Creatively Recognizable Book Cover Design: Stand Out, But Fit In

Every author wants to stand out. Nobody wants to blend in with the crowd and be exactly like everybody else.  

Every author also wants their book design to reflect how unique they are. But while you should stand out, when it comes to your book cover, you also want to fit in. I like to use the term creatively recognizable because you want to be unique, but you also want to stay within the expectations of readers in your genre.  

Think about it this way. Let's say you're scrolling through Netflix, trying to decide what you want to watch.  As you're scrolling through, those images of each movie cover help you differentiate between the genres. Even if you're not thinking about it, a horror movie cover will look different from a comedy or a drama movie cover. They use different fonts, different colors and different graphics. These things are important in helping you easily ID what you're looking for, often without you even realizing it.

Your books need to follow the same format. For example, if you like to read African American urban fiction, look at some books in that genre. You will see that most of the books in that genre have similarities. A lot of them will use dark cover. They might feature a man and a woman in sexy poses and outfits. Often they use metallic fonts.

This would be different from a Christian romance where you might have a light blue cover featuring modestly dressed characters who may be staring innocently into each other's eyes.

All of these design choices let your reader know what to expect. They let them know what they're getting into. You wouldn't like clicking on a movie icon thinking you're getting a comedy and ending up getting like a sad, moody drama. If that happens, you're right back out because you wanted a comedy, and you got something that you didn't want. You might even leave a bad review.

Your readers are the same way. Readers don't have a lot of time to figure out what it is that you're offering them. Be unique. Use different design elements to tie your brand together. But you want to know what those reader expectations are within the covers of your genre. Whatever type of book you're trying to write, spend some time looking at those covers within that genre. That will give you an idea of what those reader expectations are, and then you can think of ways to be unique within that.

In summary: be creatively recognizable, stand out, but also fit in.