Apparently, the old maxim is wrong: you can judge a book by its cover, or at least get a feel for its content. A good book cover designer considers the significance of the color palette, typeface, photos or graphics, and positioning of the design elements. A good cover does more than communicate the book’s title; it signals the genre and helps grab the attention of the work’s intended audience.
What brings this up, you might ask? Well, I recently received the cover design from Friends United Press for my collection of Orthodox Quaker sermons by the nineteenth-century Cincinnati minister Murray Shipley, and I love it!
I believe that this picture of Shipley was taken around 1886, and the sepia color of the book cover blends in perfectly with the portrait, which dominates as the visual element. Shipley’s spectacles, beard, and clothing evoke the time period in which he preached.
The typography is a classic serif font, conveying that this book covers a serious subject. Yet there is also a creative flourish in the two lines that form the S, reflecting the letter’s double-duty for both the words Sowing and Seed.
The differing sizes of the font clearly distinguish between the primary title and the subtitle, and the switch to italic indicates the transition to a new piece of information: the editor’s name.
One of the advantages to working with a publisher as opposed to going the self-publishing route is being in the capable hands of professionals who know their field and expertly exercise their skills. Hopefully, potential readers will find this cover as inviting as I do!
Sabrina Darnowsky 
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