Typefaces say a lot about your book. You’ve seen the books on the shelves — romance, horror, even how-tos have a certain look to them. And YES, the cover does help sell the book.
Below are examples of covers from different genres (courtesy of Amazon.com). Notice that the typefaces are far from overly decorative. The typeface and image must work together, not compete for cover space.
Susan Mallery, Three Sisters
Womens Fiction
Karen Kingsbury, The Beginning
Romance
The above covers did a wonderful job of combining typefaces with images for their genre. Three Sisters: Contemporary Womens Fiction, effectively utilizes the simpleness and soft-strength of a sans-script for the author name with a feminine calligraphic typeface for the Title.
The Beginning also utilizes a calligraphic font but then chose a script for the author name, retaining the softness and appeal of a romance novel.
Stephanie Meyer, HOST
Science Fiction / Paranormal
James Patterson: Alex Cross, RUN
Thriller / Suspense
The above covers both utilize a sans-serif font, but in quite a different way. You can always tell a James Patterson book: because of his immense readership, his genre books are designed to catch the fan’s eye, and pull in the sale. Alex Cross, RUN uses a large, bold typeface with an understated image, creating the right balance for the cover.
Stephanie Meyer’s book HOST uses a simple sans-serif font with a twist. By adding a glow to the “O” the title moves from text to a brand-like logo. In addition, this simple artistic design provides “secret insight” into the book and by adding that same blue glow to the heroines eyes this ties it all neatly together.
The Right Balance
I don’t need to point out bad covers over good. You know it when you see them. Some scream amateurish but they don’t have to. Finding the right balance between typeface and image takes a creative eye; knowing what works and what doesn’t.
Free Fonts
I love FontSquirrel.com – excellent source for FREE, hand-picked, high-quality, commercial-use fonts that you can use not only for book cover design but eBook embedding.
Even though Font Squirrel has thousands of fonts not all are good for Cover Design. Keep simplicity and readability in mind.
And be sure, no matter where you obtain your fonts, to read the usage license requirements.
NOTE: Before downloading a typeface – take if for a TEST DRIVE. This means you can put in your title and “see” how it will look before having to actually download and install the font. What looks good on the screen may not work for your book cover needs, so taking a test drive will save you a lot of time and clutter on your computer.
Windsong is a nice typeface for a short titled book. Style: Calligraphic
Goudy Trajan combines my two favorite Adobe fonts into a useable “free” font, which I can embed in eBooks. GT is an elegant and versatile typeface. Style: Serif
I love strong, bold fonts for book covers, especially thrillers and suspense. League Gothic offer a condensed typeface that can easily be stretched (widened) and still retain it’s clean edge and lines. Style: Sans-Serif
Aquiline Two is a distressed font, indicating a handwritten note of the quill pen days. Great for historical, romance or period (17th-18th century) type novels. Style: Distressed Calligraphic
