Children’s books are so appealing because they provide the spark for a child’s imagination. Bold children’s book covers, memorable characters, and magical illustrations are all woven together into stories that are everything from outlandish to thoughtful.
But the story doesn’t just begin on page one. Children’s book covers are usually the first place young readers learn about the enchanting stories inside a book. But children’s book covers are specifically designed to capture the child’s attention, encouraging them to take a look inside to meet fanciful characters and enter into mysterious, new worlds the author creates.
Components of Successful Children’s Book Covers
To create a book cover that young readers will love, self-published authors should craft a cover that utilizes the characteristics of popular and well-received children’s books. But not every talented author is a skilled illustrator or graphic artist, so the process of conception to realization of children’s book covers is often created in partnership with an expert. By partnering with an expert, a beautiful and thoughtfully designed cover can reflect the same professionalism as the story an author has worked so hard to create.
Children’s Book Covers Should Reflect the Genre and Theme
At a glance, readers should be able to tell the genre of a book. From the color palate to the graphics style, even the youngest readers should recognize that a book is geared toward children by the way the cover appears. Some children’s book covers also clearly hint at the theme of a story like friendship, love, or family by offering illustrations or visual elements that suggest the theme through a child’s eyes.
Children’s Book Covers Should Encourage Curiosity and Creativity
Another key element of successful children’s book covers is the way it encourages young readers to be curious about the pages inside of the book. Offering children a sneak peek of the magical stories within the pages of a book, the cover’s design, colors, and even the font and style can build excitement about a book as well as inspire creativity in a child. Children love to guess what a story is about, the meaning of clues or details cover design provides or even imagine the role
Children’s Book Covers Should Communicate Tone and Mood
Not only should a well-designed cover imply the genre and theme of the book, but it can also hint at the tone and mood within the story as well. Even the youngest reader understands the tone that dark, moody colors suggest while bright, cheerful hues and playful designs can elicit a smile on the face of a young reader unable to read the title or book description that gives away the uplifting tone of a book.
The presence of subliminal communication through color and style is even more important in children’s book covers especially for the youngest audience as these visual cues help them to anticipate a book’s contents during the pre-reading stages a character will take when they view an appealing, colorful and inspired cover design.
Children’s Book Covers Develop the Brand
The last key component of a successful cover for children’s books is it offers an opportunity for the author’s branding to be memorable for current and future publications. With standout branding and an exciting cover design plan, authors can use a book cover to promote themselves, their other works, or a book series.
Young readers will associate a specific look, design, color palate, or font with a book, so authors often repeat elements on each book cover design to help readers instantly connect a new title with books they have already read, strengthening the brand and the author and reader connection.
8 Children’s Book Cover Concepts To Try
1. Beautiful Illustrations
One of the most appealing elements of children’s books is the lovely illustrations that captivate and enchant readers. Authors can include a version of their gorgeous artwork on the children’s book covers to project the characters, story, and world to potential readers, catching their attention before they even open the book.
Authors can use an actual scene from the book as their cover design, lifting an entire page illustration as the cover design or choose to use just a slice of an illustration to show readers a character, setting, or singular visual element. But including beautiful artwork on the cover that reflects the book’s illustration style will help draw in young readers and jumpstart their imaginations from their first view of a book’s cover.
2. Bold Colors
Another strategy authors utilize on children’s book covers is to use bright, vibrant colors. It’s no secret that children respond well to bold, rich colors like reds, blues, greens, and yellows, which is why we often see toys in these bright hues. Children’s book covers using these bold hues instantly signify that your book is crafted specifically for young readers, helping your book stand out.
3. Creative Fonts
Book covers that use unique typography can be appealing to the littlest readers. Children’s books that use creative fonts on the cover can be distinctive, and a unique font can play a role in branding, too. Using a font that reflects the story, theme, or some element of the book is an excellent way to subtly introduce the book through typography and also give readers a visual connection to books in a series or other books an author has written.
4. Engaging Characters
The cover is the perfect place to focus the reader’s attention on a specific character. Children’s books are known for including interesting, silly, unusual, and memorable characters, so highlighting a character on the cover the reader is sure to love is an excellent strategy for book cover design.
Visual elements are just as critical to a children’s book as the story itself, so introducing a character on the front cover can spark a reader’s imagination, lead them toward questions about the book, and help them visualize the upcoming world they will enter when they turn the first page.
5. Magical Themes
Some of the most popular children’s book genres include magic and fantasy, so books that reference them on their covers instantly connect the reader to the story’s magical experience. Whether it is a visual hint at the magical content, descriptive language that provides the clue, or a combination of both, including obvious magical themes in children’s book cover design is an excellent strategy for creating a memorable cover.
6. Playful Artwork
Children’s books are filled with quirky characters and humorous situations. Including whimsical artwork on the cover can loop in that same lighthearted element that the author has woven into the story and characters inside the book. Often a professional cover designer or graphic artist can translate an author’s vision for playful cover artwork that complements the book’s contents.
7. Stylized Artwork
Comic book style is one of the most recognizable artistic styles for children’s and teen books. With punchy graphics, rich colors, and bold fonts, a book using comic book style cover design will grab the attention of young readers and promise a story full of action and strong characters.
8. Thrilling Themes
Many children’s books revolve around the themes of nature and adventure, so a book cover that clearly depicts these themes will appeal to young readers of all ages. Kids seeking books that extend their love of the outdoors, animals and the world around them will be excited to see their book’s theme clearly projected through the cover art design.
And books that take readers on an adventure, through a hero’s journey cycle or simply introduce small elements of an exciting quest will be easier to find when the cover reflects the book’s thrilling themes.
Printing a Beautiful Cover
Self-published authors can work with a cover design expert, illustrator, or graphic design professional to develop a cover that will attract young readers to their book. Enticing readers with a book cover that creates excitement about the characters, theme, story, or genre while also sparking a child’s imagination is the key to making a memorable book cover.
Once your cover is complete, partner with Dazzle Printing to bring your book to life. Their expertise in helping authors turn their manuscripts into gorgeous books can help you get your books into the hands of your readers.
