Free guide for authors
The Complete Book Cover Design Guide
Your "how-to" guide to design a book cover that converts. Whether you're doing it yourself, briefing a designer, or using AI tools, we've included everything you need - free.
What You Get
- The four main book cover elements and how to apply them
- Genre conventions and reader expectations for each genre
- Genre conventions for imagery, typography and color
- Graphic designer brief template to cut revision rounds and save
- Thumbnail test and four quality checks to run before you approve
Why it matters
Your Cover Is Your Most Important Marketing Asset
Readers judge books by their covers. Always have. Always will. Studies consistently show that cover design is the single biggest factor of online book purchase decisions. At least 70% of book discovery now happens on mobile devices, where your cover is displayed at the scale of a postage stamp. Get your free guide and learn how your book can stand out.
The four main book cover objectives
Stop the scroll
Catch a reader's eye in seconds.
Signal your genre
Readers approach covers with expectations.
Communicate quality
Professional design communicates a professionally written book.
Work at thumbnail size
Great covers get seen - small
The thumbnail test: before finalizing your cover, shrink it to the size of your thumbnail on a phone screen. If your title isn't readable and the image doesn't pop at that size, your cover needs a redesign.
Design a Cover That Sells Your Book
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