How to Choose Colors for Your Ebook Cover

Color can have a profound impact on your potential buyers. The wrong colors can negatively affect your sales, while the right colors can trigger positive emotions that motivate your visitors to buy from you.

Color can affect how we feel and influence what we think. In general, bright, bold colors tend to wake us up, while softer pastel colors calm and relax us. Responses to colors can vary by age, gender, and culture.

Colors will affect how a potential buyer reacts to your ebook. Carefully select your color scheme for your ebook cover. Here are some guidelines to help you make good color choices. Please note that these are guidelines and there are no hard and fast rules. Just use common sense.

o Consider your audience. For example, if your ebook is primarily aimed at men, you’ll want to use strong, bold colors. If your target audience is women, go for soft pastel colors. If your focus is on children, choose bright, vibrant colors.

o Choose colors that are appropriate for the theme of your book. For example, green can work well for books on starting a home business, making money, and reducing debt.

o Use colors that match or complement the color scheme of your website.

o Keep the number of colors to two or three, and no more. This does not include photographs that may have a full range of colors.

o When using photos on your e-book cover, use colors that complement the main color of the image.

o Make sure all the colors you use work well together and don’t clash.

o Communicate your message with easy-to-read text. Use colors for your text that contrast with the background color so your text is legible. For example, a dark font on a light background is easy to read.

o Consider the mood you want to create. Remember that emotions trigger sales. People buy what they want, not what they need. The following list will show you how colors can affect us in different ways.

Red: action, energy, strength, passion, fire, heat, power, attract attention. It can also mean love and romance. A strong masculine color. Red is a good color for a call to action. Red is joy, excitement and warmth. Pink is a soft version of red. It is associated more with romance, calming affection; a feminine colour.

Blue – Confidence, travel, freedom, truth, professionalism, wealth and power. Also tranquility, trust, acceptance, patience, understanding, cooperation, comfort, loyalty and security. It is one of the most calming colors and is associated with the sky and the sea, intelligence, tranquility and confidence. Blue is also known to be an appetite suppressant, so it wouldn’t be good for cookbooks or recipes, but you might want to consider it for diet books.

Green – Money, wealth, prosperity, calm, health, food, nature, hope, growth, freshness, tranquility, sharing, and responsiveness. Green symbolizes spring, renewal and fertility.

Orange – Health and vitality, autumn, youth, fire, firmness, courage, confidence, kindness, joy, warmth, excitement and energy. It is known to stimulate the appetite. Vibrant and warm, orange is associated with autumn and the earth.

Yellow – Light, purity, understanding, caution, brightness, intelligence, joy, organization, Spring. Yellow often represents sunlight, warmth, light, energy, and happiness.

Purple – Dignity, sophistication, creativity, spirituality and mystery. Deep purple is associated with royalty and wealth, while lavender is associated with romance and nostalgia.

Brown – Credibility, stability, home, earth, wood, comfort and strength. Brown can be used as a neutral or warm color.

Black – Space, night, authority, drama, class, commitment, seriousness, power, elegance and sophistication.

White – Purity, peace, perfection, freshness, ease, cleanliness, goodness and spirituality. It is worth noting here that white represents life and marriage in Western cultures, but it represents death and pain in Eastern cultures.

Grey: A conservative color that symbolizes security, maturity, and trustworthiness.

Take advantage of the impact that color can have on your eBook sales and choose colors that generate positive responses.