WE CAN'T HELP judging a book by its cover—and this applies
to e-books as well as fine, leather-bound volumes.
![[image]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/EW-AO184_ebook_DV_20130228154801.jpg)
Andy Fielding
Digital-book sales in the U.S. alone are set to soar to $10.3 billion (€7.87
billion) a year by 2015, compared with a previous estimate of $2.8 billion,
according to Forrester Research. To stand out from thousands of rivals on
digital shelves like Amazon, an e-book cover must be bolder, simpler and more
legible than its print counterpart, graphic designers say.
For Andy Fielding, an Edinburgh-based graphic designer who works with writers self-publishing their e-books, simplicity is the key to a beautiful design that will stand out. "A print book only really has to work in your hands as an object. But when people are looking at e-book covers they are looking at them on places like Amazon, where they are very small initially—the size of a thumbnail."
A simpler design also means using fewer colors. "I tend to simplify [the
design] to a limited palette," says Mr. Fielding. "I prefer to use as few colors
as possible because the more colors you use, possibly the weaker [the cover
design] can become. The more detail at a smaller level, the more that detail
disappears."
Seth Godin, a writer whose book "The Icarus Deception" was partly financed through crowdfunding site Kickstarter, is in favor of this minimalist approach. "[E-books] are always sold next to a description of the book itself. As a result, the cover doesn't have to have as much info on it as a traditional book does. What matters is iconography, recognizability, visceral connection," he says.
Of course, just like a traditional book jacket, an e-book cover needs to be aesthetically pleasing. "Like any good physical book cover, an appealing e-book cover should make the reader look twice, scratch their head, and laugh," says Craig Mod, a California-based writer and designer.
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Andy Fielding
To stand out from thousands of rivals on digital shelves
like Amazon, an e-book cover must be bolder, simpler and more legible than its
print counterpart, graphic designers say.
For Andy Fielding, an Edinburgh-based graphic designer who works with writers self-publishing their e-books, simplicity is the key to a beautiful design that will stand out. "A print book only really has to work in your hands as an object. But when people are looking at e-book covers they are looking at them on places like Amazon, where they are very small initially—the size of a thumbnail."
The design for electronic book covers has to be "more crude," Mr. Fielding argues. "You can't have quite as much visual real estate," he explains, adding that because of the space restrictions, a digital cover should focus on the main idea of the book.
Seth Godin, a writer whose book "The Icarus Deception" was partly financed through crowdfunding site Kickstarter, is in favor of this minimalist approach. "[E-books] are always sold next to a description of the book itself. As a result, the cover doesn't have to have as much info on it as a traditional book does. What matters is iconography, recognizability, visceral connection," he says.
Of course, just like a traditional book jacket, an e-book cover needs to be aesthetically pleasing. "Like any good physical book cover, an appealing e-book cover should make the reader look twice, scratch their head, and laugh," says Craig Mod, a California-based writer and designer.
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