CHOOSING THE RIGHT COVER

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Your Books First Impression

How not to sabotage your book at the final hurdle

You've wrestled the draft. You've survived revision. You've made peace with your adverbs. Now you've reached the deceptively shiny part: the cover.

This is where many self-publishing authors accidentally fling their book into the void in a hideous Canva cloak and then wonder why nobody clicks it.

Your cover is not just decoration. It's marketing. It's genre signalling. It's split-second communication. And it's one of the three big factors that affect whether a stranger buys your book:

Awareness – can they even find it? (hello, marketing)
Book description – do your words hook them? (see: our Self-Editing for Writers and Publishing Budget guides for how this fits into the wider strategy)
Cover design – does it instantly scream "this is for you"?

Get the cover wrong and even a brilliant book will sulk unread in the corner of Amazon.

Let's make sure yours doesn't.

Why You Shouldn't Design Your Own Cover (Probably)

Let's start with the honest bit:

If I had one piece of advice for self-publishing authors, it's this: hire a professional cover designer.

Not because you're incapable. But because:

You're a writer, not a visual marketer.
A cover designer sees what sells, not what your emotional attachment tells you is nice.
They understand genre signals, typography, layout, and current trends.
Readers are brutally good at spotting "self-made in Canva" covers and will scroll straight past.

Traditional publishers treat covers as pure marketing assets, which is why authors often get little or no say. That can be infuriating, but here's the important bit:

They do this because covers sell books.

In traditional publishing:

Big publishers: authors usually get no real say.
Smaller presses: authors might get to comment or choose between options—but marketing still wins.
If marketing predicts a pink elephant will sell your crime novel, they'll slap a glorious pink elephant on there and sleep fine at night.

In self-publishing, the power (and risk) is yours. You choose the cover. Which is liberating… and also terrifying.

If your instinct is to pick "what you like" rather than "what your genre expects" and "what will convert", you're exactly who this guide is for.

Why Covers Matter More Than You Want Them To

Online stores like Amazon don't care about your feelings. They care about conversion rate.

If 100 people see your book's product page and 15 of them buy it, that's a high conversion rate. Amazon thinks, "Readers like this, push it higher."

If 100 people see your page and 1 buys? The algorithm shrugs and quietly buries you.

Your cover is the first filter in that process:

A strong, genre-appropriate cover = more clicks = more potential buyers.
A confusing or amateur design = fewer clicks = your book drops into the great digital abyss while you scream into a cushion.

Your cover can:

Boost your sales while you're off writing the next book, or
Quietly murder them in the background.

No pressure.

Genre Expectations: What Your Cover Needs to Say at a Glance

Readers use covers to decide what kind of story they're getting in about half a second. If your cover doesn't speak the right genre language, they won't even reach your blurb.

Let's look at two broad examples.

Suspense Romance

Trends shift, and if you don't keep track of the most popular cover conventions, you could find your book drowning in the sea of covers available on Amazon. A lot of guides online tend to be outdated, so I'd always recommend doing your own research of the current trends.

Previous trends for Suspense Romance were:

- A male, or a male face, usually 'brooding'.

- Titles are bold and legible, with one word often emphasised.

- The vibes are emotional, intimate, intense.

If you browse the top sellers in this category now (as of November 2025), you'll notice some of the same patterns but also new ones:

Most covers feature an object or use a scenic background relating to the story
The vibe is more mysterious and intense.
Titles are still bold and legible, but no singular words are emphasised.

These small changes are what matters in current trends. You'll also notice a variation between paid and free covers, so be careful where you are marketing your book.

If you're writing in this space and your cover features… an abstract geometric pattern and none of the above elements… you're probably in trouble.

Crime / Thriller / Suspense

Here, things shift:

Generally no people on the cover.
Symbolic imagery instead: buildings, fog, roads, rings, shadows, objects.
Colours do a lot of work: moody blues, stark contrasts, yellows, reds, noir tones.

Your job is to ask:

"What symbol represents the tension at the heart of my book?"

And put that on the cover, not your favourite random stock photo.

Your Three Main Cover Options

You've basically got three routes:

DIY (Do It Yourself)
Premade covers
Custom professional designer

All three are valid. They're just not all equally wise for every situation.

Option 1: DIY Covers

This is where you:

Use design software (Photoshop, Affinity, Canva, etc.)
Source your own fonts and images
Build the layout yourself

I'm going to be blunt:

I don't recommend this for most authors.

Why?

You need design skills AND marketing instincts.
It's not actually the cheapest option once you factor in software, font licences, stock images, and your time.
Many tools (like Canva) have tricky licence terms — some fonts or images only allow a limited number of sales, which is the opposite of what we want for your book.

DIY is viable when:

You have solid graphic design experience, or
You're already a cover designer turned author.

If you do go DIY:

Study your genre covers obsessively.
Build a Pinterest board or swipe file.
Aim to fit in first, then add subtle originality.
Make sure your images are high-resolution (300dpi minimum).
Avoid AI-generated art for now — copyright is still a legal grey soup.

And please, for the love of all that is typographically holy:

No more than 2–3 fonts on a cover.

Option 2: Premade Covers

Premade covers are professionally designed templates waiting for your title and name.

Pros:

Much cheaper than a fully custom design.
Designed by people who follow current market trends.
Fast, simple, and significantly better than 99% of DIY attempts.
Perfect for new authors who are already drowning in decision fatigue.

You browse, pick one that suits your genre and tone, and the designer drops your title & author name in.

This is ideal if:

You're cost-conscious.
You want to reduce friction and just get the book out.
You're writing a standalone or a one-off project.

Option 3: Hiring a Professional Cover Designer

The gold standard.

A good cover designer will:

Research your genre and target audience
Create something that fits your market and your book
Build consistent branding if you're writing a series
Deliver properly formatted files for ebook and print
Save you from the curse of "this looks like a WordArt experiment"

Price range varies, but roughly:

Stock-photo based covers: mid-hundreds
Fully custom illustration or photography: can nudge into four figures

This option is best if:

You see your writing as a long-term author business.
You care about brand consistency (see: Building an Author Brand).
You're writing a series and want them to clearly belong together.
You're happy to invest in the thing that literally sells your book at first glance.

How to Brief Your Designer Properly

Designers are not mind readers. They don't know:

your tone
your themes
your audience
your secret hatred of certain fonts

Give them:

A brief summary of the book (tone, genre, key emotions—not the entire plot)
Comparable titles and covers in your genre
Colour palettes you like or hate
Fonts you like (and ones you absolutely don't)
Any strong "no thank you" elements (no faces, no blood, no cartoony vibe, etc.)

And then, when they send early drafts:

Give specific feedback:
- "I like the title font from option 1 but the colour scheme from option 3."
- "Can we make the symbol more prominent and the background simpler?"

Vague feedback ("something is off") helps no one.

The Core Elements of a Strong Cover

Regardless of who makes it, your cover has a few key components. You don't need to be a designer, but you do need to understand what each one is doing.

Title

Should be the largest text on the cover.
Needs to be readable at thumbnail size (think Amazon search results).
Fiction loves short, punchy titles: 2–4 words if possible.
Non-fiction can have a longer subtitle to clarify what the book does.

Test it out loud:

Are you embarrassed to say it?
Does it trip your tongue?
Would someone remember it after hearing it once?

If not, tweak.

Our Writing Mindset & Mental Health guide is useful here if fear is making you overcomplicate your title for "seriousness."

Image / Illustration

High-resolution only – no screenshots.
One main focal element. Avoid clutter.
Either a character (for romance, some fantasy, some YA) or a symbolic image (for thrillers, litfic, some mystery).
Match your genre's visual language.

Ask:

"If someone saw this cover from across the room, would they know roughly what kind of book it is?"

If the answer is "ehhh… maybe?" that's a problem.

Colour

Colour carries mood and meaning:

Bright, saturated colours often say: fun, romantic, comedic, upbeat.
Dark, muted tones often say: serious, tense, eerie, literary, grim.
Choose one main accent colour to draw the eye.

Look at your genre shelves:

Are most covers dark? Light? Neon? Pastel?
Don't copy exactly — but submit your cover to the ecosystem it wants to live in.

Author Name

Needs to be legible, not fancy.
Usually bottom, unless design requires top.
Use a simpler font than the title.
Consistency matters across multiple books — this is part of your author brand.

Tagline

This is optional, and should only be used if:

A short line can tease the hook,
It can clarify tone,
It indicates it's part of a series.

Use it sparingly. If your cover already looks busy, skip it.

Reviews / Endorsements

Also optional — and genuinely only useful if:

the reviewer is recognisable in your niche, or
the quote is genuinely compelling.

If you have "Praise from The New York Times," go wild.

If you have "My neighbour thought it was nice," perhaps keep that for the acknowledgements.

Formats, Dimensions, and the Joy of Ratios

eBook

Most stores expect a 1.6:1 ratio (e.g. 1600 x 2560 pixels).

Your designer will know this, but as a self-pubber, it's good to understand why your "square" idea keeps getting rejected by KDP.

Paperback

Popular trim sizes (for trade fiction):

5 x 8 inches
5.5 x 8.5 inches
6 x 9 inches (often used for longer books like epic fantasy or non-fiction)

Bigger pages = fewer pages = slightly cheaper printing.

But also = physically larger book = different reader feel.

Hardbacks

Lovely for special editions or Kickstarter campaigns. You can actually use a Kickstarter campaign to fund your book publishing venture, but be careful, and only do this is you can guarantee a result at the end. This is less essential for everyday self-pub unless you've got the audience and margin to justify.

Matte vs Gloss

Matte – photographs beautifully, feels fancy, can scuff more easily.
Gloss – more durable, especially in shops, but can glare in photos.

Pick whichever suits your genre and personal taste. Crime and fantasy often lean matte; commercial non-fiction and romance often lean gloss. Unless you're using a small press, you won't get fancy raised lettering or textured covers when using KDP or IngramSpark. These fancy additions won't show up in an Amazon thumbnail either — so it's probably best to not even think about them for now.

Testing Your Cover (Properly, Not Emotionally)

Once you've got a cover (ideally a couple of options), test them.

Where to Ask for Feedback

Good places:

Reader groups in your genre
#Bookstagram and #BookTok communities
Your newsletter subscribers (if you have them)
Neutral writing communities

Bad places:

Your family
Your mate from work who doesn't read your genre
Your partner who is terrified of upsetting you

People who love you will lie to protect your feelings.

You're not looking for comfort; you're looking for clarity.

If you're running ads at any point (see: our Publishing Budget and future marketing-related guides), you can also A/B test different covers and see which one actually converts.

You can also use survey sites to test multiple cover options. These are good for getting feedback on certain elements and help you refine your cover.

When to Re-Cover an Existing Book

Covers age. Trends shift. What looked current in 2014 might now scream "kindle freebie circa the early indie gold rush."

A rough rule of thumb:

Consider a fresh cover every 6–10 years, especially if:

sales have stalled
your genre's visual style has changed
your early cover was a DIY experiment
your brand has evolved

A re-cover can give a book a second life, especially when combined with updated metadata, blurb tweaks, and perhaps a gentle structural tidy using our Plot Diagnostics & Revision guide.

Traditional Publishing vs Self-Publishing: Will They Ignore My Ideas?

Short version:

Yes, they might.
No, it's not personal.

Traditional publishers take a financial risk on you — editing, cover, printing, marketing, distribution. They will absolutely prioritise covers their marketing departments believe will sell.

Does it mean you get zero say? Not always. But:

Your dream cover may not be the most marketable cover.
They may hire a cheaper artist for a debut to reduce risk.
Entire marketing teams will discuss the cover; they are thinking in units sold, not feelings preserved.

If having full creative control over your cover is non-negotiable for you, self-publishing is the safer path. But if you self-publish, remember:

You are now the marketing department. Act accordingly.

Which means making decisions that serve the book's success, not just your personal aesthetic.

Final Thoughts

Your cover is not a personality test.
It's a promise.

It tells readers:

what kind of story they're getting,
how it will feel,
and whether it belongs in the same mental shelf-space as the books they already love.

Treat it with the same seriousness you gave your structure, pacing, and edits.

Your cover shouldn't rely on wishful thinking.

Grab the worksheet below and put your design decisions through a professional-level stress test.

Choosing The Right Cover Worksheet