I like the idea of looking at
the cover as a thumbnail pic.
Picture
your cover as a thumbnail, and put yourself in the buyer's shoes when viewing it amongst a long list of other books.
The cover (and more than that, the front
cover as a thumbnail image) is the go to image representing both your book and you as an author.
Also if your an indie author you'll most likely have 99 % of your sales through ebooks, so think of
your cover as a thumbnail image — and make sure it stands out in black and white too.
Most people will first see your book
cover as a thumbnail.
Not exact matches
To enhance your book's online marketability, consider designing a
cover that will stand out
as a
thumbnail.
Also remember that the
cover needs to pop even
as a small
thumbnail because that's how it will appear on most social media sites and online book stores.
When enabled, UBB will tell Facebook to use your book
cover image
as the Facebook
thumbnail when the post is shared.
For ebooks and print books, it's also worth remembering that anyone buying online may first see your book
cover as a small
thumbnail image.
Also, if you can't read the title or see you name in the
thumbnail, redesign it so the
thumbnail works
as well
as the full
cover.
The small dimension (width) of your
cover should be at least 1400 pixels, which sounds like overkill given that your book
cover will almost always be displayed either
as a
thumbnail or at about 400 - 800 pixels when viewing the ebook on a reading device, but I guess we need to prepare for that one in a million ebook aficionado who insists ebooks are best read on a plasma television screen.
The best advice I received when developing my
cover was to look at is
as a
thumbnail before finalizing it.
Your
cover has to stand out and be impactful even
as a
thumbnail, yes — but people don't read text on
thumbnails!
As if that wasn't enough, you also want your
cover to stand out and be legible in crowded pages of tiny
thumbnail images.
Amazon has become the leading bookseller, so you need to make sure that your book
cover stands out
as a
thumbnail image since it's what the people would see when browsing for books.
In fact, some suggest that e-book
covers are just
as important than those on physical books, because online buyers are presented with a myriad of
thumbnail images when browsing on the most popular sites.
Busy
covers — too much going on; fonts that are difficult to read (make sure you look at them
as a
thumbnail, since that's how potential readers now see them on an ereader); and cliche
covers — which happens over time (e.g., how many YA
covers with girls in super-fancy dresses can there be?
We will provide a
thumbnail, digital
cover for upload to Amazon, etc.,
as well
as a version for your printed copy complete with trim and back
cover details.
To draw the eyes of potential buyers the
cover needs to be clear with good composition,
as an online product
thumbnail like what you find on Amazon, while being music to the eyes
as a full size poster
For example, Murphy says it's not necessary to make the title big enough to read on a
thumbnail, which you'll find
as the Number One Guideline for Proper Ebook
Cover Art just about everywhere else.
So I need a decent - sized file that will print well,
as well
as make a
cover design that will scale to a
thumbnail nicely.
Focus on the design, the colors, the arrangement — you want your
cover (even
as a
thumbnail) to make an emotional statement that resonates with readers.
As a final point here, I would say this, the strongest point I can make is this — good design is simple, or based on a simple concept — it's more relevant than on Amazon because you have small images in the
thumbnails, lots of products vying for attention and lots of messy, badly designed
covers — so keep it simple and clean and your
cover will shine like a diamond in the junk yard of mess.
It's important that you keep in mind what I mentioned earlier about to much clutter with regards to elements included in your design and a reason being is that online shelves display eBook
covers as small
thumbnails at a size of about 80 x 115 pixels.
If you're publishing digitally, pay extra attention to how your
cover looks at a small size,
as most people will be viewing it
as a tiny
thumbnail.
With shopping online,
covers need to look good
as a
thumbnail on a computer screen.
With people shopping online for books, your
cover design can't just look good in print — it has to look good
as a
thumbnail image on a computer screen, too.
Will the
cover look good
as a
thumbnail?
Most online retailers will display a very small
thumbnail of your
cover on their site, it is vital that your
cover works well both
as a small image and
as a bigger traditional
cover.
How does your
cover look
as a 72 - dpi grayscale
thumbnail that's only 100 pixels wide?
Warning: when you first upload your beautiful book
cover onto Amazon and view it
as a
thumbnail — it may look like awful; bent and crooked.
Note that
cover thumbnails, that are displayed on almost all e-Library views are stored in the database (in binary code)- not
as separate images on your hard drive.
Please note that your
cover will show up
as tiny
thumbnail, among other tiny
thumbnails, on the online retailer's page.
Your eBook will appear
as a small
thumbnail surrounded by the
covers of other books in your field.
Beyond being a navigation tool for the E-Ink screen, the touchscreen has an on - screen keyboard for data input (such
as for searching or for adding notes) and colorful
cover thumbnails that you can scroll through; if you flip past the list on the E-Ink screen above the touchscreen, the E-Ink screen moves to the next page to catch up with where you are in the LCD.
I spent a few hours looking at each entry closely, zooming in to take in the details, and zooming out to make sure it stood out and was readable
as a
thumbnail (since this is an ebook
cover).
A full, one piece low resolution JPEG image of your book
cover that you may display
as a
thumbnail where required.
Whether you're creating your
cover for print or ebook, you need a strong design that looks good
as a
thumbnail and at full size.
If designers aren't familiar with the industry they can run into a long list of unnecessary pitfalls such
as titles that are hard to read in
thumbnail images, or
covers that just don't convey the intended message
as effectively
as they should because of poor production values.
Since ebook
covers spend most of their visible lives
as thumbnails, some publishers try to make the text big and clear, but that's up to you.
We make sure the
cover file is precisely formatted for our printers and can also be engaging
as an eBook
cover thumbnail.
(You can also view your recent reads
as a straightforward list or a more typical series of
thumbnail cover images).
EBooks are presented
as thumbnails of their
cover in rows of four
as well
as a straightforward text listing on the rightmost column of the page for each relevant topic section.
It's even more important on stores such
as Amazon because you'll have a little
thumbnail as cover, among a messy amount of dozens of other ones, especially badly designed ones.
They say stuff like: use bright, bold colors use big, clear fonts that can be read even
as a
thumbnail don't use white
covers because they disappear on Amazon Today I'd like to tackle...
But I submitted it because I was so impressed with how it looks
as a
thumbnail — a true eBook
cover.
A good
cover should make your book stand out, use genre - appropriate fonts, be risqué while pushing the limits of the vendor's censorship policy (depending on your genre), and it must be readable
as a
thumbnail and full - page image.
The book title and the author name need to be visible
as a
thumbnail, and you need your
covers to have an author brand.
Thumbnails of all previous catalogue
covers are also included, positioning each Biennial
as a snapshot of artistic practice at a particular moment.
The walls upon which these paintings are hung are papered with thousands of
thumbnail images generated through Google searches for provocative phrases such
as «Muslim Rage,» which resulted in images of masked terrorists, the Queen of England, Abu Ghraib torture images, and — perhaps even more disturbing than the original torture images — spoofs and memes of torture images, such
as a pile of naked Lego men with their heads
covered with sacks.