A book cover is your readers’ first impression of your work, and while it’s easy to say “don’t judge a book by its cover,” the reality is very different. Both fiction and non-fiction authors often fail to create book covers that really speak to their audience and adequately convey what they want to achieve. A good book cover must be visually appealing, but it also needs to give your readers a good sense of what your book is trying to say, while not overwhelming them with information. Toeing that fine line can be very difficult, but it’s one of the essential parts of creating a manuscript that’s not only engaging but marketable.

Several common book cover mistakes are easy to avoid if you know to look out for them. Here are seven of the most common mistakes to look out for and avoid if you can:

1. Too many images – In an effort to look interesting, many writers fall into the trap of creating covers that are just too busy. A well-placed image can say a lot and convey more than excessive prose. But, plastering your book with multiple images in an attempt to draw your readers interest will often muddy the waters.
   
   A single image can provide context, and give your readers visual cues of what to expect. Try and keep your covers simple, with a single, well-chosen image to draw your readers’ attention. Less is usually more.

2. Information overload – I’ve worked with many authors who feel they need to tell their whole story on their covers to pique their readers’ interest. They plaster their book jackets with text, image captions, and give too much away in an attempt to do so. You want to draw your readers in so they’re excited to read more.
   
   By giving too much away on the cover, you take away their need to open your book at all. Think of it like a movie trailer; if you give away the whole film’s plot, you’re less likely to entice a viewer to pay the price of a cinema ticket. You want the prose on your cover to tempt your readers and make them want to learn more.

3. Using your cover to make a point – For non-fiction authors especially, it can be tough to take yourself out a work that is, oftentimes, incredibly personal. If you’ve spent so long writing a book to make a particular point that is central to your book’s argument, it can be tempting to try and convince people of that point’s validity from the outset. But that isn’t what your cover is for.
   
   Your book’s content is the place to state your case. Again, you want to entice your reader into picking up your work, which is where you will convince them of the importance of what you’re trying to say. Don’t give away your central premise too easily – sometimes it’s good for a reader to have to work for it.

4. Creating for yourself, not for your audience – Having dedicated time and resources to bring your book out into the world, the need to have full creative control is understandable. You may have a specific aesthetic in mind, or have a personal image or design that speaks to you about how you wish your work to be perceived. The problem with this approach, however, is that your readers might not always share that.
   
   Audiences often have specific visual cues that they associate with a certain type of book, and deviating from that too far may mean that readers are not only less willing to pick up your book, but those that do may be disappointed that it didn’t meet their expectations. Readers gauge their expectations on their visual impressions, so you will do yourself, and your work, a disservice by not considering your readers in your cover design.

5. Too many colours or fonts – Design principles, from web to print, all agree on one thing: never use too many colours or fonts. Typography, colour, and layout choices say a lot about the type of book a reader is expecting, and using too many fonts or colours can often come across as amateur.
   
   It’s never a good idea to use more than three fonts, but most design theory calls for no more than two. A font can make or break your cover, so choosing one that is not only easy to read but conveys the right message, is essential. This goes for colours too. Before designing your book’s jacket, it’s worth getting to grips with basic design theory. There are many resources out there from online articles to free courses like this one, at Coursera.

6. Not getting the right copyright permissions or using subpar illustrations to get around copyright – With images available all over the internet, it’s easy to forget that many of them fall under copyright. If you’ve used one as a writing prompt for example (for which you don’t need permission), it can be easy to forget that the image may not be in the public domain and free to use on a commercially sold work. You should never use any images without first getting permission from the artist, or purchasing a licence with the correct uses.
   
   Licencing images can vary in price quite significantly. If you have your heart set on a photograph or work of art that’s expensive to licence or where permission has been refused, I’ve known many authors try to get around it by commissioning “look-a-like art.” Not only are the ethics of having someone copy the intellectual property of another artist questionable, but the results are rarely to the same quality (at least not without a significant financial outlay).
   
   If you fail to get the right copyright permissions, you leave yourself open to lawsuits, or the removal of your work from sale. It’s just not a risk worth taking. Before you take your book to print, always ensure that you have permission to use whatever cover art you want and avoid using poor imitations if those permissions can’t be obtained.

7. Designing for the wrong genre – While you may have a certain view of your book, make sure it’s a view that your audience will share. It’s important to have feedback from independent beta readers either way, but make sure you ask them what genre they think your book belongs to. You’ll often be surprised by their feedback.
   
   I recently worked with a writer who thought she’d written a work of historical fiction, but when she received feedback from her beta readers, they viewed it as a romance novel. The part of her narrative that spoke to them was the characters’ relationships, not history and politics. In a case like hers, it was essential to design a cover the conveyed the genre to the reader. Giving a book a cover that doesn’t convey the right genre mismanages expectations.
   
   One of my favourite films is The Princess Bride, but it was a box-office flop despite having a cult following now. A big reason for that was one of the most significant failures in marketing in cinema history. While the film is multi-genre, the studio didn’t quite know how to sell that, and so decided to focus its trailers and subsequent marketing on the grandson-and-grandfather angle. It’s almost impossible for anyone who has seen the original trailers to recognise the film in it, and it’s something that drove audiences away. The same goes for your cover. If you don’t adequately portray your genre to your readers through visual cues, you’ll find that you fail to find an audience. Managing reader expectations is an essential component of good cover design.

There are many advantages to avoiding these common book cover mistakes. Not only will your work be visually appealing to your readers and be more likely to be picked up off the shelf, but you can also manage reader perception and expectations. A well-designed cover is more than something pretty to look at. It can tell your reader exactly the type of book they’re picking up, and let them know that what they’re reading is quality.

No matter how good your book is, a bad cover design can severely impact your work’s marketability. You owe it to yourself and your work to make sure you have, not just a good cover, but a great one.