Are You Using the Right Font(s) On Your Book Cover?

Choosing the right font takes skill

by Jessica Bell

A good designer will know exactly what style of font suits your design and genre, but if you intend to design your book covers yourself, there are some things worth knowing about fonts before you get started.

I’m pretty sure you’ve seen covers on which you just “know” something is not working and you feel that the design looks amateurish, but you can’t put your finger on it. More often than not the issue is with the typography. Sometimes font choice is the only thing standing between a successful vs. failed cover design because the imagery might actually be worth keeping.

Five fonts to (please) avoid

Have you ever heard indie authors laughing and joking about Papyrus, and how it screams amateur? It’s been labelled:

“the king of bad fonts.”

I agree. It doesn’t look good on anything.

There are a few other fonts that designers believe you should avoid if you want to be taken seriously, and those are:

These are the five serious offenders in my opinion, but if you search for “fonts to never use on a book cover” you’ll find many more offenders and opinions about them. This post is rather entertaining.

Text and image synergy

You also need to consider the placement of your text. A good cover designer will design imagery and text simultaneously so that they complement each other and seamlessly combine with each other.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

See how the text is a part of the design, and not just on top of the image?

This is why it’s a challenge (and usually more expensive) to approach a designer with a ready image or illustration that was not originally produced by someone who is familiar with book cover design.

You cannot just grab an image and slap text on top of it. Well, you can, but the result will more often than not resemble something an author put together quickly on Canva, which unfortunately screams all the negative things people have to say about self-published books. (And some small presses too!)

You need to compete with all the traditional publishers who have huge budgets to play with, and all the authors who believe you are ruining their reputation because you decided to take shortcuts and skimp on quality.

The importance of genre in book cover design (and therefore font choice)

As a designer, it’s not really my place to be offering advice on book content (though I could since I’m an author and a publisher too), but it is my place to be commenting on target audience. Genre leads to target audience and target audience leads to design.

I was once asked to design a book cover for an “old American comic book sci-fi/fantasy manga mix graphic novel.” There’s absolutely nothing wrong with writing multi-genre books. I write multi-genre books. But choices need to be made regarding who you intend to market the book to. Of course, it can end up reaching a wide range of audiences, but it also needs to start somewhere solid first. Where was I supposed to start with this design? Old American comic? Sci-fi/Fantasy? (Even those two can differ drastically.) Manga?

Best to be clear about your genre before launching into the design of your book cover.

Using font to signify genre

If there is a specific genre of book that you are a big fan of, you may have noticed that similar fonts are consistently used on their covers. As with common design elements, such as dark houses with lit windows on psychological thrillers (also notice the colours!) there are specific fonts (and font styles) that are commonly matched with various genres.

Various psychological thriller bestsellers on Amazon which all use Sans Serif fonts. These are not my designs.

Here are some common font classification matches (a nice description of these font classifications can be found here):

1. Serif: Literary, Historical, Contemporary, Women’s Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir
2. Slab Serif: Literary, Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller
3. Sans serif: Contemporary, Historical, Thriller, Sci-fi, Nonfiction
4. Script: Romance, Women’s Fiction, Historical
5. Decorative: Fantasy, Paranormal, Historical, Sci-Fi
6. Handwritten: Romance, Chick Lit, Literary, Contemporary, Memoir

7. 

These are very broad matches, but Creative Indie has a fabulous resource which gives you a nice list of actual font names and which genres they are commonly used for.

Also, some really enlightening information about font psychology can be found here, which can be very useful for nonfiction and branding.

There is no hard fast rule about these, but it’s a place to start if you’re unsure. Designers and publishers are getting more ambitious nowadays and starting to create new trends, so if in doubt, get advice from a professional designer to steer you in the right direction.

Take cover design too lightly and you may annoy readers and garner bad reviews

Have you ever been so in love with a book cover that you couldn’t resist buying the book? And when you read the book, it was nothing at all like you expected and you ended up disappointed even though it was technically a good read? I have.

This hypothetical book could have sold thousands of copies because the cover was so enticing, but there’s a problem. All the review sites have lots of one and two-star ratings. And is this because the book was bad? Maybe not. But maybe the cover was giving a false impression of its contents. Maybe the design implied erotica, but it was actually quite a clean wholesome romance. Are you willing to jeopardize your reputation for income? Yes, sex sells, but think wisely. Because you may not be so lucky with your next book.

Last words

Don’t forget the key word in target audience. The arrow cannot hit more than one circle with one shot. And sometimes, one shot is all you have.

by Jessica Bell (@iamjessicabell), November 20, 2022

What about you, scriveners? Do you pay attention to the font used on a book cover? Have you ever bought a book with an enticing cover that turned out to give a false impression of the content? Do you have an emotional response to some fonts?  NOTE: Jessica is in Greece, and not in the same time zone as most of us. She will be responding on what’s Monday morning for a lot of us. 

About Jessica Bell

Jessica Bell is an Australian multi-award-winning author/poet, a highly sought-after and award-winning book cover designer who is recommended by Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur, Makeuseof.com, John Fox of Bookfox, and more. She is also a singer-songwriter.

Her latest book is called Can You Make the Title Bigga? The Chemistry of Book Cover Design.

She is also the Publisher of Vine Leaves Press, and currently resides in Athens, Greece, with her partner and son, and a pile of dishes that still don’t know how to wash themselves despite her consistently teaching by example.

For more information visit: iamjessicabell.com

Can You Make the Title Bigga?

Buy the book at Vine Leaves Press.

Understand the chemistry of book cover design in Can You Make the Title Bigga? by award-winning book cover designer, Jessica Bell, who is recommended by Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur, Makeuseof.com, John Fox of Bookfox, and more.

Are you self-publishing? Can You Make the Title Bigga? will inspire you with practical, actionable advice and information.

Work in marketing or graphic design in a publishing house? It offers an invaluable resource.

Studying graphic design? Already designing book covers professionally—or with dreams of doing so? Find inspiration for designs, workshops and classes.

From Jessica Bell’s witty, kind, and thoughtful perspective, you will discover:

• why book cover design is so important, whether you’re self-published, indie, or traditionally published
• the elements of an eye-catching, professional cover design
• how to research and choose potential book cover designers
• some of the biggest challenges an author and a designer face during a collaboration
• the balance between creating a book cover the author loves, the designer loves, and a potential reader loves
• how to prepare for a collaboration
• how to ensure a smooth sailing collaboration
• costs and recommended designers

and much more!

Includes over 100 color book cover design examples and information about project agreements, how to obtain puff quotes for your book, how to obtain ISBNs, a list of standard trim sizes, and binding options.

More About Jessica Bell

For more of my book cover designs, check out my design website jessicabelldesign.com and my publishing house website vineleavespress.com.

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Connect with me on social media:

Instagram: @jessicabelldesign and @yesiamjessicabell

Twitter: @iamjessicabell

Facebook: @jessicabelldesign and @jessbell.vineleaves

YouTube: youtube.com/c/msbessiebell

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicacarmenbell

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Featured image: Wikimedia