Let’s Get Square

Have you noticed that audiobook covers are a different shape than the tall rectangles of ebook or print covers? Audiobook covers are square, a legacy of when audiobooks existed mostly as compact discs. Perhaps the shape has persisted in the digital realm because a square cover fits more neatly above the controls when you’re playing an audiobook app on your tall rectangle of a smart phone.

How challenging it is to convert a tall rectangle into a square depends on the cover design itself. Here was my cover designer Damonza’s first attempt at the Necessary Sins audiobook:

I thought this draft looked awful! I thought it ruined everything I loved about the ebook cover design. At a small size, you could barely tell there was a face on this square version. My name was plugging the man’s nose; his priest collar was cut off; and I definitely wanted to feature the name of my awesome audiobook narrator, Dallin Bradford, on the cover.

I told my designer that for the audiobook covers, I didn’t want chopped-up versions of the ebook covers. Instead, we needed more. We needed the design elements expanded on the sides. After a few drafts, I finally got exactly that: more flowers, leaves, and feathers. More of the background images. On the people, more shoulders and more hair!

What do you think? Did I make the right decision on converting my ebook covers to square designs for audio?