Before anything else, let’s just do away with the age-old “don’t judge a book from its cover” sermon.

In the real world, a book is always judged by its cover as the first thing. Period!

Really, how do you expect your book to get noticed among the huge pile of several other novels and books; stacked across the library shelves?

Authors give long hours, for months, to finally finish their dream book project. But, it all may go in vain if their edition is not even looked at in the first place.

So, practically speaking, in order to get your book picked up from the shelf, it needs to have a great looking cover design.

However, when the topic of book cover design is discussed, it’s often the front face (or sometimes the back of it) that is the point of focus.

Well, not saying that the face cover isn’t important. But, what most authors fail to remember is that it is the spine of the book that the readers mostly get to see when they go through the stacks in the library.

And, what is it that one sees on the spine of a book?

-The title

-The author-name

- The publisher’s name

This brings us to our main point of discussion for today; Book Cover Fonts!

When planning the overall book cover design, one of the most important design elements which often gets overshadowed, under all the graphics and colors, is the typeface.

The font used for book cover design is equally important and, therefore, must be selected strategically.

"There is a difference between typeface and font. This article highlight those differences."

So, if you are planning to launch your new book (or a new edition), and looking for ways to improve your sales, maybe it’s time to take a different approach and start focusing on the book cover fonts.

In this blog, we’ll help you decide how to choose the best book cover fonts; that’ll definitely help increase the sales of your book.

Follow the genre

The very first thing that you need to consider when picking fonts for book cover design is the genre of your book.

Is your book a thriller? Or is it Sci-fi?

Depending on what the theme of your book is, you can decide the typeface for book cover design.

For example, a font such as League Gothic would be a great choice for thrillers or business books. Additionally, this sans serif font type can also be highly useful if you have a very long title.

Similarly, something like the Baskerville font type would be a great choice for a book on history or romance.

So, it is important to consider your book’s genre as the very first thing to make it easier to find the best book cover font.

Keep it legible

The two most important aspects of any book cover title are;

-Readability

-Recall value

In order for your book to be a success and have a high sale number, it first needs to have a title that could easily be understood by the customers.

So, in order to ensure that the two aspects mentioned above stay with your book title, you need to treat your book cover fonts with care.

Use bold and large font style, without trying to stretch or change them in any way.

Most fonts come with different weights, more than just simple bold, or italic; if your font can’t do what you want from it, use a different one.

Don’t blindly follow free book cover templates

A very important thing to consider when picking the perfect typeface for book cover design is the authority of the font.

If you want to design your own book cover, there are hundreds of free book cover fonts available online that you can choose from.

However, this would make it very easy for a reader to spot your book as a DIY book cover design and will make them judge it for an amateur’s work.

Using free book cover templates can surely give you access to free fonts for book cover designs. But, it may also take away the prospect of creating a unique book cover design from you.

A lot of on-demand graphic design service providers also have access to such paid fonts which they include in their subscription.

Don’t forget complimentary fonts

So far in our discussion for choosing the best book cover fonts, the main focus was on the title of the book. However, it is important to remember that the title is not the only text that is on display; on the spine.

It also displays the author’s name, the publisher’s name, and maybe even a sub-title.

The professionally recommended font variation in a single design is between 2-3 different font styles.

So, it is important to make sure you pick the fonts that would blend and complement each other on the design; rather than overpowering.

Check the font colors

Ask any professional graphic designer and they’ll tell you how important color is for any type of graphic design. The same applies to the font style you choose for your book cover design.

The color of the book cover font that you have selected needs to be in contrast with the background color of the book cover.

Not only does it helps in making it legible but, also will help in attracting the right target audience due to the psychological impact that colors have.

To conclude…

We hope that these tips will help you find the right book cover fonts for your new edition. Along with the points discussed above, it is also recommended to do quick (but thorough) research on the field.

Visit your nearest bookstore (or the one where your book will be placed for sale) and get a feel of the way books are displayed there.

Check out the behavior of the customers who are coming in to make a purchase (including yourself); especially, the section of your book’s genre.

What is it that is tempting them to pick a book to check it out?

This will be a very helpful way to understand what the audience is looking for.

Of course, if you don’t have time for all this, and simply want to get a high conversion book cover design, then all you need to do is send us your requirements at support@graphicszoo.com and we’ll help you get your own custom book cover design.