Top Design Tips for Authors

I am a qualified designer with over 25 years experience and I have had the great pleasure of designing book covers, book graphics and book illustrations for both fiction and non fiction books across many genres as well as workbooks and journals, all with a variety of target readers.

I also create and sell my own notebooks workbooks and journals on Amazon and have a free course to help people create their own low content books to sell on Amazon. Click the link below to check out my free course.

https://inspiredtoinspire.co.uk/how-to-create-and-publish-journals-course/



I have put together some top tips to help any aspiring authors create an aligned and visually engaging book that really resonates with your ideal audience and fills your heart with joy.

There are different aspects to book design.

The following structure can be followed to ensure you create the right designs for your book 



Set some time aside when you have peace and will not be interrupted. Perhaps do a meditation or listen to some calming music. Let go of distractions and general thoughts of your life and give this time to your vision for your book.

Note down or do brain storms (heart storms as I prefer to call them) for:


1. Who your readers are and what sort of styles and colours will resonate with them.


2. Identify what are the main themes and messages of the book.


3. Clarify how you want your readers to FEEL when they read your book.


These things are really important.

DEVELOP.


The planning section is likely to have sparked some great ideas so now it is time to develop them. You can create beautiful mood boards inspired by the things you have written. You can do this by screen grabbing elements online to make a pdf, using Pinterest or making a physical moodpboard with paper pens and magazine cuttings.

Once you have had fun creating some mood boards, pick out the best concepts, colours and styles that really resonate with you from the mood boards and then start to develop those ideas. Put your own unique twist on any image or graphic to make sure it is unique and represents your book beautifully.

The key is to choose things that will help your reader to understand the content or feel engaged with the story.


You can either do this work yourself and create visuals on a free app such as Canva, or you can commission a designer to help you if you are not sure what visuals will best enhance your book and portray the right image.

Creating books is often a complete work of passion and when the content is close to your heart it is important to really love and connect to the visuals you choose. I offer LIVE DESIGN sessions creating in realtime over screen share to ensure my clients are involved in the design process and LOVE the designs for their book.


You can see some examples of my designs on the link below.

https://inspiredtoinspire.co.uk/create-your-high-vibe-booklet-offers/

PREPARE.

Essential Information.

It’s so important to make sure the visuals you create are in the right size and format for Print or are Digital Ready (hyperlinks for ebooks / correct resolution and layouts for print etc.)

Make sure that you research and find out all the specifications and templates for your chosen distribution format.

Images for print are generally required to be a minimum 300dpi for print and 150 dpi for digital.

Book covers for print will have templates that vary based on size, amount of pages, barcode and ISBN placement. It’s so important to make sure your titles and important parts of images are within a ‘safe area’ on the template.

Similarly if you are using any images inside a book, there is a layout and safe area to consider too. If you have any images, backgrounds or design elements that go to the edge of the page then a print bleed set up will be required.

If your are creating a digital book that people may be printing out at home, consider how much heavy colour there is within your design as this can use up a lot of ink.




Here are some different aspects of book design to consider:



Whether you are using an illustrated, graphic or photo edited style, choose a visual that captures the essence and heart of your book.

Perhaps inspired by a vital moment or scene from the story or based on the positive focus or result of how the reader will be helped by or feel after reading your book. For printed books, consider how the cover will look as a whole including the back and spine of the book as well as the front cover image.

Make sure titles and text are clear and easy to read, especially if appearing over an image.


KEY CONTENT PAGES.

Are there parts of the story or message that you really want the audience to feel and remember?

Visuals can help readers to engage with and remember things. This could be in the form of info-graphics, charts and diagrams, character illustrations or setting a scene, or visuals that evoke emotion or inspire thoughts relating to the content.

Consider if you want to add visuals to any ‘Call to action points’ within your book. These could be things such as bullet points, ticks, setting certain text into a border or decorative frame, using icons to identify sections of the book or to highlight certain things for the reader to ‘do’ and ‘take action’ on.

Consider keeping things consistent throughout your book whilst complimenting the cover too, with content styling, icons, image types, chapter layouts and so on.

Below are a few examples to inspire you!