I love children’s books. And because I write them myself as well, I pay very close attention to them, especially those that are selling well. When it comes to readers purchasing a book, the book cover is always one of the deciding factors. And that’s why I’m sharing the most important dos and don’ts of an impactful children’s book cover with you in this article.

Luckily, we can change our book cover any time, even after it has already been published. The only thing we won’t be able to change is the title of our book, as that is directly connected to our ISBN. But any other design aspect can be changed, adjusted, and tweaked any time. So let’s dive right in so you can create a powerful and impactful children’s book cover as well!

In this article, we’re going to cover:

What are we trying to achieve with our Children’s Book Cover?
The most common mistakes made on a Children’s Book Cover (and how to fix them)
How to field test different Children’s Book Covers
A powerful example of a successful Children’s Book Cover

What Are We Trying to Achieve With Our Children’s Book Cover?

The first thing I would like you to consider is this: what exactly are we trying to achieve with our book cover?

With our cover, we will want to convey a number of things right away. And I say ‘right away’ because we only have a fraction of a second to catch a potential buyer’s attention. And in this fraction of a second, we will want to convey the following information:

What age group this book is for
What the book is about

Looking at these children’s book cover examples below, we should be able to tell right away that the Animals book is for very young kids, while The Girl Who Drank the Moon is for much older ones.

Most of these covers also show us right away what we can expect this book to be about (or they at least hint toward the book’s topic).

The goal of our children’s book cover then should be to share this information with potential readers WITHOUT them having to read the book description first.

Common mistakes made on a Children’s Book Cover

There are a number of mistakes I see made quite often, and these are the most common ones:

Wrong font
Wrong sizing
Wrong title color
Wrong background image / Wrong placement
Incongruency

creating illustrations yourself for childrens book

1. The Wrong Font

We often associate certain types of fonts with certain types of genres or styles. For example, we all immediately have a certain type of font in mind when I say “All Star,” because that’s usually the font used on sports clothing.

The wrong font in the context of children’s books then means that the font doesn’t quite fit with the message of our book.

Book cover examples 2 and 3 set a certain expectation as to what the book might be about. Because of the font choice, cover 2 seems like it’s about a scary bedtime story, while cover 3 looks like the book might be about traditional, old German stories.

The type of font we use for our children’s book cover matters a lot because it sets the mood and tone of our story.

A wrong font may also contribute to a decreased readability of the book title. Calligraphy-based fonts are especially hard to read. And while they look beautiful, these are generally not the type of font we want to use for our children’s book cover, because if potential readers can’t make out the title right away, they won’t take the time to decipher our lettering, and instead keep scrolling.

2. The Wrong Size

Just like the wrong font, the wrong size will greatly impact the readability of your book title, especially when it is too small. When designing my book covers, I always try to make the title as big as possible.

Unless we have an already well-known name (like Jimmy Fallon or Kelly Clarkson, for example), the font size order from biggest to smallest should look something like this:

Over time, the font size used to display the author’s name may increase as he or she becomes more popular.

3. Wrong Title Color

There are, of course, no right or wrong colors in and of itself for the title or subtitle of a book. When combined with the cover image, however, the lettering often blends too much into the background, therefore making it really hard to read the title. So we will want to make sure that the chosen font color and the background color are visually easily distinguishable.

4. Wrong Background Image

This common mistake has to do with the chosen background image as well as the placement of the title. Generally, the less busy a children’s book cover, the better. And that’s mainly because a less busy cover ensures an easier readability of our title and subtitle.

Oftentimes, a great solution is to simply ask our illustrator to have part of our image showcase a single color that we then can use as the backdrop for our title lettering.

5. Incongruency

Up to this point, these most common mistakes had to do with the readability of the title. But another very common mistake is that the image of the cover isn’t congruent with the message and topic of our children’s book.

This can be easily prevented when we ensure that our book’s main character is part of the cover and that the mood matches the title.

Field Testing Different Children’s Book Covers

A great way to test what you should be paying attention to when it comes to the creation of your own children’s book cover is to perform a little search on Amazon. When scrolling through the search results, ask yourself these questions:

1. What about this cover is it that catches your attention and that makes you stop scrolling?

Was it the bright color used for the background?
What is the title that was easily readable?
Was it the contrast between the background and the lettering?
etc.

2. What about the cover let you know that it is indeed about the topic you were looking for?

Is there a dragon on the cover when you were searching for a dragon book?
Does the title contain the keyword or keyphrase you’ve been searching for? (If you need help finding the perfect keyword for your title, be sure to read The Best Tool For Children’s Book Authors right here)
etc.

Children’s Book Cover Example

One of our favorite children’s books in our house is Dragons Love Tacos, so I thought this would make a great example to illustrate what we have learned in this article today.

The title is large, the font is easily readable, and the color of the title makes it stick out from the background.
The title as well as the chosen image are congruent.
The background image is simple and not too busy, especially right behind / around the title.

Note also that both the title and the image are easily readable and recognizable on the thumbnail as well. And this is important because that’s often the only size we will be provided with after having performed a search on Amazon.

So when the time comes to have your own cover created, be sure to perform the Thumbnail & Readability Test by shrinking your cover down to this thumbnail size and see if your title is still readable and you can still tell what the illustration is meant to represent.

Now It Is Your Turn

One of the very first things a buyer will see is your cover. Whether you decide to go with a square, vertical, or landscape layout, only a few things are as important as a cover when it comes to first impressions.

You worked so hard to write your beautiful book, so we want to make sure to give it a cover it deserves and that will attract buyers and readers.

And remember, even if your beautiful book has already been published, you can always make changes to your cover, as long as the title remains the same.

I’m so looking forward to your beautiful Children’s Book Cover! And if you’re unsure about your title of your book (and whether or not you should consider a subtitle), be sure to check out my free Perfect Title Formula masterclass.

I hope this article helped a lot. I can’t wait to see what you will create!

~ Eevi

You may also be interested in:

PLUG & GO Formatting Templates

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Book Mockup Templates

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Eevi’s Weekly Videos

Access Eevi’s actionable Children’s Book-specific videos – all about the writing, illustrating, formatting, publishing, and marketing of Children’s Books. Watch a new video every week.

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