Front Covers

I have been working with my friend in designing the cover for my book so I have front covers on my mind. More specifically, what I prefer in covers. It's always a delicate balance in creating a cover because you want it to be distinguished enough that it doesn't look like every other book in that genre, but you want it to be similar enough that you can recognize the genre of the book from the cover.

There is a reason why certain tropes are carried out over many different covers. For example, as cheesy as it is, romance books have to have a shirtless guy or some other "girly" aspect on it because without that someone passing by won't know that it's a romance book. There are hints layered in to allow the reader to have a preconceived notion about the book.

There is no such thing as not reading a book by its cover.

My favourite covers are the drawn high fantasy ones. Here are a few examples:

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan


Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson


The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks


The cover that we have been designing is more abstract than these, but I knew that I really wanted it to be hand drawn rather than a collage of photos. I cannot wait to see the finished product because the experimentation has looked great until now.