You’ve finished the book, and now you need a cover that won’t look homemade next to everything else on Amazon.
A self-published cover needs to look like it belongs next to the bestsellers in its genre, read clearly as a thumbnail, and get the right reader to click. It doesn’t have to explain the plot.
That applies if you’re making it yourself or paying somebody else. Before choosing software or hiring a designer, read the 7 unbreakable rules of professional book cover design. Knowing what a cover needs to do will save you a lot of fiddling with things that don’t matter.
Self published book covers: what they get wrong
The biggest mistake is trying to fit the whole book on the cover. The castle, the necklace, the dead sister, the wolf who isn’t really a wolf. Each detail means something to you. Readers haven’t read the book yet, so none of it means anything to them.
They just see a mess.
I sometimes feel lazy telling authors to simplify their covers, but adding more stuff doesn’t make the design better. A strong picture with clean text can do more than a complicated scene you’ve spent weeks putting together (especially if every character looks like they were photographed under a different sun).
Then there’s the text. A fancy title font, another fancy author font, a subtitle squeezed into the gap. Everything fights for attention. Shrink it down and the whole thing looks like crap.
Start with one of these three book cover design layouts: one strong picture, a character against a simple background, or a close-up face. Choose the one that fits the books your readers already buy.
Being different isn’t much help if readers can’t recognize the genre.
Designing your own cover?
Grab my six free Microsoft Word cover templates and seven video lessons. They cover genre research, images, fonts and making a full print cover, so you can follow this guide on a real file.
Book cover design for self publishing, step by step
Start with the books beside yours
Go to the Amazon bestseller lists for your specific genre before opening a design program. Look at the covers together. Notice how much space the title takes up and what kind of pictures keep appearing.
Be specific. A sweet small-town romance and a dark paranormal romance aren’t promising the same reading experience; if you mix the signals because you like the lettering on one and the picture on another, you can end up with a perfectly attractive cover that appeals to neither audience.
Save a few useful references. You’re looking for patterns, not a cover to copy.
Choose the layout before collecting pictures
Decide where the picture and text will go. If your references have large titles over empty sky, choose an image with room for that. Don’t buy a busy photograph and then spend hours trying to make the title visible over someone’s face.
Pick one strong image. It should still make sense when it’s small. A tiny object that’s important in chapter twelve probably won’t do the job unless the title or other design choices give readers enough context.
And don’t ruin a good picture trying to make every detail accurate. The mood and genre matter MORE than the exact color of your character’s coat.
Give the text an order
Usually the title comes first, then the author name. Give your name a proper place on the cover even if nobody knows it yet. Making it tiny can make the whole book look less professional.
Subtitles, series names and taglines can be smaller. They don’t all need equal attention. If everything is huge, nothing feels important.
Choose fonts and colors from your genre
Use the best fonts per genre post to narrow the choices. A font can be beautiful and still be wrong for your book. Check it with your actual title, too: long words and awkward line breaks can wreck a layout that worked with a shorter title.
For color, start with the feeling of the books you’re trying to sit beside. Then make sure the text has enough contrast against the picture. Read the power of colors on book covers before adding effects to fix something that really needs a different color.
Shrink it and get feedback
Put your cover beside the bestseller covers at thumbnail size. Does it belong? Can you make out the main image? Does the title disappear into the background?
Readable doesn’t mean every tiny line needs to be legible. Enlarging the tagline until it competes with the title will make things worse. The cover needs to communicate quickly, with smaller details available after someone clicks.
Try my free “Does my book cover suck?” cover critique tool for instant AI feedback. Use its comments to spot problems, then compare the design with your genre references again. “Do you like it?” is a less useful question than “What kind of book do you think this is?”
Ebook covers vs print covers
An ebook needs the front cover. Print needs a full wrap: front, spine and back, with bleed around the outside so the artwork reaches beyond the trimmed edge.
The spine width depends on the page count and paper. Finish the interior before treating the print cover as final, because changing the page count can change the wrap.
This is where DIY gets harder. Your front might look great, but now you have to carry the design across the spine and back, fit the blurb, and keep text away from areas that could be trimmed. Use the print template for your actual book specifications. Don’t stretch an ebook image sideways and hope it fits.
Tools for DIY book covers
The Microsoft Word cover tutorials show you how to work with the templates in familiar software, which is a sensible starting point if learning a graphics editor would stop you finishing.
The Photoshop cover design tutorials are better suited to more involved image work, but having more controls won’t fix a weak layout.
My free online cover editor has layers, fonts, effects and templates, so it’s useful when you want to move the pieces around yourself.
I built the free AI book cover generator because making good covers easier has always been the point of this site (apparently building free tools that cost me money is a personality defect).
The free 3D book mockup tool turns your flat cover into a book image for promotion, but a nice mockup won’t rescue a bad front cover.
Your next cover doesn’t have to start with a blank page.
My DIY Book Design bundle has 150 editable Word cover templates (80 fiction, 70 nonfiction), the formatting downloads and five courses. It’s $197; through this link it’s $39. The cheapest time to fix a cover is before you pay to promote the book.
If it isn’t useful, email support within 30 days for a full refund.
Book cover designers for self publishers
Hire somebody if you can’t see what’s wrong with your own cover. Learning the software is one problem. Learning to judge the result is another, and it’s hard to fix something when you think it already looks great.
A series or a big launch is also a good reason to hire. The first cover needs a layout that can work across later books, without every title looking unrelated.
Send the designer three covers you like from your genre, your title, a short blurb and the format you need. Explain what you like about the examples. “This feels ominous” helps more than a long description of the jewelry your protagonist wears.
My Creativindie Covers design service starts at $349 for an ebook front cover and has a 100% money-back guarantee.
You can also compare options using ebooklaunch’s list of book cover designers.
How much does a self-published book cover cost?
Free templates and tools cost $0, but you’re spending your time. That makes sense if you have a small budget, a simple design and the patience to compare your work honestly with professional covers.
My DIY Book Design & Formatting Bundle is $39 through this link, with 150 editable Word cover templates, formatting downloads and five courses. It’s useful if you want more starting layouts and help doing the work yourself.
Custom design from Creativindie Covers runs from $349 to $849: $349 for the ebook front, $549 for the full print wrap, or $849 for the cover plus formatting.
Paying makes sense when the work needs skills you don’t have, or when another week of moving text around is keeping the book from being ready. Before booking, check that the package includes the formats you actually plan to publish.
