Magic of the Muses: Cover Reveal! OPERATION MAXTRACKER

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Cover Reveal! OPERATION MAXTRACKER

There are many elements in a book cover: font, cover, graphics, placement, author's name, title. Each must serve a purpose and together they must blast a potential reader's senses

Despite the adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover," we all do. A cover needs to catch the eyes of potential readers, needs to get people to reach out and pick it up, turn it over and devour the back cover copy. For an eBook, it must stand out among all others, must look enticing and amazing. Must get readers to stop and scan the description, and hit that purchase button. It must look good on eReaders and other digital devices.

A cover must do all that while remaining true to the story and genre (readers don't like being deceived) and must not give away the story. In the case of the OPERATION MAXTRACKER cover, it must also match up with the other books in the BackTracker series.

"It all starts with the cover."

When working with my cover designer, I begin with the mood. Is the overall gist of the story lighthearted, dark, angry, sad, intriguing, romantic..? Mood will play an important role in the cover design, determining the color and font and influencing the graphics and overall appearance.

Here's a peak at some of the elements from my forthcoming OPERATION MAXTRACKER cover.

The title font and design was chosen to match the first three books in the series. The electric blue background calls to mind the eerie glow cast by a computer screen, while the curtain of zeros and ones represents the binary code used in computer programming. There's nothing like a file stamped TOP SECRET to encourage a reader's interest. Just think, by reading the book, one will be able to share in a secret!

Knowing something that few others do, makes us all feel special.

The cell phone draws our eyes to it with it's bright reflection. Smart phones are high-tech communication devices, powerful but vulnerable, too, perhaps.

The orange font is a nice contrast to the electric blue, and ties the cover together, complimenting both the TOP SECRET stamp below it and the review blurb above.