Today we bring you this very important blog that is not only going to be helpful for authors with published books but will also be helpful for new authors.

We generally talk about book cover design and how it is important and things to keep in mind for designing your book cover.

But we rarely talk about a book cover redesign. That is exactly what we are going to do in this blog and we will help you understand why it is so important.

Book cover redesign is only necessary when you absolutely have no other choice because a redesign means a lot of headaches and a lot of money.

But people still do it and there are a lot of reasons for it.  In fact, If you do it right then it can totally transform the performance of your book.

There are a lot of reasons why people choose book redesign, the reasons can vary a lot and the reasons can help you understand how to deal with the situation as an author.

So, let us look at all the situations where you need a book cover redesign.

Reasons Why You Need a Book Cover Redesign

Book Cover Does Not Go with The Genre

One of the primate reasons why authors decide to change the book cover even after everything has been finalized and the books are in the store is simply because of feedback.

We are talking about feedback from the readers and the bookstore owners and all well-wishers.  The feedback regarding book covers usually is that the cover art is not going well with the theme of the story.

This is what we call a genre mismatch. This is when your potential readers are simply not picking up the book because the book cover does not represent the actual theme of the book.

This can be something very bad for business and it can result in unnecessary losses and in the business world this is just like mislabelling a product.

When we talk about the book cover not going with the genre we mean that the colours and the imagery as well as the font do not represent what the book is about.

For example, if the book is about horror and the font used is Comic Sans then the readers will never understand the actual content of the book.

Book Cover Mistakes and Misalignment

One of the other reasons why a book cover redesign is important is simply because of printing mistakes. This is the worst-case scenario.

This is when all the books have to be recalled and then the cover removed and new covers made for them.

While this is not a mistake that professional publishers make but this is something that still happens from time to time.

The publisher is not to blame most of the time because sometimes it’s just because someone might have gotten offended because of the cover.

We must also consider that as a mistake because sometimes the cover might contain something that is not culturally appropriate.

Sometimes there can be a printing mistake in the form of wrong colour or wrong resolution.  While this is very rare but it can still happen even after trial prints.

Book Cover Does Not Match the Prequal

Sometimes the book cover might seem alright from every angle and might also be performing well in the market but there might be a big flaw in the design.

This is a scenario that might not occur to most authors but if you are an author who is planning on creating a series of novels then this is going to be a problem.

We are of course talking about the design of the book cover not having any similarities with the previous books of the same series.

If you pick up any popular book series like Harry Potter then you can see continuity.

You can see the same design elements and the same design staying the same for all the books of a particular series.

If you are planning on doing that and you do not have any similarities between the book covers of books of the same series then that can be a problem you might not want in the future. It will even look bad if you decide to release entire book collections and bundle gift packs in the future.

Bestselling Relaunch and Rerelease

There are a lot of reasons for book cover redesign and it is not always bad because sometimes the book cover can get redesigned for good reasons as well.

If you go to any book store and pick up any bestseller then you are probably going to get the bestseller edition that already has Bestseller written and ratings and reviews all over the book cover.

That usually happens when a book becomes very successful. So a book cover redesign usually happens when a book is not seeing success and when a book is highly successful.

If you are luckily among the ones with a bestseller then you need to redesign the cover and add different elements that indicate it is a bestseller.

And if you decide to do that you need to make sure to utilise the book as a marketing opportunity.

It should contain things like the bestseller tag along with how many weeks it has been a bestseller.

You must also include how many copies you have sold and along with that, you must also include all the awards that you have one as an author. You can even add little figures for the awards.

And finally, you should also add reviews from eminent critics.

Cover Trends Are Changing

Sometimes book covers need to be redesigned simply because the book cover and their cover design have become too old.

This only happens if your book has a good and stable performance throughout the years and you need to bring out new copies into the market.

That is when you decide to update the design of the book cover so that it represents the ideas and preferences of your new generation of readers.

You can find out such re-designs for classic novels and highly acclaimed novels.

You can do that too and it is not going to cost you a lot since you need to print new copies just as well.

However, if everything is alright with your book cover and if your book sales are going well then you do not need to do this for at least 10 years. You can then bring out a new cover design after 10 years.

For Digital Release

When we talk about book covers, we often only think about physical paperback books but we must also think about audiobooks and ebooks.

That is why whenever a book is launched as an ebook, you can expect the book cover to be redesigned. This is keeping in mind that the ebook cover should be like a thumbnail and not a rectangle like in the case of a book.

Sometimes the redesign is very minor and other times it can be a major redesign and the design is completely different from that of the paperback.

That is also the case with an audiobook release because book cover design and requirements can be different depending on where it is being released.

When it comes to a digital release, the book cover layout is usually in the form of a thumbnail that is easy to identify with the big text and simplicity.

Sales Slowing Down

Another reason for a book cover redesign is simply because you are not seeing the same level of sales that you expected.

This can be because of multiple reasons and one of the reasons might be that the book cover is just not attractive.

While this does not usually happen because a redesign is an additional headache but we can see that authors do this in rare cases if the sales have simply stopped.

This is just a form of experimentation to find out whether the new cover will improve the sales and surprisingly, it is effective sometimes.

While this used to be a lot more effective during the times of offline book sales a few years ago but this technique is simply ineffective for online book selling nowadays.

This is because when it comes to online books, people rarely look at the book cover design.

Things To Keep in Mind for Book Cover Redesign

Current Market Trends

If you can make sure that your book stands out from the competition in a good way then you should not have to change the book cover design.

But if your book stands out like a sore thumb among all the other books and looks bad then that means your book cover design is not up to the current standards and market trends.

That is why when you do a book cover redesign, you need to make sure that the book follows the current market trends.

We are talking about the style because that changes every few years.

Budget Friendly

The thing about book cover redesign is that you do not really need to change it unless there is something absolutely wrong with it.

For example, if the book cover has a mistake in it or if it offends someone then you definitely need to change it.

But if there are no mistakes in it and if it does not violate any cultural sensitivities then you do not really need to recall old copies and change the book cover.

You can change the book cover when the book needs reprinting because of high demand. That is usually how book cover designs are changed naturally.

This is because this process costs money and you should not throw away that kind of money just because you feel like that design is not your favourite.

Marketing Strategy

You must never forget your marketing strategy when you are doing a book cover redesign because the marketing strategy is very important.

The reason for this is that if the new book cover design does not align with your marketing strategy then you are losing on a good opportunity.

But if you are able to incorporate elements of your marketing strategy into the new design then this will present another amazing marketing opportunity for you.

And if you can directly utilise the book cover itself for marketing then that is going to be even better. We are talking about adding different positive reviews on the book cover.

You can even add the images of all the awards you have won as an author and you can also add the number of books sold.

These additional pieces of information will convince new readers to get your book.

Feedback From Readers

If you are ever planning on doing a book cover redesign then you should definitely attend to the feedback of readers.

Readers and fans only want the best for you and that is why they might have some good opinions and suggestions for you that will actually help your book.

You are writing for them and that is why it is very important that you listen to their opinions because while not all opinions are going to be practical or good but some of them can actually be very helpful and actually very good.

That is why you do not listen to everything but keep your eyes open for the good opinions that can actually benefit the book cover redesign.

We hope this blog will help you plan your next book cover redesign. And if you are someone who is just not ready to do the book cover redesign yourself and you need expert help then we are here for you.

We are Orange Publishers and we are the fastest-growing as well as most popular legacy book publishing company in India. We will help you with everything related to your book publishing and we will also help you with book cover redesign no matter how many times you want to do it.

We do everything in the publishing world and all operations are in-house and we would love to have you as a part of the Orange family and publish your masterpiece with us.

We welcome you to visit our website or our offices for more information.