Hello, I'm Joy! To give context, I am a bookseller for my day job which means I get to work with books and recommend them to people. Sometimes, the books recommend themselves when I create displays and beautiful covers are a major part of getting readers. When there are over 10k titles in a store and you can't read all the blurbs, then you do have to judge a book by its cover.
Here I will be helping people with their covers by giving feedback and it will be up to that person if they would like to implement it.
My major concerns as a professional book lover looking at covers are the following:
Is the text legible? - Titles and author names are important to your book cover as people must know what your title is to have an idea of what the story is about. If people can't read your title and name, why would they want to read anything else?
Are the cover elements evenly spaced out? - The title should be the main focus of your cover. They should want to know more about the story and not just appreciate good art. Pretty art is good but that alone will not want to make people read. Too many elements and too much crowding can take the focus away from the title and it will make people not want to read.
Does the cover accurately fit the genre and vibes of the story? - Covers are a reflection of a story which means they need to capture the tone, age range, and genre of what you're aiming for. If you have a cartoon child on the cover with bright colours, it tells me that it is a middle-grade book. If you have a dark cover with blood and a glowing crystal, I will assume it is a dark fantasy. If you have those and that is not the case, then you are setting up the reader to be disappointed and upset by the story as it does not fit expectations.
If you are interested in getting your book cover reviewed, consider joining the API Authors Discord Group! If you would like to join and network with other authors, send either APIFantasy or APIRomance a request via private messaging for an invite link.
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