During the final rewrite phase of my novel, Misfit McCabe, leading up to publication, I worked with a class of young readers to preview the manuscript and provide feedback. This is the ninth in a series of articles about fiction writing aimed at young writers. This article discusses what purpose the cover of the book serves.

What is the purpose of a book cover?  Practically speaking, since the cover is made from a paper (for paperbacks) which is heavier than the pages of the book, part of the purpose of the cover is to protect the pages.  But what other purpose does it serve?

The primary purpose of a book cover is to get the attention of a potential reader.  You as the writer want the cover to be something that makes people want to pick the book up off the shelf and take it up to the cash register.  For me, something eye catching means bright bold colors.  In the first color draft for Misfit McCabe's cover, I didn't like the title because for me the color was much too soft. I wanted something brighter. I also didn't like the girl as a brunette, the dark hair felt too harsh too me (besides, Katie is blonde).

Think of the book cover as part of your marketing material.  While not everyone buys a book only for the cover, if your cover is not attractive or striking, it is likely to be passed by.  With books sales over the internet increasing, it is again your artwork that will grab the attention of a potential reader.  This then begs the question, how close should the book cover be to the material inside?  The cover should contain something of the essence of the book, but does not have to be exact in every detail.  Think about movie posters; they are designed to capture your interest, but may illustrate a scene that never crosses the screen in the movie.  This same type of concept should be used when designing your cover.

A class I was working with as the book cover was being designed had some criticisms of the cover that they shared with me.  They felt that the burning shed looked more like a house than a shed, and that the characters on the front looked older than what they had imagined.  A few thought that the cover should have realistic people rather than cartoon figures.  I understood their criticisms and went on to explain why I made the choices that I did.  The burning building on the cover does look more like a house than it does a shed because it appears to be much larger than what a shed would be.  By being larger, the fact that it has flames coming out of it makes it more dramatic.  

As far as the cartoon, or even comic book aspect of the cover, I wanted the designer to come up with something that was more stylized looking rather than something that looked like a photograph. I find that when I am reading a book, if the cover has a picture of the main character of the book and it is like a photograph or painting and the description of the character in the story doesn't exactly match, I become a little irritated.  Plus, When I read something, I visualize everything in my head and I wanted my readers to be able to do the same without being given a concrete image from the cover.

The class was at somewhat of a disadvantage, as far as the cover was concerned, because they had already read part of the story and had already had a chance to picture in their mind what Katie and Timmy and the shed looked like.  Before deciding what your cover should look like, you should look at several covers of books that are similar in content to yours.  What do you like about the covers?  What don't you like?  What is it that catches your eye?  Which ones would you pass without picking up?