Jeff McRitchie

Make A Great Cookbook Cover

Like it or not most people still tend to judge a book by its cover - and this goes double for cookbooks. Here are some tips for creating a great cover for your cookbook.

Title

When you are starting to consider what the title of your cookbook might be, one thing to keep in mind is that you will want to be as specific as you can while using the smallest amount of words. As great a chef as you are, unless you have a name that is known at least on a regional level, you will probably want to avoid referring to yourself in the title. If you are trying to gain the right kind of attention or place your cookbook within a certain niche, you'll probably rather have the focus on the cuisine, or whatever aspect of your cookbook you are using to market it. Subtitles can help to clarify the mission of your cookbook as well. For example you could have the main title "Great 20-Minute Meals" with the subtitle "The Cookbook For Multi-Tasking Chefs."

Design

1. When it comes to designing the cover of your cookbook, the first thing you might want to do is to have a look around at some of the covers you like, and give some thought as to what it is that you like about them. The font that you choose can go a long way in conveying what your general theme is. For instance, if your cookbook is designed for college students or young people in general, you will likely want to choose a fun, sans-serif font that conveys fun and simplicity. If, on the other hand your cookbook contains gourmet recipes from France, you might want to find a font that is more stately. You can have a lot of fun with fonts, and once you start to notice them, you will see how much the right font on a cover can communicate about the contents of the book.

2. When it comes to graphics and photography, you may be well served to stick to the relevant and even literal. Keep in mind that a cover is basically a marketing device, and so people are looking for benefits and results. In the case of a cookbook, there are a number of ways to go about it: you can have a high-resolution, beautiful photograph of a finished dish, or an attractive shot of some of the ingredients together, or even something that addresses the broader theme of the cookbook, such as, to use our previous example, a group of young people having a great time cooking and eating dinner together.

3. When it comes to the overall color scheme and layout, you want to attract the eye without abusing the privilege. Colors that tend to the bright are great, but you want to make sure that you don't go overboard. Letters over photography is a tried and true method, and if you go with that, make sure that you use colors in your lettering that can be easily discerned, and that do not blend with the image in the background.

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