Write Your Own Novel
So, you’ve decided to follow in the footsteps of the greatest authors of our time and write a novel? Fantastic. We’ve put together a novel layout that produces the best result for this type of book – in our experience. This way, you won’t have to worry too much about measurements and paper types, and just get straight to the writing instead!
Template Ideas
The flagship
This template will give you a book worthy of the star spot on any shelf. The downside of this impressive exterior is that it’s expensive to produce and ship.
The bestseller
A respectable, no-nonsense template. More portable than a hardcover, whilst the larger-than-average size still makes it an imposing presence on the shelf.
The traveler
A template designed to strike the perfect balance between portability and readability, whilst minimizing shipping costs and maximizing your profit margins.
Novel Cover Ideas
There are about as many different ways to design the cover for a novel as there are novels, really. Whatever you end up making is likely going to be heavily dependent on the genre. Naturally there are trends that come and go, and certain visual themes and fonts tend to evoke certain genres more than others.
A good way to get inspired is to look at books similar to yours, and seeing what’s been done there. Make some notes on the aspects of these covers that you like and dislike, and pay special attention to bestsellers. Below, you’ll find some ideas that you can emulate or build on. You can recreate all of these covers using our cover designer.
The Modern One
One of the most popular ways to design book covers is using a heavily edited photo or illustration that invokes the atmosphere or theme of the book. Generally, these visuals are quite spare, to allow for the title and author name to stand out. You don’t want a cluttered image making hard to identify the book.
While our example quite clearly emulates a mystery novel, the idea behind this cover is applicable to almost any genre. As long as you can project one of the predominant feelings prevalent throughout your book, you’re well on your way.
The Classic One
Emulate a great 19th century novel with an elegant, minimalist cover design that radiates class. A simple photo or pattern that isn’t too busy with works well for this kind of design. Opt for a bold colour scheme if you really want your book to catch peoples attention.
Seeing as this type of cover doesn’t say very much about the story, it’s important to have a catchy or intriguing title to reel people in once the colourful cover has caught their attention. Unless you’re something of a household name, you should therefore also make sure the title is bigger than your name.
The Colourful One
You can eschew images in favour of conveying the atmosphere of your book through colour, if that’s your thing. This method makes it easy to stand out on a shelf or in a web shop. You can add some basic visual elements like we’ve done in this example, or simply let the colours speak for themselves.
Don’t be afraid to get a little crazy with the colours. They’re the main feature of the cover, so you have more freedom than when you’re working around an image. Consider making use of a colour wheel to help you find a matching selection.
You can also get helpful tips on formatting your manuscript and designing your cover on our blog!
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