What if you could create a book spine that made a reader to stop in their tracks and pull out your book so they can find out more? A book spine in a library or bookstore can make or break your book’s chances of being viewed. Just think about it… Have you ever walked through a library to casually browse for a book, and you find your eye drawn to a specific kind of book spine? What made you pull out a book to find out more? Was it the colors, the font, or the design of the spine? Was it the title itself or the author’s name?
In this article, I’m going to share with you some of my own observations and insights of how to create a book spine that will stop readers in their tracks. As someone who’s designed my own book covers, as well as book covers for others, I’ve spent a lot of time studying book spines, covers, and design to analyze what pulls in readers and makes them crack your book out of the shelf.
I will list book spine do’s and don’ts, as well as unique ideas to inspire you. While I do believe there are methods that work when creating a book spine, don’t limit yourself to what’s already been done. Bookstagrammers are HUNGRY for gorgeous books, but especially gorgeous book spines! If you can create a spine that stands out (in terms of colors, graphics, fonts, and design) and still conveys genre, you’re on the right track.
But let’s get into it, shall we? Let’s discuss how to create book spines that convert a passerby from a “casually browsing reader” to a fan.
Also I apologize in advance. I found most of these images on Pinterest but wasn’t able to link them back to the authors who created them. If you are the owner, please message me and I will give you credit!
The Do’s of Creating an Epic Book Spine
Convey genre
Do NOT gloss over this first tip! Always ensure that your book spine conveys genre. Just as a quick glance at a cover–whether a thumbnail on Amazon or a book sitting on the shelf–should tell a reader what genre your book falls into, your spine should also immediately signify to your reader the genre of your book.
For example, romcoms are usually bright, almost neon-colored, with cartoon-like images and bold fonts. Dystopian novels have bold and grungy fonts, with metallic colors and designs that convey what kind of Dystopian novel it is (a futuristic book, steampunk, technology-based, etc). Fantasy novels usually have beautiful glyphs and swirly lines. Subgenres of fantasy, like romantasy (romance fantasy), have a little more color, golden lettering (more often than not), and graphics that might represent symbols in the story (vines, skulls, roses, knives, etc).
It helps to do research on your genre, but book spines are NOT the first thing you see when you’re browsing books online. In fact, it’s almost impossible to find pictures of book spines, so here’s a tip:
When doing research on book spines, the best place to go is the library, the bookstore, or bookstagram. At the library, you can browse shelves, which are usually in alphabetical order, to figure out what spines catch your eye. At the bookstore, the shelves are usually organized by genre and category, making it even easier to see how the spines in your genre are designed. Here are some questions to keep in mind:
What, of these books in your genre, catch your eye the most? Why?
Pro tip: Take notes and pictures that you can send to your cover designer. It’ll make their job sooo much easier as they’ll know what you’re looking for and why!
Bookstagram: It’s easy to get lost in the jungle that is bookstagram, but find bookstagrammers and readers who love your genre. They will most likely post pictures, reviews, and ratings of titles that compare with your books. Bookstagram is fun because the images and graphics created are sooo gorgeous, and it’s cool to see your own books with other books in the same genre. They might not put your books with others, though, if your spine does not convey the genre. So don’t skimp over this research part, and make sure you communicate to your cover designer (with examples, preferably), what you want!
Make sure the font is easy to see and read
A lot of book cover designers will just wrap your cover image around the front to the back and slap a title on the spine. While this works, I’ve noticed that oftentimes the title is hard to see and read. From successful examples I’ve seen, the font should be EASY to see and read.
Your book is literally competing against hundreds of other books on the shelves. If the font is too hard to read–maybe it’s got too much swirls, color, or just disappears into the background image–then your reader is going to completely gloss over it and move on. We don’t want this!
Here are some examples of books that have gorgeous fonts and images, but that you can clearly see the titles.
Use colors and graphics that are eye-catching but not too busy
While your font needs to be easy to see and read, you can still make it elegant! Especially when there are a lot of words in the title, you might think it’s impossible to use a fancy font that’s easy to read. Here are some examples that show a great use of color, images, and fonts that pop, convey genre, and are still very easy to read!
Make it obvious that the books go together
Here are some things that make bookstagrammers, readers, and even authors cringe:
-Make the book sizes different from each other, even if they’re in the same series or world
-Make the book spines look too different (different fonts, images, designs, etc) instead of keeping them consistent
This should be a no-brainer, but if you really want readers to know that your books are all a part of the same series, then MAKE THE SPINES LOOK SIMILAR. They don’t have to be the same, but AT LEAST use the same fonts, color schemes (or complimentary colors), and similar designs.
This should also go without saying, but when your titles have a similar format, that also really helps. Here is an example of this (Ali Hazelwood’s books):
Be creative
While it’s soooo important to follow genre when creating your spine, don’t be afraid to get creative. As I said before, bookstagrammers and readers are craving beautiful books! If your book can really add something to their bookshelf, they’ll be ALL over that!
Personal example: My favorite book spines that I’ve created is for my Enchanted Hawaii Collection. The series retells Hawaiian legends and myths. There are twenty books in the series and the spines are rainbow-colored (meaning the first book spines are red, then it continues in a rainbow order of colors to purple), while including original artwork of native Hawaiian plants. The design of the plants on the spines mimic traditional Hawaiian artwork, including quiltwork, designs used in kapa making, and more! I LOVE this nod to the Hawaiian culture, and the spines, when lined up, look so beautiful!
The Don’ts of Creating an Epic Book Spine
I don’t want to bash on spines that are hard to read or boring, so I’m going to show you examples of my own books that, I think, can be a little better.
Here is the spine of my book, “To Curse a Black Swan.” What do you immediately notice about it?
If you’re thinking, “I can’t even read what it says,” then you’re right! This was a part of a multi-author collaboration, so I don’t think there was anything that could be done to change the font (because it’s the same font used on the cover), and the colors had to be the same as the colors of the title on the cover. But it’s SO hard to read. Lucky for me this book goes with eleven other wonderful books that you CAN see and read the title on the spine, but if someone was to just see this alone on the shelf, I don’t think they’d pick it up.
There’s nothing really special about my Incandescent Kingdoms series. I didn’t put too much thought into the spines. I was originally going for pastel colors, but it didn’t fit all of the book covers, so I just did whatever I thought. While each spine has an icon that represents something from the book, there’s not much that pops about these spines. It also doesn’t convey the genre super well (the genre is fairy-tale retellings). Now, let’s compare this to Kayla Eshbaugh’s spines–she’s my good friend, btw, and I always talk about her graphics, covers, and books cause they’re so good haha. But seriously. Her spines scream fairy tale retellings!
How would you edit the spines of my books in the Incandescent Kingdoms to better convey the fairy tale retelling genre? Let me know in the comments!
Unique ideas to inspire you:
Here are some fun and unique book spine ideas to inspire you. I didn’t know where else to put these images, but I thought they were really cool and might spark some ideas for you!
Spines whose background images line up – Deborah Grace White has a beautiful series called The Chronicles of Vazula and the image on the spines go together! It’s such a pretty and clever way to show her readers that these books go together, while not being overly busy or distracting from the titles.
Special editions that spell out the name of the series – These are usually done once the whole series is complete. One popular book series that did a whole special edition set was Twilight. This works really well once you have an established fan base and audience who are excited and ready to purchase your book in whatever format they desire. If you got this route, however, I do encourage you to do something extra for your readers. If they’re going to buy another copy of your book, what can you do to really make this edition special, besides the spines lining up?
Also take into consideration the book length. The last book of this Twilight special edition covers is bigger than the rest. I don’t know about you, but the ocd in me just really wants that last book to be the same size haha. If that book had been made the same size as the others, it would’ve been extra thick… but I still like my books to be the same height. If it was me, I’d do a poll or survey of my readers and see what they’d vote on: would they rather have the last book taller or wider? I have a feeling most readers would want the same books in the series to be the same height…
Commonly asked questions:
What exactly should go on a book spine?
Your book spine should include the title of your book, subtitle (if it fits), and author name. Here are some optional things to consider adding to your book spine: publishing house logo, number of book (to help readers keep the books in order), and any images that help convey the genre, theme, or topic of the book.
Should I include my whole name or just my last name on the book spine?
This is totally up to you. I think there’s good energy in putting your whole name, but it’s not necessary. If you’re a big name like Sanderson or Rowling, you probably don’t need it. I guess one way to look at it is that by putting only your last name, you assume that readers know who you are. And that’s great too! Personally I think it’s empowering to see your whole name on the spine.
Should I put my publishing house logo on the spine?
I can’t put a number on it, but I’m willing to bet that 90% of traditionally published books have a logo or name of the publishing house on the spine. In a nutshell, it establishes that this book and this author are legit. There is an actual business (even if it’s your own business) that backs up this book and author.
In conclusion…
Your book spine should catch your readers’ eye to the point that they cannot resist pulling your book from the shelf to find out more. Remember that you’re competing with so many other books on the shelf and you want to set yourself up for success. Do your research on the genre, make your fonts easy to see and read, and, of course, get creative.
You got this!
Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions or if this article was helpful. I love hearing from you!