
Self-help books use soft and pastel tones and cool colors to evoke a sense of ease and wellness. While Memoir commonly will have photographs as imagery, to create a sense of realness and authenticity in their cover design to fit the genre.
Overall, it’s about sending the right message to the viewer. There’s always room for creativity, and good book cover design relies on all the elements combined, but sticking within the genre conventions is still important. After all, your book cover is meant to sell your book and the best way to do that is to get it in the hands of your ideal reader.
Recent Comments