5 Times to Update Your Book Cover

From time to time, you may notice one of your favorite authors rereleases a book with a new book cover. Often when an author’s book is adapted into a movie the book cover will change to match the movie poster. But there are plenty of reasons to rerelease a book with a new cover. If you’ve published a book and are wondering if it’s time to give it a design refresh, here are 5 reasons why you may want to update your published book’s cover.

1. If your cover looks outdated.

If your book’s cover is starting to show its age (and not in a good way), now is a great time to fresh your book’s cover with something more modern.

2. If your cover doesn’t match other books in your genre.

Take some time to peruse the bookshelves containing popular books in the same genre of your book. Take notes of cover designs and decide if your book’s cover is similar in style. If your cover isn’t on par with other books, take the time to refresh your book’s cover so it’s more in line with what’s selling in your genre.

3. If you revise your book.

If you decide to make changes to your book and republish it, you’ll also want to do a full cover update. This distinguishes the first version from your newest version.

4. If you’ve published a book series and want a more streamlined “branded” approach to the design of all the books.

Maybe you didn’t plan to turn one book into a full book series or maybe you had large gaps of time between publishing books in your series and you’ve noticed that there isn’t a “branded” look to your series. If that sounds like you, take the time to update the covers of your entire book series so there is a uniform look to them. This helps readers better identify the books as a collection instead of thinking each book is a standalone story.

5. Ownership rights of your book have changed.

If you regain the rights to your book from your publisher and decide to reprint, you will most likely need to have the book cover redesigned, as well as the interior of the book. This typically comes about because the previous publisher owns the rights to the cover artwork/interior design.

Have questions about updating your book cover? Call 1-866-381-2665 to speak with one of our publishing consultants.