25 Author Logo Ideas and Design Inspiration (With Free Templates)

by CJ McDaniel // August 8  

With the increase of self-published writers, and more specifically platform-driven authors, it has become common to see authors brand themselves with logos to make themselves more memorable to their audience. Below we have some samples of amazing author logos, as well as the reasons you might want to use a logo and how to know what your logo should look like.

Here are 25 inspiring logos to spark your imagination. Each of these examples express a passion, character trait, skill or genre.

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When Do You Need an Author Logo?

If you have only written one book, you are not yet ready to brand yourself as an author. When you only have one book it is best to spend your time and marketing dollars promoting your book, because even if you could get a reader hooked on you as an author, you wouldn’t have anything else to sell them. In cases like this, it is most beneficial to put your book cover on your business card. At this time in your author journey it makes more sense to spend the time pushing your book than pushing yourself.

One exception to this is if you are not only a writer but an expert in a field where you offer other services or products, in this case it makes sense to unify your brand and have your author logo on your book materials. This way they will always connect your brand with the other things you produce.

Other than being an industry expert, the main reason to have an author logo is if you are a prolific writer. If you have 4 or more books it can be difficult to aggressively market all of them at once, but if you can position yourself as someone who writes great books of a particular genre, then your readers will be happy to follow your brand and always purchase your newest books.

Common Themes for Author Logos

Here are some common themes typically used as icons for writers:

• open book
• closed book
• pen
• pencil
• fountain pen
• feather pen
• glasses
• typewriter
• calligraphy writing

These are only a few of the many options available to be used as logos. Other than your traditional trade-based icons like books, pens and symbols reflecting your name or a character trait, the most likely place to find inspiration is to dig deeper into your specific genre. Below are just a few examples of symbols you can use for different genres when creating an author logo:

mystery books: magnifying glass, Sherlock hat, etc.
• Science fiction: rocket, moon, stars, spaceship, etc.
• Romance: rose, heart, butterfly, etc.
• Self-help: compass, footprints, etc.
• Religious/ Church logos: cross, sun, hills, etc.

How to Select the Right Author Logo

When you think about the vastness of book categories and subcategories, it is amazing that two starkly contrasting authors could use similar icons for their logos. The reason this is possible lies in the implementation of a logo: a logo mark of a silhouette book could be used for a thriller author and a non-fiction writer, but the colors and fonts used would easily distinguish the genre the author writes in.

When designing your author logo or selecting your favorite logo from a designer, make sure you ask yourself which one best represents your genre. Is it obvious what kind of books you write just from looking at the logo? If not, you will want to continue to make revisions until the logo clearly represents the kind of books that you write.

What is Awesome 8 Logo Collection?

The Awesome 8 logo collection was created for authors who need a professional logo to brand themselves and their books. Most people with access to graphic editing software will have no problem customizing these logos for their own purposes.

Free Logos Just for You

You can grab our package of 8 editable author logos for free. Each logo includes both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator versions along with the necessary fonts.

About the Author

CJ grew up admiring books. His family owned a small bookstore throughout his early childhood, and he would spend weekends flipping through book after book, always sure to read the ones that looked the most interesting. Not much has changed since then, except now some of those interesting books he picks off the shelf were designed by his company!