Recently a favourite Camino author, Joanna Penn, shared a blog on how she chose her cover for her book. It was excellent, and very much in sync of how I believe we should research book covers that attract the right readers, and, how sometimes, you should follow your intuition too. I was also pleased to note that my Camino book, The Camino Ingles,  is now in the canon of book covers that she showcased.

 

This set me off on another path, of researching which exact colours are the most popular, for the books that sell the best. I learnt some interesting facts, like, there are 957 books on the Camino on Amazon. And some that I knew instinctively, blue and yellow are the most common colours, all my books, including my non Camino books use some version of that scheme!

The colours most commonly used on the covers of books about the Camino de Santiago typically depict the natural landscape of the Camino, like hills, forests, rivers, roman bridges and the sky. Primarily, the colors yellow and blue are strongly associated with the Camino de Santiago, the markers along the way, and the traditional scallop shell.

White and black are also used to represent the spiritual aspect of the journey, resulting in a simple, minimalist design for some books.

Some book covers feature photographs of the way, as well as architectural and cultural elements of the Camino, such as the cathedrals, chapels, and monasteries along the route. So why are blue and yellow the most popular colours for Camino book covers? Colours evoke different emotions, and are powerful connectors. We are creators of emotion, and we connect, and buy books depending on the emotional connection we feel.

Yes, we all judge a book by its cover – why is that?

The cost of a book is not measured in money, but in the time that we will take to read it. You can get more money, but you can never get back the time you used to read a book.

Blue

Blue is linked to feelings of hope, calm, positivity and serenity, and tranquility. It is also associated with trust, loyalty, and wisdom. Dark shades of blue can evoke feelings of sadness, – feeling “blue” for instance. Yellow evokes feelings of warmth, happiness, cheerfulness, and optimism. Some darker shades evoke cowardice, caution and warning. it’s all in the shades as well. Navy blue can evoke trustworthiness and wisdom, but some yellows can be alarming.

Yellow

In Camino lore, we all know the saying, follow the yellow arrow, it can be comforting when you are deep in a forest and think you are lost. The blue shell and yellow arrow on Camino markers, inspire feelings of trust and ancient wisdom of pilgrims who have gone before us.

Here is a visual of the typical colours of the Camino. Why the crochet? Yes, I did these images with artificial intelligence art, because I’m not a good artist!

Get a list of the colours, with their HTML codes, click here.