Why should you let your designer in on your series secret?
The more insight your designer has to what you are planning, the better they can set your cover designs up to meet your future vision.
Your book cover design should not be merely decoration for your book; it should play a huge role in your book's branding strategy. Big marketing words, right? But yes, think of your book not just as a lone item that is for sale, think of it as the central piece to a bigger picture of marketing and promotional material.
This is especially important if you are going to be developing a series.
Think capsule wardrobe
When off on holiday, capsule wardrobe are all the go. You have limited space, so can take limited items, but you will need enough variation of outfits for different occasions and activities to make sure you don’t look the same in all your photos.
This is the same when it comes to designing a series. You need enough common visual elements across the series so your readers know that they belong together, but also have enough elements that are different that at first glance, readers don’t think it is the first book again, or a new book that has no relation to the series.
Keeping it in the family
Twins / Triplets
There are various degrees in which a series ‘hangs’ together. They can be visually really similar with a strong ‘twin or triplet’ look to them, where they look really similar at first glance with most elements staying in the same place and only the image swaps out and maybe the title colour. Think of it as if you had twins or triplets and dressed them in the same outfit but in different colours. See the two examples below, both using different key elements to hold them together and differentiate.
Siblings
There are also strong graphic elements, structure and features that can be used to help keep the series look cohesive. These graphic elements can come into their own when it gets to the promotion of your books and you need a common look. Think of it like having a signature piece of jewelry or a summer hat that goes with everything. This allows potentially a bit more flex with the imagery or tone. The example below, from Becca Seymour, shows a really similar light image tone across the series with handwritten typography for the titles. The titles and author's name moves position to work well with each image. A heart symbol is seen on all covers as the ‘signature piece’, and the colour palette consists of muted and neutral colours.
Another example is The Thin Red Lines series by Gen Ryan. All the designs have a canvas textured background and a double exposure photography style, each showing a building. The use of space in these designs help keep them feeling consistent.
Cousins
Sometimes the family is a bit looser, more like cousins. Think of retro 1950s clothing as a broader theme for your capsule wardrobe for example. In cover terms, this can relate to the style of imagery for the covers, a particular illustration style and colour tones. Font style is always good to keep consistent as this is key for readers to connect with. This series example has a soft photography style with an overlay of hand-drawn symbols that relate to each book. 'The Lion Tamer' is a darker story, so by using darker colours, it helps the readers understand the change in tone. Keeping the title font the same and in the same place keeps enough consistency and gives it its place in the series family.
Plan for the whole family
So when you go on holiday, you always plan ahead as to what you will need. Same with a series. Share your thinking with your cover designer upfront. Even if your books are not fully written, let them know what type of novels you are planning. Think about whether your novels are twins, siblings or cousins. For example, is it going to be a trilogy where the covers need to say similar, or a series that focuses on different lead characters from the same family, or stories that happen to completely different characters in the same location? You may intend a central theme all around heists, or a sport like ice hockey.
It is totally up to you how close you want your family of covers to be, but if your designer has your thoughts on this, it will help them develop the right ‘hook’ to hang all your covers off, and create a suitable common theme and style.
Promo time
Having a consistent look for your series, that is planned in advance, gives you a strong vision for supporting graphics for your promotional material. Is a steel texture consistent in all, or a particular graphic layout, or specific sports equipment, or a MC badge? These consistent elements are great to focus on when creating visuals to promote your series as a whole. It makes it so much easier for your readers to find the next one in the series!