Last week we have begun exploring the ePublishing houses through which we could maybe publish our book (and the list of ePublishing houses reviews will continue growing daily). Now, this was in case we were to choose to publish through an ePublishing house. However the rise of self-publishing that the new channels of ePublishing have opened imply that many of us will opt for the self-publishing road.

Once the book is ready and properly edited, it is time to seriously think about the cover. One might not judge a book by its cover in theory, but let’s dace it, in practice, the majority of people do.

So the cover is as important as the content of the book if not more at the beginning, while our book is still unknown and likely to be ignored.

The good news is that for eBooks, we only need a front cover, not a full jacket. That already eliminates half of the work, so we can concentrate exclusively on the front cover.

So we need to consider 2 main elements:

• The illustration
• The lettering

They need to form a harmonious ensemble where the lettering blends in with the illustration while still conveying the relevant information.

The illustration should be based on the climax of the story, to attract attention, yet without revealing too much so that the reader remains surprised when he comes across the relevant passage.

It should also be of a style consistent with the illustrations of the genre of the book. An illustration that would be perfect for an academic publication would probably lead astray a reader looking for a, say, horror novel. The reader has to be able to identify the genre at first glance, yet the cover has to be sufficiently different from the others to keep his glance from wandering further. Tricky feat to achieve…

The lettering font and color should be based on the colors of the cover and on the impression the book conveys. For example, broadly, Courier font would fit a journalistic based book, Lucinda Cursive would fit a romance novel and Gothica a horror one. This is a superficial sample that would have to be adapted to the book’s content and does not pretend to constitute the Bible in Font choice for these genres.

The right choice is the one that comes from the guts, after suitable research in the available fonts have been made.

So, now time to search. ..