YOUNG ADULT BOOK COVERS
The trends in YA book covers are constantly evolving – from stock images to illustrated and font-driven covers. These days, young adult covers need to appeal to a wider audience as more and more adults read the genre. They also have to look good and be readable as digital thumbnails and physical books.
These things can make the design more challenging. But at the same time, it’s a genre that offers a lot of creative freedom so your book cover can stand out. That’s why professional designers are so valuable – they play a crucial role in getting your book into readers’ hands.
YA book covers are constantly evolving
Looking back over the last twenty years, you’ll see several YA cover trends come and go. A designer’s job is to keep up with these trends and understand why they occur, challenge them, and sometimes question the norms. Professional book designers have the ability to conform to the ever-changing tastes and styles in a genre while making sure their designs aren’t cookie-cutter.
Book covers made for virtual browsing
We live in an era where in-store browsing isn’t as prevalent as online bookstores, which is reflected in how book covers are designed. The cover art makes them stand out on visual platforms, like Instagram, and the fonts need to be clear and readable. With online book retailers becoming the new norm, you’ll need to consider how the book cover will look as a thumbnail on sites like Amazon.
Consistent young adult book cover elements
Although YA cover trends come and go, there are a few major factors that have stayed consistent for close to ten years:
Strong concept
Concept is the foundation to solid cover design. A solid cover indicates the story’s general topic, elicits the right emotions and draws curiosity from your target readers within a glimpse. Visual concepts for Young Adult covers have become increasingly more sophisticated.
Wide creative range
Traditionally, young adult covers mostly featured whole or partial depiction of a human character. Today, young adult covers feature a wider creative range of elements such as objects, symbols or even purely typographic designs.
Stimulating Imagery
Original, creative illustration helps stimulate teenage reader’s imagination and since it’s not too realistic, it leaves room to connect with young adults’ personal emotions.
Large and clear font that represents the written text
YA book covers benefit from large fonts that are clear and legible. Original hand lettering or a unique font style help to set the right tone of voice and express book subgenres in young adult culture. Integration between image and text achieves a more creative and unique design drawing attention from readers.
Invigorating colors
Colors influence how a book is perceived. YA covers generally benefit from vibrant colors. Pairing colors can create a certain mood and elicit specific emotional responses from readers.
All of these elements are there to achieve the same thing – making the title of your book appear clear and easy to read as a thumbnail.
The combination of all those five aspects will make your book stand out and be more visible as a thumbnail.
Unique cover designs built from scratch
Our design work here at Coverkitchen goes way beyond generic templates. We’re creative professionals who enjoy making unique book covers that tell a story. That means we’ll put a lot of time and effort into creating a young adult book cover that captures the essence of your book and stands out among many others on the shelf.
Our 3-step design process for young adult book cover design
Getting your young adult book cover design shouldn’t be a stressful or complicated experience. We put a great deal of thought and effort into the process, but don’t overcomplicate things. We’ll guide you through our three stages of the design process, so you don’t need any prior experience or knowledge.
Step 1: Pre-design process
Start with selecting a service or a package, then fill in our design brief form to guide our team through understanding your book and meeting your requirements. It’s as simple as that.
Step 2: Design process
Now it’s time for the fun part – the design and style proposals. Around five days after we receive the design brief, you’ll select a design from three different approaches with solid concepts, suitable image styles, and art direction from our in-house design team.
We usually do two to three rounds of revisions, allowing for 10 days between each. But if we still haven’t hit the mark, we’ll keep going until the design is to your liking.
Step 3: Production process
At this stage, it’s time for the final sign-off and handover. Your young adult book cover is ready to be published! After delivering the files, our team will help you with any questions or concerns during the uploading process.
Three rounds of collaboration to keep you involved
We collaborate with you to ensure we’re on the same page and your cover turns out how you’ve envisioned it. That means we keep you engaged from day one until we’re finished.
Round 1: We’ll give you three proposals with different concepts and style approaches so you can choose your favorite.
Round 2: We go back to the drawing table and present you with a new design based on your selection and feedback.
Round 3: We do the final touches to get your YA book cover looking perfect.
Fixed price with no hidden costs or surprises
We have a nice way of keeping things simple and transparent. That extends to our pricing structure as well.
For authors, our book cover designs start at USD 800. Take a look at our Services for Authors page for more information.
The only exception is if you decide on a total overhaul of the design after accepting the first proposal. At that point, if additional costs are required, we’ll discuss it with you before continuing.
We request 30% payment upfront and 70% on completion.
For publishers, please complete the form on our Services for Publishers page to receive a quote.
Unlimited revisions – get the perfect design every time
You should never settle for just ‘good enough’. That’s why you can request as many changes as you like throughout the process (as long as it doesn’t involve major changes after accepting the first proposal). We want to make sure your design is perfect, and we’re confident in our ability to get it there.
What we need to get started on your design
Before we can kick off the project, we’ll need a few details from you. Our design brief form is intuitive and will guide you through the process, so you don’t need any previous experience in book publishing.
Book details and specifications
Title. Our team needs to know if the book title isn’t finalized yet (this detail can have a crucial impact on the concept and composition).
Trim sizes. Just like a canvas for a painting, we need to know the trim size before starting the design. If you’re unsure about size, our team will be happy to guide you.
Cover texts. We need to know about the subtitle, author name, and other text elements you want on the cover.
The core content of your book. This includes the synopsis, key excerpts, main characters, and essential themes – information to help our team understand what your book is all about.
Marketing approach. We need to know about the target audience and main selling points to be reflected on the cover, making sure it draws attention to the right crowd of people.
Want to work with us on your new YA book cover design? Get in touch with our team if you have any questions, or fill out the brief to get started today!