Welcome back to another Monday Marketing post.  Today I’m going to talk about why I think you should be creating Book Aesthetics for your stories (and not just because they are so much fun).

“Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty” ~wiki

What is a book aesthetic?

You may have heard the term “book aesthetic” banded around social media.  For those of you who don’t know, a book aesthetic is a collage of imagery (and sometimes text) that represents your book.

Why should you make a book aesthetic?

As humans, we are mostly visual creatures so are drawn first to imagery rather than text.  We take in and assimilate pictures fast so this makes a book aesthetic perfect for capturing your readers’ attention.

Think about it, a book cover will capture a reader, who will then check out the blurb on the back.  Maybe you haven’t yet published your story, maybe it’s not even finished.  This doesn’t mean you can’t be building interest in your work now.

A book aesthetic is visual marketing.

So what goes into a book aesthetic?

An aesthetic is usually made up of imagery that connects to your story, themes and characters.

Some people just use pictures, others use a mixture of texts and images.  There is no right or wrong way.  This is just about letting yourself be creative and making a visual representation of your book.

How to come up with an aesthetic collage

How I came up with my aesthetics was to make a note of key imagery, characters and themes for each of my stories.

Dark Hart

Here is the book aesthetic I created for my Preternatural Urban Fantasy WIP, Dark Hart.

This aesthetic includes representations of three of my characters (Trinity, Tane and Kyla).  The story has preternatural creatures, including vampires so I threw in some fangs. There’s also magic which I symbolise with a halo of blue sparks. 

The gun and the car are both connected to my protagonist Trinity, so I wanted to include them.  Finally, I like having text in my aesthetics. 

Featured text can be great if you have a tagline for your book.

The Blessed

Here is the aesthetic I made for my current fantasy WIP, The Blessed (working title).

Here I included representations of characters.  This includes an image of how I see the main character, Thea, then I used symbols for two others – the wings represent Velris and the brooch, Dante. 

The rings symbolise the marriage Thea is being forced into and the green flames represent a magical force.

Again I’ve included some text that gives the viewer something to think about when they see this. 

Take some time to make a list of imagery that you connect with your story.  They don’t have to represent big plot points, they can be aspects of a character’s personality, or a symbol or just a colour scheme you associate with your WIP.

What do you do with a book aesthetic?

Share them.  While I love making book aesthetics for myself, as a beautiful representation of my stories, I also see them as a potential marketing tool.

Since I am not yet published, I don’t have any book covers.  So, on the Books Page of this website, I list some basic details about what I’m working out and include these aesthetics there.

That way anyone interested in what I’m working on will see these representations and hopefully get a feel for what I am creating.  If it piques their interest, they may follow this blog or take interest in my writing progress.

I can also include them on Instagram or Pinterest as both of these social media platforms are great for visuals.

Marketing is about getting your ideas in front of people.  Catching their attention.  Book aesthetics definitely do that.

Other writers’ Aesthetics

Please see below some aesthetics from other writers, who kindly let me include their aesthetics.

The below aesthetic is from Kindra Pring

Hope you found this useful and I really hope you like my book aesthetics 🙂 

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. 

Happy writing

Ari