Judging a Book by it’s Cover
The Importance of Branding to Author’s for Cover Art
Branding for writers begins with cover art. It alludes to the reader what the novel is about without reading the synopsis and can tell you about the author themselves, this makes it easier for the books to sell and for marketers to promote. A well thought out design relates to the overall story, genre, and tone while still being visually interesting. For a buyer, the first step to picking a book, especially in person, is the cover art. Within such a saturated market, covers’ set apart books with the same title. It can also be used to set the book apart from others of similar plots in a genre.
As shown in the images below, two covers depict books with the title ‘The Last Dragon’; however, each tells the audience a different story. One is whimsical due to the light color pallete and clearly depicts a fantasy book with adventure elements. The other cover is serious and suggests that it may be more romantic than anything else. It also has less to do with the dragon aspect of the name. Both novels seem to be marketed towards different ages with art and font styles. Therefore, when an author has an understanding of how they want to be portrayed and to whom, they can create reflective branding through their work, and a marketer will know one of the first steps in crafting a plan, who the audience is.
Authors like Stephen King and Stephanie Meyer are excellent examples of authors who utilize cover art and personal branding to the fullest. They are each successful due in part to this. They have recognition in their covers; King’s horror and thriller novels often have dark and eerie imagery as well as gothic and discernible font. His covers clearly explain to the buyer that his novel will be chilling. It is also indicative of his work. Without knowing what titles on shelves belong to him directly, one can assume which is his work and they will come to know it as a reliable read, bringing back repeat readers and drawing in new ones. The audience can also gather that King is a creative and visual storyteller because of how sensorially evocative his covers usually are leaving a lasting impression.
Meyer’s art is clean and simple, usually a single image against a dark background. Her popular work, Twilight is vampire romance novels, and the cover tells the audience that the work is for older age’s and will have mature themes. The covers lack colors typically associated with children and the art is in a dark romantic color pallet – red, white, black, etc. Twilight’s cover art was also planned well for reader to identify as a series. The unique cover design made it easy to tell which belonged to her collection and having the works numbered made it organized.
Even when considering a publisher’s edition of a book, like Penguin Classics you can still see how branding will benefit the author. Penguin will mold their branding to fit their uniform, but the image is still translatable, and it tells the audience that a market authority, wants to promote and sell the work as part of a trusted collection, giving the author recognition through the publisher’s established brand.
