Many authors use Twitter to connect with readers, other authors, and industry professionals. It’s a great place to foster community, and Twitter’s header image offers an opportunity to spark recognition between a book and its author.
This header is highly visible to Twitter users when looking at a profile on the web, on Twitter’s mobile app, or after clicking on a Twitter handle in apps like TweetDeck — but even with its high profile, this space is often underused or neglected altogether.
Twitter header on the website.
Twitter header on TweetDeck.
If you don’t have a professional designer at your disposal, here are a couple resources that can help you get the dimensions of a Twitter header image right.
Note that if you use the full width of the space with content like book covers or text, elements on either side may be cut off in apps like TweetDeck. So decide which is a higher priority to you: using all of the space to entice Twitter web users, or keeping the design simple to optimize for mobile and third-party app users.
Here are some ideas for Twitter header photos and examples that we hope will inspire you. There are endless possibilities, so we focused on the following design strategies in these examples:
- Promote a single book or series
- Promote a series
- Display multiple books
- Showcase art from a book or cover
- Focus on author branding
Even if you prefer not to use Twitter, these stunning designs can be a source of inspiration for any book marketing campaign.
Design Strategy #1: Promote a single book
David Baldacci
Moni Boyce
Sandra Brown
Patricia Cornwell
Sylvia Day
Jeffery Deaver
Susan Ee
Janet Evanovich
Hafsah Faizal
Suzanne Woods Fisher
Ken Follett
Philippa Gregory
Tami Hoag
Steena Holmes
Susan Mallery
Brenda Novak
Kelly Oram
Jodi Picoult
Aatif Rashid
Rainbow Rowell
Brad Thor
Gail D. Villanueva
Lauren Weisberger
RaShelle Workman
Design Strategy #2: Promote a series
Maya Banks
Scott William Carter
Diana Gabaldon
Kellye Garrett
Susan Hatler
Dean Koontz
Design Strategy #3: Display multiple books
Leigh Bardugo
Melanie Benjamin
Alexandra Bracken
Alyssa Cole
Marie Force
Kami Garcia
Naomi Hirahara
T.R. Ragan
Daniel Silva
Design Strategy #4: Showcase art from a book or cover
Marie Lu
Marissa Meyer
Mark Oshiro
Alison Weir
Design Strategy #5: Focus on author branding
Johanna Basford
Melissa Blue
Lucinda Brant
Brené Brown
Rachel Howzell Hall
Corinne Michaels
Karen Marie Moning
Jennifer Niven
Jason Reynolds
J.K. Rowling
Kiru Taye
Rebekah Weatherspoon
Note that some of these authors regularly swap out their Twitter header images, so what you see on their live Twitter profile may not match what you see here.
Which of these designs is your favorite? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Want to share this post? Here are ready-made tweets:
Click to tweet: Need inspiration for your author Twitter page? Check out these 55 fantastic header images! #WritingCommunity http://bit.ly/23UUPPU
Click to tweet: Twitter’s header image offers a great opportunity to spark recognition between a book and its author. Here are some great examples! http://bit.ly/23UUPPU
This post was originally published on May 17, 2016, and has been updated with current information and new examples!
