assignment book cover design

Design a Book Cover

Students create a new cover design for a book they are reading to demonstrate comprehension and explore character, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict.

Students just aren't checking books out of the school library as often anymore. The librarian is hoping to remedy this situation by making the books that are in the library look more appealing!

After finding a book you enjoy, encourage other students to read it by creating a new cover design to entice other students to read it.

Images can be powerful ways of communicating. People instinctively respond to images based on their personalities, associations, and previous experience. Graphic designers use this instinctive response to visually communicate ideas and information. They work with different tools and mediums to convey a message from a client to a particular audience.

As a class, look at the covers for several books you have read. Does the cover art reflect the content and mood of the book?

Share the librarian's dilemma and ask your students to create new cover jackets for some of their favorite books. Remind them that a book jacket includes:

• A clear title and author name
• A graphic design that reflects the books themes
• A summary of the plot without giving away the ending
• A review (opinion) about the book

Have students choose a favorite book or one they have read recently.

To help students review what they learned about the book, have them complete a character sketch or character web about the main character. This will help them develop details about the main character, so they communicate information about the character linguistically before trying to do so visually.

You may also find it useful for them to complete organizers that show characters, setting, and events in the beginning, middle, and end or even a more elaborate plot diagram.

Graphic designers need to think about the goal of the images they create. A book cover design should not only give the viewer an idea of the content and mood of the book but should also be eye-catching to encourage students browsing in the library (like customers in a bookstore) to pick up a book they may not be familiar with.

Have students think about the message they want to convey with their book cover and write a short proposal about what they hope their book cover will convey.

For example, in Esperanza Rising, a proposal might look like:

Pam Munoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising is a story about a well-to-do Mexican girl who had to begin a new life in the farm fields of California. Despite all of her misfortune and hard work, Esperanza Rising is a story about hope for a bright future. The book cover for this story should show her background in Mexico and her hard work in the fields, but the mood should still be uplifting.

Have students share their proposal with a partner who has read their book and discuss the merits of the idea.

• Do you agree with their summary of what should be included on the cover?
• Do you agree with the mood they have chosen?
• What images might they use?

Have students revise and submit their proposal for your review.

Once the students have their proposal written, they should begin looking for potential images they can use in their cover design. Using the descriptive words in their character sketch and cover design worksheets, have them use a digital camera to capture appropriate images and the Internet to explore and download copyright-friendly images from Pics4Learning .

You may also want to give them access to a paint program or art supplies, so they can also create original illustrations and artwork.

Once students have collected all of their image resources, have them use a tool like Wixie to combine them into a front and back cover design or book jacket.

When the cover designs are completed, have students work in small teams to evaluate them. Collect all of the evaluations and then distribute them to the cover designers.

Print the new cover designs and display them around school to promote reading. The librarian may choose to display them in the library to help visiting students connect with literature that interests them.

You could also ask local graphic designers to evaluate student work. Make sure the designers evaluate the work for both design skill and how well the design reflects the content of the book. In other words, bring in designers who love to read!

Create a rubric or checklist to help guide student work during research, writing, and final book cover design. Use the Rubric Maker to create a rubric for free. If you use Wixie, use the embedded rubric-making tool. The book cover design templates in Wixie each have a rubric already attached.

Use the character sketch to evaluate how well students understood the content of the book, as well as their skill at describing the characters and events in the text. Use their cover proposal to evaluate how well they can translate their content research into a design that shares this information visually.

The cover design is a great summative assessment helping you evaluate student's comprehension and skill communicating in a visual medium.

Powers, Alan. (2001) Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design. Mitchell Beazley. ISBN: 1840004215

Powers, Alan. (2003) Children’s Book Covers: Great Book Jacket And Cover Design. Mitchell Beazley. ISBN: 1840006935

Poggenpohl, Sharon Helmer. (1994) Graphic Design: A Career Guide and Education Directory . Watson-Guptill Publications. ISBN: 0823062988

Common Core Anchor Standards for English Language Arts - Grade 4-10

Writing standards.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Speaking and Listening Standards

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.

Reading Standards

Key Ideas and Details

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

ISTE NETS for Students 2016:

6. creative communicator.

Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. Students:

a. choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.

b. create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.

d. publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

Lessons by Subject

Language Arts

Social Studies

Lessons by Grade

Get the latest from creative educator.

Creative classroom ideas delivered straight to your in box once a month.

Add me to the Creative Educator email list!

• Hero's Journey Lesson Plan
• Infographics Lesson Plan
• Design a Book Cover Lesson Plan
• Informational text projects that build thinking and creativity
• Classroom constitution Lesson Plan
• Set SMART Goals Lesson Plan
• Create a visual poem Lesson Plan
• Simple surveys and great graphs Lesson Plan
• Embrace action research

Lesson: Choose Your Own Adventure

What can your students create?

The glorious, wonderful, empty page

Lesson: Everyday Heroes

Engaging Practice: Making in English Language Arts

More sites to help you find success in your classroom

Share your ideas, imagination, and understanding through writing, art, voice, and video.

Rubric Maker

Create custom rubrics for your classroom.

Pics4Learning

A curated, copyright-friendly image library that is safe and free for education.

Write, record, and illustrate a sentence.

Interactive digital worksheets for grades K-8 to use in Brightspace or Canvas.

Professional Learning

Digital Storytelling

21st Century Classrooms

Project-based Learning

Teaching and Learning

Informational Text

English Language Aquisition

Visual Arts

© 2024 Tech4Learning, Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy

© 2024 Tech4Learning, Inc | All Rights Reserved | https://www.thecreativeeducator.com

Free Cover Page templates

Create impressive cover pages for your assignments and projects online in just a click. choose from hundreds of free templates and customize them with edit.org..

Create impressive cover pages in a few minutes with Edit.org, and give your projects and assignments a professional and unique touch. A well-designed title page or project front page can positively impact your professor's opinion of your homework, which can improve your final grade!

Create a personalized report cover page

After writing the whole report, dissertation, or paper, which is the hardest part, you should now create a cover page that suits the rest of the project. Part of the grade for your work depends on the first impression of the teacher who corrects it.

We know not everyone is a professional designer, and that's why Edit.org wants to help you. Having a professional title page can give the impression you've put a great deal of time and effort into your assignment, as well as the impression you take the subject very seriously. Thanks to Edit.org, everyone can become a professional designer. This way, you'll only have to worry about doing a great job on your assignment.

On the editor, you will also find free resume templates  and other educational and professional designs.

Customize an essay cover page with Edit.org

• Go to formats on the home page and choose Cover pages.
• Choose the template that best suits the project.
• You can add your images or change the template background color.
• Add your report information and change the font type and colors if needed.
• Save and download it. The cover page is ready to make your work shine!

Free editable templates for title pages

As you can see, it's simple to create cover pages for schoolwork and it won’t take much time. We recommend using the same colors on the cover as the ones you used for your essay titles to create a cohesive design. It’s also crucial to add the name and logo of the institution for which you are doing the essay. A visually attractive project is likely to be graded very well, so taking care of the small details will make your work look professional.

On Edit.org, you can also reuse all your designs and adapt them to different projects. Thanks to the users' internal memory, you can access and edit old templates anytime and anywhere.

Take a look at other options we propose on the site. Edit.org helps design flyers, business cards, and other designs useful in the workplace. The platform was created so you don't need to have previous design knowledge to achieve a spectacular cover page! Start your cover page design now.

Create online Cover Pages for printing

You can enter our free graphic editor from your phone, tablet or computer. The process is 100% online, fun and intuitive. Just click on what you want to modify. Customize your cover page quickly and easily. You don't need any design skills. No Photoshop skills. Just choose a template from this article or from the final waterfall and customize it to your liking. Writing first and last names, numbers, additional information or texts will be as easy as writing in a Word document.

Free templates for assignment cover page design

Tumblr Banners

Album Covers

Magazine Covers

Book & eBook Covers

• My Storyboards

Book Cover Worksheets

Customize book cover templates.

If you're assigning this to your students, copy the worksheet to your account and save. When creating an assignment, just select it as a template!

What Is A Book Cover And How Are Book Cover Templates Best Used In Teaching?

In book design, an eye-catching book cover is the primary visual representation of a book that aims to catch the attention of potential readers. It usually includes graphics, images, and/or illustrations that represent the contents of the book. A book cover maker or generator can be an excellent tool for students learning book cover design. Using book cover templates in a classroom setting is highly relevant for teaching lessons in graphic design, creative writing, marketing, and advertising. By utilizing book cover templates, students can learn how to create a stunning and perfect book cover design. There are many free book cover templates available online that can be customized to create a professional-looking book cover.

By using a book cover generator or free book cover templates, teachers can encourage students to create stunning book covers for their writing assignments. This not only allows students to customize their work to fit their own unique visions but also teaches them how to use a book cover creator tool to create a professional-looking book cover that effectively represents their writing, a useful skill if they decide to pursue self publishing in the future. Incorporating graphics and images can help students create a visual representation of their work that engages readers and conveys the book's themes and messages. They can also explore other creative elements like using bold typography to make their design interesting.

Book Cover Design Lesson Ideas

Book cover analysis.

In this activity, students will analyze a range of book covers in a particular genre, identifying common elements and trends. They can use their findings to design their own book cover for a book in the same genre. This activity can help students understand the importance of visual design in marketing and advertising.

Book Trailer and Cover Design

The activity involves creating a book trailer and book cover design, using multimedia tools to make an engaging trailer and a matching cover that highlights the book's themes. Students will learn how to use various media to tell and market a story effectively.

Using Storyboard That Book Cover Maker

Storyboard That can help you create a good book cover template for your next project. Simply pick from the existing templates, or create your own. The StoryboardThat book cover creator allows users to customize each element of the template. The design experience is seamless. You can even select custom sizes for your designs. Once finished, the user can save and print the worksheet or keep it in their storyboard library for future use. Additionally, the tool offers free icons, pictures, and different file formats to choose from.

How to Make a Book Cover Worksheet

Choose one of the premade templates.

We have lots of templates to choose from. Take a look at our example for inspiration!

Click on "Copy Template"

Once you do this, you will be directed to the storyboard creator.

Give Your Worksheet a Name!

Be sure to call it something related to the topic so that you can easily find it in the future.

Edit Your Worksheet

This is where you will include directions, specific questions and images, and make any aesthetic changes that you would like. The options are endless!

Click "Save and Exit"

When you are finished with your worksheet, click this button in the lower right hand corner to exit your storyboard.

From here you can print, download as a PDF, attach it to an assignment and use it digitally, and more!

Create Your Own Book Cover Design Using These Simple Tips

Designing their own book cover can be a rewarding and exciting experience for students learning book cover design. Students can easily access a range of free templates online and use the book cover maker or generator of their choice to create a book cover that suits the genre and tone of their book. When choosing a template, it's important to consider how it aligns with the content of their book, as this can help readers better understand what the book is about. Students should also aim to incorporate high-quality images that reflect the themes of their book, and experiment with colors, fonts, and layouts to create a stunning and perfect book cover design. There are many free book cover templates available online that can be customized to create a professional-looking book cover they can download that captures the essence of their story. By following these tips and using the right book cover creator, students can easily design a beautiful book cover that will impress their classmates and showcase their writing skills.

Even More Storyboard That Resources and Free Printables

• Worksheet Templates
• Poster Templates
• Journal Cover Worksheet Templates
• Book Report Planning

Happy Creating!

Frequently Asked Questions About Book Cover Templates

Can book cover templates be used for e-books as well as print books.

Yes, book cover templates can be used for both e-books and print books. Many book cover maker tools provide customizable templates that are specifically designed for e-books and can be easily converted into the appropriate file format you choose when you want to make your own book cover. You don’t have to spend the time figuring out from scratch how to design book covers, instead you mainly focus on your best book cover design ideas since the editable templates are already there.

How can book cover templates be used to improve student writing and teach design experience and skills?

By creating book covers for their writing assignments, students can better visualize the themes and messages of their work. This can help them to write more clearly and effectively, and can also inspire them to think more creatively about their writing since they will have to spend the time and figure out how to fill their cover space. Using printable book covers and more templates in the classroom can provide a practical application for teaching design skills such as color theory, typography, and image placement. This can help students to develop their visual literacy and communication skills.

Can book cover templates be used to promote cross-disciplinary learning?

Yes, free book cover templates available online can be used to promote cross-disciplinary learning by integrating them into lessons across multiple subjects. For example, students could use book cover templates to create covers for a historical fiction novel in a language arts class, then research the historical events and figures featured in the book in a social studies class.

How can book cover templates be used to promote collaboration in the classroom?

Using book cover templates from book cover makers online in group assignments can encourage collaboration and teamwork among students. By working together to create a shared vision for their book cover, and then producing them with the help of online book cover creator tools, students can learn to communicate and compromise effectively.

Try 1 Month For

30 Day Money Back Guarantee New Customers Only Full Price After Introductory Offer

Learn more about our Department, School, and District packages

• Thousands of images
• Custom layouts, scenes, characters
• And so much more!!

Create a Storyboard

Free online cover maker .

Create your very own book cover with professionally designed cover templates on your side. No experience required.

Template IDs

(To pull in manually curated templates if needed)

Orientation

(Horizontal/Vertical)

( Full, Std, sixcols )

(number of templates to load each pagination. Min. 5)

Most Viewed

Rare & Original

Newest to Oldest

Oldest to Newest

(true, false, all) true or false will limit to animated only or static only.

(true, false, all) true or false will limit to premium only or free only.

Make professional covers for any medium in Adobe Express.

A well-designed cover can help put the spotlight on your e-book, magazine, or portfolio. Pique your audience’s interest with a visually enticing cover made using professionally designed free cover templates fit for any genre or niche in Adobe Express. No need to be tech-savvy to make one-of-a-kind covers. Upload your media, drag and drop thousands of free Adobe Stock icons, images, fonts, and so much more to make something that’s as unique as your book in minutes. Then, promote it to the world in print or digital formats. No design know-how needed.

Discover even more.

Curriculum Vitae

Online Portfolio

Business Card

Presentation

How to use the free cover maker.

Edit cover images with ease.

Using a professional headshot for your cover page? Get full control over the look and feel of your cover images with powerful Adobe Express photo editing tools on your side. Use the Adjustments menu to lighten dark photos by using brightness and shadow sliders. Increase contrast to make colors pop. Include your title and author details with over 18,000 gorgeous Adobe Fonts to choose from.

Promote your work digitally and in print.

Use the Resize tool to turn your cover design into a social media ad, post, flyer, or poster in just a few taps. Turn your cover design into a trendy ad when you apply animated effects to any element in your cover to liven up visuals and capture your online audience’s attention.

Self-publishing made easy.

A captivating cover allows helps you grab the attention of online customers or pique the interest of browsing passerby in a bookstore. From magazines and books to notebooks and portfolios, the Adobe Express cover maker lets you make stunning covers your way. Use our free cover maker to create a cover design for any genre of literature you write and give your audience a sneak peak of what to expect in your story’s plot. Or, design a notebook cover that best matches your aesthetic in minutes.

Make captivating cover designs with ease.

Whether you’re after a minimal aesthetic or something more elaborate, with the Adobe Express cover maker on your side, you can make amazing covers that will grab people’s attention and make them want to read your work. To make an effective cover design, avoid making it too cluttered with too much text or images. Keep things simple and opt for easy-to-read fonts. Use some key themes from your own work to make a cover design that gives readers an idea of what your book is about. Or follow a color scheme to keep things visually coherent all around.

Create easier with the Adobe Express cover maker.

Create your cover confidently with powerful, beginner-friendly, Adobe Express online editing tools. Whatever vision, style, or aesthetic you imagine, you can easily bring it to life with tons of free cover templates by your side. Find thousands of royalty-free images, videos, fonts, icons, and so much more to further customize your cover. Drag and drop your design elements or assets, then rearrange or resize as you like. Create a cover that feels entirely authentic when you add your favorite color schemes, brand logo, fonts, and so much more. Before you wrap up your cover design, co-edit your project with others in real-time using an editable share link to make sure everything looks good.

Frequently asked questions.

It’s time to start judging books by their covers

It’s a life-lesson that starts really early, and we can’t hardly disagree: it’s important to get to know the contents of something (a book, a person’s personality, an experience) rather than basing our opinions solely on what we see on the outside. But if we strip away the metaphor, there’s actually something interesting left over: judging an actual book by its actual cover.

Serious work goes into designing book covers so that readers are tempted to pull them off the shelves. What colors should be on the cover? Bright and cheerful? Serious and moody? What about the art? Will there be an illustration? A photograph? A collage of images? How about the font? What does a serifed font convey that a san serif font doesn’t?

Teaching students about the art and analysis of book cover design should be part of your repertoire (or at least an option on days where you need sub plans, filler lessons, extra credit, etc.), and we’ve collected 15 resources to help you get started.

The Best (Recent) Book Covers Including MINE! | VlogBrothers on YouTube | 3:59 Hank Green talks about some of his favorite book covers and what it is about them that both connects to the genre they represent and how the art is used to draw in a potential reader.

How a Book Gets Designed | VlogBrothers on YouTube | 3:43 In this video, John Green talks about how his book covers get designed, especially his most recent book The Anthropocene Reviewed.

Inside Random House: “The Art of Cover Design” | Penguin Random House on YouTube | 4:45 Several graphic designers were interviewed for this video, and they all talk about the experience of designing covers for books they were assigned. The strength of this video is that different iterations of the covers are shown while the designers talk about what made those iterations work or not work. In each case, the final design is shown and discussed in terms of what made it work best.

The Hilarious Art of Book Design | Chip Kidd | TED Talk on YouTube | 17:16 Chip Kidd is a well-known and well-respected graphic designer. He talks about different book covers he designed and the processes some of them went through before they hit a final draft. Note: this talk was designed for an adult audience, and you should preview this video before showing it to students. The discussion of Augusten Borroughs at 9:26 running through the end of the video is pretty clean.

BATMAN Comic Book Covers with Chip Kidd! | Domestika English on YouTube | 3:50 Chip Kidd discusses three of his favorite Batman comic book covers, and speaks to how the artistic design on the outside makes suggestions about the tone of the comic book as a whole.

The Art of Book Cover Design | Penguin Random House UK on YouTube | 2:35 This video contrasts nicely with John Green’s videos. Where Green’s experience was very one-on-one and personal, this video shows how a whole team of people work together to brainstorm, create, review, and finalize book covers.

A Book Cover Analysis: A Fun Back-to-School Reading Task | ELA Brave and True | Marilyn Yung | August 2020 Yung’s essay takes readers through her process of teaching students about book covers. She includes the question/task she assigned students and three examples she showed her students: When the Astors Owned New York, Angela’s Ashes, and The Catcher in the Rye.

5 Things Every Author Needs to Understand about Book Cover Design | Huffpost.com | Brooke Warner If you aren’t going to watch “The Hilarious Art of Book Design,” this article is a good replacement. Warner covers several of the main points Kidd makes, even referencing ideas Kidd presented in his TED Talk.

Book Cover Confidential: A Roundtable with Designers | The Walrus | KC Hoard In this article, Hoard interviews three book designers from different businesses about the process, challenge, and art of book cover design.

Anatomy of a book cover | 99 Designs | Karla Lant Lant outlines the different components of book covers with examples and commentary on why they matter.

LESSON PLANS

Judging a Book by its Cover: The Art and Imagery of The Great Gatsby | Read Write Think | Carol Hurt Hurt’s lesson draws on an article about the painting that serves as the backdrop of the cover, an essay about the artist commissioned to create that painting, and color psychology. It comes with worksheets and very clear instructions for teaching the lesson.

Visual Analysis to Introduce The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Teachers Pay Teachers | Suzy’s Resources | FREE Resource This free resource is really strong and definitely adaptable to fit other novels. Suzy’s Resources has structured the questions well, calling on students higher-level thinking skills as they’re asked to consider a range of information.

English 105 Online Curriculum Module: Judging a Book by Its Cover | University of North Carolina | E. Kader, C. Kennedy, L. Shand, A. Werlinich This website has everything a teacher needs to teach students about book covers, from typography to paper quality. It’s more than a middle- or high-school teacher will need, so we recommend giving it an overview and checking out the worksheets they’ve posted.

Design a Book Cover | Creative Educator | Grades 4-10 This lesson plan includes instructional prompts, standards, the assignment, and a rubric.

Book Cover Redesign | Mrs. Yelenick’s Classroom In this assignment, students re-design a text they are familiar with. It uses the Penguin Random House video “The Art of Cover Design” (linked above), and comes with a rubric.

Plays from Around the World

10 high-interest poems.

Looking to publish? Meet your dream editor, designer and marketer on Reedsy.

Find the perfect designer for your next book

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.

Blog • Book Design

Last updated on Feb 29, 2024

How to Design a Book Cover: 7 Steps for Professional Results

A book’s cover is one of the most important marketing assets that authors have at their disposal. A great cover design will communicate the book’s content and tone in the blink of an eye, attracting new readers wandering through a bookstore or browsing Amazon, and potentially doubling your sales . 

So, what does it take to create an outstanding cover design? In this post, we’ve teamed up with Reedsy’s designer, Raúl Gil, to show you how publishing professionals create their world-class cover designs.

How to design a book cover:

1. Take inspiration from other covers

2. pick the right design tools, 3. choose a genre-fitting concept, 4. select a design style, 5. adapt and develop your concept, 6. balance the title and author name, 7. adapt the design to other book formats.

Research and planning should be an essential step in all design projects. With book covers, that research should be focused on two of the design’s main goals, which are how to:

• Attract the attention of the book’s target reader and
• Communicate genre, tone, and content.

Thankfully, publishing is a trend-driven industry, and the creative choices of top publishers are reflected in the books you find on your local high street.

Snoop around bookshops, libraries, or online retailers

Mainstream bookshops are especially useful places to start since they will stock books that are selling right now and will only carry the latest editions (so you won’t be misled by 30-year-old cover designs).

When looking at books in your genre, you’ll want to note any common uses of color, imagery, and general approach to design. 

Here’s an (edited) snapshot of top-selling psychological thrillers on Amazon at the start of 2024:

At a glance, you might see that many of these covers:  

• Use a font similar to Helvetica, a sans serif typeface that feels quite contemporary. 
• Employ a certain amount of yellow, red, and blue in some of the designs.
• Feature a character who’s obscured in some way.

All genres have their trends and tropes, and a good designer should be aware of them before working up their concepts. Once you’ve gathered this intel, use it in your design to communicate what your book is about.

But before diving into the design process, deciding on the tools you’ll use is crucial .

A poor craftsperson blames their tools — however, Leonardo didn’t compose the Mona Lisa with crayons. So before you get too far into the design process, you need to know two things:

• What software are you using to design your cover?
• Will you be proficient enough in that software to bring your ideas to life?

If you’re not 100% certain of your digital design skills, look into hiring a professional cover designer for your project. You can still remain in creative control of how the book looks, but with their market knowledge and ability to execute a design, a pro will give you the best chance of giving your book the design it deserves.

If you’re confident in your abilities, look at some of the  most popular book cover design apps and see which one you’d be best suited to.

Professional-grade software

Consumer software.

Now that you know the tools at your disposal to bring your cover to life, let’s get creative. In the next few sections, we’re going to show you what goes on in a professional designer’s mind when they’re working on a new project. You’ll get an insight into their process and hopefully be able to apply this methodology to your own design.

Rocket Bride: A Case Study 

For the rest of this guide, we will demonstrate the cover design process with the help of Reedsy’s in-house designer, Raúl Gil, who will design a cover for a hypothetical novel that we will call... Rocket Bride . This book doesn’t exist, but if it did, this is what it would be about:

Rocket Bride is a space opera targeted mainly at a romance-reading audience. It centers on a princess who’s engaged to an evil land developer and the roguish intergalactic smuggler who helps the princess escape on her wedding day. Like oil and water, chalk and cheese, these two heroes are unlikely accomplices — and maybe even unlikelier lovers. 

But before we start throwing around any ideas, we first need to decide on the concept and style that our cover will take.

The only way to find a suitable concept is to first come up with a bunch of ideas that are off the mark, kinda good, or wrong but headed in the right direction. Even professional designers who know what they’re doing start by throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks.

As a starting point, ask yourself: What emotions do you want your cover to evoke?

Capture the book’s tone at a glance

In today’s publishing landscape, more readers are buying their books from online retailers like Amazon. The average shopper will only see a small thumbnail of a book’s cover — and perhaps only for a fraction of a second. Bearing that in mind, your design needs to be clear, fairly simple, and communicate your book’s emotional tone.

From your research, you should have a good idea of how covers in your niche communicate the tone of the book. If it’s a thriller novel, it may be dark and mysterious, like the design for A Flicker in the Dark . If it’s a humorous nonfiction book, it’ll use lighter colors and feature an image that conveys the concept and tone of the book, like the cover of Jenette McCurdy’s funny, gallowsy memoir.

But beyond that, what else can draw readers to a book?

Characters (with or without eyes)

Fiction readers, broadly speaking, can be enticed by a character they’d want to spend 300-odd pages with. To that end, you will see covers that feature a character from the book. 

In certain genres, you’ll notice that character faces are often concealed in some way. You’ll rarely see a character’s full face on literary fiction and mystery novels. They might be backlit (as is common in thrillers) or obscured by some design feature. There are many reasons why this might be the case, but we think it boils down to the fact that readers want to put themselves in a protagonist’s shoes — and if they see a model’s face on the front cover, it makes it hard for them to recast themselves as the hero of the story.

Though, of course, there are exceptions. Books adapted to film will often have tie-in covers featuring the poster art – after all, who’d say no to having Leo DiCaprio’s face on your book? Romance is another example of where you’d see a character’s face — the old cliché of handsome shirtless cover models remains as true today as it was in the Fabio era .  

If your genre’s design trends call for a character to feature on the cover, think about how much of their face you want to show. 

In the case of Rocket Bride , we’re taking a lead from popular books in the women’s fiction and cozy romance spaces and depicting our main characters in illustrated form. In line with the trends, we will show full-body images of our lead characters — though it’s worth noting that having stylized, hand-drawn depictions of these characters does leave some wiggle room for readers to imagine themselves as the leads in the story in a way that a photo of an Abercrombie & Fitch model doesn’t.

Location and period

Readers also like knowing where a book is set and are often attracted to books that promise to take them off to a certain time and place. Take a look at these examples:

The cover for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, while foregrounding a character, uses costume to tell readers that they’re in for a dose of Old Hollywood glamor. (Note how you don’t see her eyes!)

The jacket for Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time instantly says that we’re going to a retro-futuristic world where people travel the galaxy in broken-down hunks of junk. 

For books that offer readers a sliver of escapist entertainment, a focus on location can oftentimes be a winner.

Iconography

Going back to what we said about covers only having a split second of a browser’s attention, you’ll see more covers these days leaning towards very simple and iconographic — something that is either recognizable or evokes instant meaning. 

In the past twenty-odd years, you’re likely to see this approach with literary novels, but with an increasingly digitally minded approach, it’s also become commonplace in genre fiction.

Take a look at the three examples and see how they use simple, iconic images to make an impression:

• RF Kuang’s Yellowface has a striking design that says all it needs to say with its recognizable depiction of East Asian eyes on a solid yellow background.
• The cover for Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow recontextualizes Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
• Every entry in Richard Osman’s bestselling Thursday Murder Club series can be recognized by its type-led design and simple fox motif.

Rocket Bride: An illustrated approach with character, tone, and location

With all this in mind, we shared some comp titles from the world of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. In line with the classic B-Movie tone of the story, we also sent him some examples of Jet Age imagery that we thought would be suitable for Rocket Bride’s  cover.

In our discussion with Raúl, we talked about the humor of the story, but also the bristling romance of Classic Hollywood. The relationship between our two heroes is like Hepburn and Bogart in The African Queen ; like Han and Leia in Star Wars . We wanted the cover to convey the fact that this book is feisty, fun, and far from the hard sci-fi books that many casual romance readers would normally avoid. It’s more Princess Bride than Dune .

After sending him our design brief , Raúl soon returned with a concept that showed our lead characters and science fiction setting, rendered with a sense of excitement and romance.

With a basic concept in place, you’ll want to make sure you know how you’re going to bring this idea to life.

Broadly speaking, there are four ways that you can approach your cover — each led by the type of imagery that will dominate the design. Pretty much every title you’ll see in a bookshop will fall into one of these four categories:

Stock image-led

The vast majority of book covers released by major publishers will feature stock images that are then cropped, manipulated, or edited into the design. You see a lot of these covers in most romance subgenres, as well as crime/thrillers and self-help.

Type-led designs

You’ll see this approach in a lot of nonfiction and literary fiction these days, where the focus of the design is a creative manipulation of the title text.

Illustrated covers

These range from intricate, life-like illustrations of the book’s world (which you’d see on the cover of a lot of Fantasy and Science Fiction), to evocative works of abstract art that you might find on the front of a literary fiction novel.

Photography

This is where new photography is commissioned for the cover design. These days, you only see this style of cover on celebrity memoir covers, where the big selling point is the author.

😁 Check more covers made by Reedsy designers by browsing our book cover gallery !

If you were looking to hire a professional to make your cover, you would first decide which style is best for your book, then seek out designers who specialize in that style.

Our market research shows that cozy illustrations are fairly common in women’s fiction and certain (non-historical) romance subgenres. With this in mind, we committed to an illustrated design for Rocket Bride .

Raúl soon returned with various versions of his original concept, presenting a few different executions of the same idea: our space princess being whisked away by our roguish space pirate.

Of these concepts, we ultimately decided to move forward with version #3. It captures the sense of adventure and romance at the core of Rocket Bride : the pose of its main characters reminded us of classic romance covers with a hint of fun and a healthy dose of mid-century sci-fi imagery. 

📏 Before you go much further with the design, make sure you’re working to the right dimensions. For ebooks, the standard front cover size on KDP is 2560 x 1600 pixels. We’ll dive into the specifics of print editions later on in this guide.  

Once you’ve landed on your final concept, you can treat it as a jumping-off point and start to play around with the small details that’ll impact how your reader engages with the cover.

Focus on the details that matter

In the course of refining the concept, you shouldn’t get carried away with cramming in too many details. There’s a temptation to add extra elements into your design, like a full moon, an abandoned house, or an extra character. A professional designer will be able to pull off those things — but if you’re doing it yourself, remember that less is almost always more.

From Raul’s original concept for Rocket Bride, we were able to request a few changes. We loved the fun tone of the illustration, but felt like some of the details were a bit too close to The Jetsons for our liking. We also wanted the background to resemble the American Southwest a bit more. With this feedback, Raúl tweaked the design by changing out our hero’s weapon, removing the rocketship, and adding in some stunning Monument Valley-style buttes.

Note: If you’re working with a professional designer, you may have agreed in your contract how many rounds of redesigns you’re entitled to as part of your fee. Try to include as much feedback at once and have a discussion with your designer about what is practical.

In our case, Raúl was happy to make extra changes while in the sketching phase, so we had him refine the character design. He gave Captain Perseus some rugged battle scars and added a third eye to Princess Andromeda (an essential part of her character backstory).

With the details locked in, it’s time to put a lick of paint on it.

See what color schemes pop out (and fit in)

Your design style will determine how much color-tweaking can be done at this stage: for example, the sky’s the limit for illustrators, while those working with stock images may be limited by the original photo (or their Photoshop skills). 

However, even a small change in color temperature or a slight hint of color can transform how the design will impact the reader. 

In the example above, the designer of Angela Morrison’s Sing Me to Sleep used a licensed stock image from Shutterstock then recolored the character’s sleeve and added ‘atmosphere’ in the form of digital snowflakes.

Note: make sure you pay for image licenses. If your cover design includes licensed images, it’s at this stage that you’ll have to purchase the rights to use them. Professional designers will typically use watermarked and low-resolution images in their initial concepts until you approve the final (truly final) version. If you’re hiring a pro to create your design , they will usually handle the licensing for you.

Returning to your research, you might have an idea of the color schemes trending in your genre. Again, we’re not saying that you need to adhere to tropes — but if you’re stuck for ideas, it can’t hurt to try out a color palate that instantly communicates the genre of your book.

For Rocket Bride, Raúl took our preferred concept and applied a few different color schemes that were inspired by science fiction imagery, retrofuturist design, and pulp cover art from the mid-20th century.

Each version lends the design a slightly different vibe and emotional quality — some more nostalgic, some more menacing. There are also some genre implications: the version with the blood red dust could have a superhero comic book feel, while versions E and F remind us of spaghetti westerns.

After mulling these options over, we decided to go with Version C, with pastel shades that you’d see in contemporary rom-com novels — offsetting the sci-fi setting and letting the readers know that this isn’t just a straightforward shoot ’em up in space.

If you haven’t already, this is the point where you’ll start adding all the elements that make a book cover more than just a piece of art. In this section, we’ll show you how to avoid some of the most common mistakes we’ve seen on self-made book covers.

Make the important bits easy to read

Once again, quick communication is key to your success. You want the reader to glean the most important bits of text in the half-second that they might look at it — which means that there’s no room for error. Contrast is one of the most important things to consider for text placement. There needs to be enough of a color difference between the text and the background so that your title and author name are easy to read (see below: Aya’s Blood ).

In the second example, The Cowboy’s Last Song , you can see that the designer has created contrast by laying the title over a shadow in the middle of the page. While this does greatly help with legibility , it adds a bit of unintentional muddiness to the final design.

Use two to three fonts

For the sake of minimizing your cover’s busyness, don’t use too many typefaces. If you check out the books on your shelves, you’ll probably notice that there aren’t more than two or three fonts at play . Between the title, the author’s name, and any other text you want to include on the cover, you can find a way to make two fonts stretch.

Give your author name the right size

The general rule of thumb is that the more famous you are, the bigger your name will be on the cover. After all, STEPHEN KING is more enticing to readers than the words FAIRY TALE. But if you’re reading this, you’re probably not Stephen King, so make sure that your name doesn’t take up too much real estate. For a good example, look at Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker in the Dark , which nicely balances the title and the author’s name, favoring the former over the latter.

Loglines, reviews, and testimonials

Another common element you’ll see on almost every cover is either a short logline or testimonial (usually from an established print outlet, author, or authority on the subject matter of your book). Let’s look at two examples:

Readers are so used to seeing thousands of book covers every year, and almost every one of them will have some sort of logline or testimonial (or even just a line that says “from the author of X book”) — so if your design is missing this element, your cover is in danger of feeling a bit naked.

So, putting all of these into practice, let’s add some copy to Rocket Bride .

Rocket Bride: Bespoke title treatment

In the case of Rocket Bride, we were clear that the title had to be more prominent than the author’s name, so the relationship between texts was clear. We stuck to a single font for all the text, varying their weight, size, and color. 

From the first sketches, we reserved a safe area at the base of the illustration on which to accommodate the title without contrast problems.

Visually, we wanted a dynamic treatment of the text that could provide expressiveness to the composition and enhance the “light science fiction” component of the novel. So, we used a condensed and thick typeface to form a solid typographic mass, and then we skewed it, adapting it to the forms and counterforms of the base illustration. 

Finally, we added a small graphic treatment in which a small rocket moves in the direction of the text — a typographic treatment that’s more than just expository text. The title “Rocket Bride” almost becomes the book’s logo, a brand that we can read and recognize even in small thumbnails on online platforms.

But wait! We’re not done just yet.

Now that the front cover has been completed, all that’s left is to use the design to fit your various book formats. 

Export ebook covers with the correct dimensions

Ebooks are the simplest format to deal with, simply because they only require a front cover. Amazon states a preferred size of 2,560 pixels x 1,600 pixels. To ensure you’re exporting them in the correct size and format, check with your retailer’s website:

• Kindle Direct Publishing: eBook cover standards
• Apple Books: Cover Art
• Google Play Store: Book file guidelines 
• Kobo Writing Life: Setting up a new eBook
• Draft2Digital: FAQ

If you’re looking to publish in print formats, whether you’re offset printing or using print-on-demand , there are additional elements you’ll need to consider. If the following steps are more complicated than you’re happy with, you can always hire a professional to adapt your design into a full set of mechanicals (as it’s called in the industry).

Get a cover from the world's top book designers

The industry's finest designers are here on Reedsy. Come meet them.

Learn how Reedsy can help you craft a beautiful book.

Mind the typographic hierarchy on the back cover

The design of your book’s back cover can play an essential role in selling the book. You can incorporate elements like reviews, endorsements, the book’s blurb , your author bio , and social media handles to tell potential readers a bit more about yourself.

In deciding how big all the elements should be, try to think about the experience of an average reader. What information do you want to know when you hold a book in your hands and turn it over? A descending hierarchy — where the most important details are the largest in size — will guide the reader appropriately. 

In order, you might be looking at:

• Hook or logline (largest)
• Reviews and awards
• Social media and contact (smallest)

Once you figure out where all these blocks will go on the back cover, you can assign them a spot in your type hierarchy to lead readers through a little journey. 

Play around with the spine

One of the challenges of making a full cover is to get the spine right, since it depends on the book format, binding type, paper stock, and page count you choose.

Not all books are so long as to have a large spine, so in most cases, they are usually resolved with the most essential information: title and author. But a spine is an interesting area of action in terms of design.

Imagine people looking for a book on the shelves of a bookstore or library: an original spine can attract a reader’s eye more effectively.

In the case of Rocket Bride , we not only made sure to display the typographic information at an appropriate size and contrast, but we also introduced the faces of the main protagonists and a rocket logo.

Be careful with bleeding and margins

When arranging the different design elements on the cover, remember to maintain sufficient margins and an extra area for bleeding, which is necessary for the printing and cutting process. 

Most print services will usually offer templates to help you get your proportions right. KDP, for example, has a cover calculator and template generator that will turn out a PDF that you can import into your image editing software and lay over your design.

And don’t forget to leave some space for the ISBN barcode , which usually goes at the bottom left or right. And if you choose to get an ASIN barcode from Amazon, simply keep that area clean, and Amazon will add the code to it.

With that, you can export your print cover files as a PDF, ready to upload to your print service.

Create a cover for the audiobook version 

Adapting your cover design to a square format may mean needing a larger image to cover the entire area and fit properly with the specific composition of that context. Keep this in mind when hiring a photographer, illustrator, or designer.

(Note how the square format requires a larger illustrated area.)

And other promotional material

You finally have it: a shiny, brand-new book cover you can use to represent your book on the shelves and across all marketing channels! You might want to create a variety of 3D mockup images to use on digital ads, social media cover photos, or on your author’s website . 

You can use sites like Canva or Placeit to do it yourself, or if you’re collaborating with a professional, make sure to discuss this additional service before starting the project.

As you’ve probably realized by now, this process involves thorough industry research, creative brainstorming, and technical expertise, which is why we encourage indie authors to work with professionals in the field .  

While the fate of our princess and intergalactic smuggler remains a mystery, one thing is certain: their story boasts an outstanding cover, and your book deserves the same!

Continue reading

Recommended posts from the Reedsy Blog

What Is an Index in a Book? Everything You Need to Know

Ever wondered what a book index is for, or how it's made? Read this post to take a peek behind the publishing curtain.

How Creative Poetry Book Layouts Can Elevate Your Verse

Want to know what goes into creating a poetry book layout? Learn how it all comes together from our experienced designers.

The 13 Best Fantasy Map Generators, Tools, and Resources

Whether you fancy a randomly generated fantasy map as your muse, or designing a map from scratch, there's sure to be something here for you!

20 Royalty-Free Stock Image Sites to Source a Book Cover Picture

Looking for inexpensive book cover pictures? Here's a list of 20 sites with royalty-free stock images you can incorporate into an amazing book cover.

The 45 Best Book Covers of 2020 — Feast Your Eyes!

To cap this eventful year, we've put together a list of the best book covers of 2020. There's something for everyone, from fiction to non-fiction!

30 Amazing Children's Book Illustrators (and How to Hire Them)

Looking to create the perfect children's book? Meet 30 of the best professional children’s book illustrators in the industry who you can hire today.

Join a community of over 1 million authors

Reedsy is more than just a blog. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book.

Get an eye-catching book cover

Request quotes from 200+ of the most talented cover designers in the industry.

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.

Enter your email or get started with a social account:

How to Design a Book Cover

Making Book Jackets for School Projects

Utamaru Kido / Getty Images

• Homework Tips
• Learning Styles & Skills
• Study Methods
• Time Management
• Private School
• College Admissions
• College Life
• Graduate School
• Business School
• Distance Learning
• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

A common assignment given to middle and elementary school students is to design a summarizing book cover. Why? Many teachers are partial to this literature assignment because it contains elements of crafting, allowing more room for creativity, and provides students with a new way to summarize the plot and theme of a book.

Elements of this type of book jacket usually include:

• an image that hints at a book’s contents
• a summary of the story
• a review of the book
• a biography of the author
• publication information

When designing a thoughtful book cover for a novel, you must know a lot about its author and story. This is because creating a book cover is a lot like creating an advanced  book report without giving away too much of the story. You cannot be successful in designing an appropriate cover for a book with which you are unfamiliar.

Designing the Whole Jacket

ThoughtCo / Grace Fleming

To ensure that your cover or jacket will have room for each element you wish to include, you'll first want to plan a basic layout. This should show where each piece of your project will go and how much space you can devote to them. For example, you might want to put the author’s biography on the back cover or the back flap and you know you will need at least half a page for it, wherever it goes.

Play around with a few different formats until you settle on one you like and use a rubric to make sure you don't leave anything out. Start with the arrangement in the image above if you don't know where to begin.

Preparing an Image

Fabio Principe / EyeEm / Getty Images

Your book jacket should contain an image that intrigues potential readers by giving them a taste of what's to come without spoiling the whole plot. Just as publishers do when designing real book covers, you should devote a good deal of time and energy to creating the perfect visual representation.

One of the first considerations for your image should be the  genre  and theme of your book. Your cover should reflect this genre and symbolize this theme. For example, if your book is a scary mystery that takes place in a haunted house, you could sketch an image of a spider in the corner of a dusty doorway. If your book is a funny tale about a clumsy girl, you could sketch an image of shoes with the shoestrings tied together.

If you are not comfortable sketching your own image, you can use text (be creative and colorful!) and/or public domain images. Ask your teacher for advice if you intend to use an image created by someone else to avoid copyright infringement.

Writing Your Book Summary

Maskot / Getty Images 

The next piece to start working on is the book summary, which is usually found on the inside flap of book jackets. Because the intention is still to capture your readers' attention, this summary should sound a little different from a book report summary and give less of the plot away. You need to “tease” the reader with hints and examples, never telling them the climax. Instead, make them wonder what will happen.

In the haunted house mystery example, you could suggest that the house seems to have a life of its own. You could go on to explain that the house's inhabitants are having strange experiences within the house and end on the open-ended question or cliffhanger: “What is behind the odd noises Betty hears when she wakes each night at 2:00 a.m.?” The goal should be for readers to want to read to find out.

Writing the Author’s Biography

alvarez / Getty Images

The average author's bio is fairly short, so yours should be too. Limit the biography to only the most relevant information. When researching, ask yourself: What events in the author's life are connected to the topic of this book? What makes this author particularly qualified to write a book like this.

Optional pieces of information include the author’s place of birth, number of siblings, level of education, writing awards, and previous publications. Use these only as needed. Unless otherwise instructed, keep your biography to two or three paragraphs long. These are usually found on the back cover.

Putting It All Together

chudakov2 / Getty Images

You're finally ready to put it all together. To make sure that the dimensions of your jacket are perfect, you'll need to first measure the size of your book’s face from bottom to top to find its length then spine to edge to find its width. Cut a strip of paper six inches longer than the height and fold it over each side, trimming until you are happy with the size. Measure this new length. Repeat for the width.

Now, multiply your book's updated dimensions by two (you may need to multiply its width by more than this depending on the thickness of your book). You can start cutting and pasting elements onto the cover once the jacket is fitted and secured. Use the template you made earlier to organize these pieces and remember not to glue anything down until the placement is just right.

• How to Write a Great Book Report
• How to Start a Book Report
• How to Find the Theme of a Book or Short Story
• What Is a Synopsis and How Do You Write One?
• How to Study for an Open Book Test
• How to Start and Maintain a Book Club
• How to Create an EPUB File From HTML and XML
• Writing a History Book Review
• Book Report: Definition, Guidelines, and Advice
• 50 General Book Club Questions for Study and Discussion
• The Haunted House (1859) by Charles Dickens
• How to Use ABC Books All the Way Through High School
• Comps in Graphic Design and Printing
• How to Lead a Book Club Discussion
• 20 Book Activities to Try With Grades 3-5

• Fiction Cover Design
• Non-Fiction Cover Design
• Illustrated Cover Design
• Premium Cover Design
• Book Covers Redesign
• Audiobook Cover Design
• Kindle Vella Cover Design
• Logo & Branding
• Marketing Materials
• Formatting and Layout
• Author Swag Design

How to Design a Book Cover (A Detailed Guide for Indie Authors)

This is your ultimate guide on how to design a book cover. When we say ultimate, we mean it. We’ll discuss custom book cover design ideas, principles, and elements. 

You will learn about:

• The importance of a good book cover
• Elements of good book cover design
• Book cover design tips for choosing typography, colors, and imagery
• Cover design types
• Book cover design costs in 2024
• How and where to find a professional book cover designer.

If you’re looking to expand your knowledge about book cover design, let’s start.

Importance of a book cover

A book cover has a few essential roles. What are they?

It serves as a strong marketing tool

The cover creates the first impression of the book and its author. It triggers the potential buyer to pick up the book from a shelf or an online store. 

When readers see a well-designed and attractive cover, they automatically think that the inside filling should be good. Moreover, you will most probably use the book cover everywhere to promote your story.

It attracts your target audience

The book cover should also relate to the book’s target audience and, as a result, catch the reader’s attention. It is the only communication tool that tells the reader something about the book. 

A book cover should, above all, represent its genre to perform this task. That’s why it’s important to ensure that all the book cover elements set the right tone and communicate the mood.

Cover design typography tips

The book cover design typography you choose has more value and meaning than the words you are spelling out.

• Use fonts that are suitable for your genre. 
• Set the right tone with the correct font. For example, clear, strong, massive letters are suitable for creating an adventurous set-up, while soft fonts can indicate romance. 
• Don’t go too creative when choosing a font, as it might be difficult to read.

Generally speaking, there are different types of fonts that are widely popular in book cover design:

Each of them has a specific meaning and message.

• Serifs are classy and somehow traditional.
• Semi-serifs are more contemporary.
• Scripts are considered to be creative, while modern fonts have a strong vibe.

A font is a visual key that tells readers what to expect from your book. On the other hand, the images you choose convey a story.

Book cover design types

There are several book cover design types with specific features. To choose one, consider your genre, target audience, and goal. Here is a general overview of the most popular types.

Depending on the imagery, the book cover can be:

• Character-based . This design focuses on characters from the book, often the protagonist. It is effective for fantasy, science fiction, and young adult fiction, where connecting with characters is a significant draw for readers.
• Object-based. These covers center around a specific object that is significant to the book’s story or themes. They can be simple or complex, and the chosen object often symbolizes a deeper aspect of the narrative. This type of cover is versatile and can be used across various genres.
• Typography-based . Here, the focus is on the book’s title and author’s name. Such covers work well for literary fiction, non-fiction, and any genre where a strong, textual message can intrigue potential readers.

Depending on the visual style, we can single out:

• Custom book covers that incorporate elements such as stock photos, custom illustrations, or typography to create a unique design. They are made to capture the essence of the book’s content and theme precisely.
• Illustrated covers that feature custom artwork, ranging from detailed scenes to abstract or conceptual art. The style of illustration can vary widely, from realistic to cartoonish, giving authors a broad canvas to convey the book’s tone and content visually.
• Photography-based covers that use photographic images as the main visual element. They can range from simple portraits to complex compositions involving multiple elements. Photography-based covers are common in genres such as romance, thriller, and non-fiction.

Finally, if we talk about the design complexity, book covers can be:

• Minimalist ones aim to convey the book’s essence without overwhelming potential readers with too much visual information.
• Ornate ones that are rich in detail and decorative elements. They often feature intricate illustrations or complex compositions.

Cost of book cover design 

When it comes to the book cover design services , there are quite a few options to choose from. It all depends on your budget, needs, and expectations. Let’s take a closer look.

DIY book cover

This is the DIY area. You may check out convenient tools:

• Canva (free)
• Visme (free)
• Blurb BookWright (free)
• Placeit (free, $9.99/month)
• PosterMyWall (free, $9.95/month).

You can also opt for more serious software, such as Adobe Photoshop (from $22.99/month) or QuarkXPress ($233/year). Remember that you need stock images or other visual elements to create your cover. Thus, DIY design can cost $0-$262.

But if you decide to pursue this option, keep in mind that it might be time-consuming. Especially if you have no prior knowledge of design, get ready for an anxiety roller-coaster.

Book cover by a freelance designer

If you decide to go to the land of freelancers, apply the rule ‘you never know’. Some of them are great and are working on expanding their portfolio. Some might be tricky to deal with and use questionable stock images that infringe on copyrights.

The price for a cover by a freelance designer ranges from $15 to $100. 

Book cover by a design company

These guys usually provide excellent quality and are willing to network to spread the word. They most often have a good number of in-house designers and some freelancers as well. In any scenario, you will be dealing with those who make a living out of book cover design. 

So why not? The competition keeps prices similar without driving them up. The tricky part here is that it’s sometimes hard to tell the design skill levels.

The average price for a cover design company’s services is $300-$700.

Premade book cover

Choosing a ready-made cover is a smart way to save money and still get a professional-looking book cover. These covers are made to fit the usual style for your book’s genre. You also get to see how the cover looks right away, and you can ask the designer to make some changes if necessary. Usually, small changes won’t cost you more money.

The usual cost for ready-made covers ranges from $100 to $150.

You can learn more about book cover design prices in 2024 in our blog post.

Finally, let’s go through a list of things to keep in mind on how to hire a professional book cover designer.

How to hire a professional book cover designer

Start the discussion with the professional book cover designer by deciding on the following aspects:

• First, ask for the designer’s portfolio . Ensure that the designer has experience in your genre. Don’t take a leap in the dark.
• Discuss your constraints (budgetary, graphic, technical). Set up your budget and describe all the do’s and don’ts’ when it comes to some specific design elements, starting from the colors and details you’d rather avoid and moving on to the deadline, formats, series, etc.
• Be clear . Remember that you should be clear and precise with yourself or the designer regarding your needs and expectations. A book cover design brief might be a solution.

Related Blog Posts

How to A/B Test Your Book Cover Design?

Honestly, your book cover has one job – to turn curious potential readers into buyers,...

Access is denied.

Thanks so much!! This is terrific info! ❤️

Glad you found it useful! 🙂

We are glad that you found this article useful!

Love our blog post?

Check out our book covers for more inspiration.

Check out your email.

Your checklist is on the way!

Book Cover Redesign

Book covers usually give us our first clue of what a book will explore. From a book cover, we can often tell what genre of book, the age level of the reader, the information that the book will discuss, and even what other readers think about the book.

Every book has a front cover, back cover, and a spine . Because they help protect the paper pages of the book, these parts are usually made of have your paper or cardboard. In addition, these parts of the book's cover help readers identify the book as well as persuade potential readers to consider the title.

The Front Cover The front cover of a book typically feature is the title of the book in a clear and obvious way. The letters usually stand out in some way from the other details that may be included on the cover. Normally, the names of the author and illustrator in smaller size to text than the title.The front cover of a book includes a picture that illustrates any of the following:* one or more characters

* the setting

* a specific event

* an important symbol in the book.

The Back Cover The back cover of a book can include any information that might interest readers in the book. The example back cover can list the names of the poet whose poems are included in the book, or other books that the author has written for reference. On another book you might find an excerpt from the story, a short summary of the book's contents, or reviews by other readers.

Some books have the illustration from the front cover wrap all the way around the book, so you can see a continuation of this scene from the front of the book extended across the back. Back covers may also include Graphics that highlight important text such as a box that highlights a review . Back covers also sometimes include the book's title, authors, illustrators, and publisher as well. You are likely to see the barcode symbol used for pricing and inventory. The retail price may also be included on the back cover.

The Spine A book spine is the smallest part of the cover, but it is often the most important part. The spine is the first thing that a reader sees when browsing in group of books lined up on a bookshelf or stacked in a pile. The spine typically includes the basic identifying information about the book. The books author, the book's title, the book publishers. Sometimes the spine will also include a small icon or trademark associated with the publisher.

You will be recreating your own book cover of a book you have previously read/heard.

The Art of Cover Design

STEP 1: Review components of a book cover in class; Glue note sheet into your sketchbook.

STEP 2: Pick the book you will be redesigning. Fill out note sheet according to your book choice.

STEP 3: In your sketchbook, use a RULER to draw a rectangle that measures 9in x 6in. This is your full cover.

STEP 4: Using a RULER, draw a 1 inch-wide section 4 inches in from the long edge. You should have 4 inches on either side of your 1 inch spine.

NOTE: Your BACK cover is on the LEFT side. Your FRONT cover is on the RIGHT side.

STEP 5: Draw out your cover recreation with full color. Be sure to include all pieces of necessary information and any writing you plan to include. Have me check your work.

FRONT COVER: Book title, Author, Picture/Illustration, Your Name as illustrator

BACK COVER: Picture/Illustration, More information (summary of 5-11 sentences, 1-2 reviews), Barcode/price, publisher logo

SPINE: Book title, Author, Publisher logo

STEP 6: Write your Summary/synopsis for your back cover by completing the document assigned in Google classroom.

Have the teacher check your work before moving on.

STEP 7: Open Photopea & create a New canvas with dimensions 9in x 6in, titled LastName_BookCover

STEP 8: Utilize your tools to create the same book cover design you had created in your sketchbook.

To show your RULER tool (in order to draw straight lines with the shape tool), press Ctrl R.

STEP 9: Upload your book cover to your website on a new page called: Book Cover

STEP 10: Once finished, upload your JPEG to Google Classroom & fill out a rubric.

STEP 11: PRINT your project to the ARTTECH printer, mount it, and turn in with your rubric.

Book Cover Design

Our carefully crafted and visually stunning book cover design will give your book cover the professional and stand-out look it deserves.

Need some help formatting your manuscript for print or eBook? No problem. We can help with that!

Marketing Assets

We offer a range of marketing assets from web and social media graphics to book trailers and animated book covers.

...you've spent countless hours perfecting, iterating, gathering feedback from trusted friends and colleagues, researching, experimenting, and revising.

We Understand. We approach our work exactly the same way.

Working with Authors

I highly recommend Robin for your next book cover design project. I contracted her to create a unique and compelling book cover for my 4th book. After a very thorough discovery process, she went to work and BAM! On the first round of design ideas, she nailed it. Much more than images and fonts, Robin gave a face to the message I so passionately communicated in my book, translating what was inside into a powerful visual theme. Throughout the design process, she was easily accessible, very communicative and responded quickly to any requests. I couldn’t be more pleased and will definitely use her again for any upcoming projects.

Author of “Created To Thrive”

Robin is an amazing artist. Her process is very thorough and professional. I really appreciated the time she took to get to know my book and I could tell she really put all her heart into my cover designs. She gave me several samples to choose from and the most difficult part about working with Robin was choosing a favorite out of so many great options. Robin was very prompt in answering my questions and up-front about her policies, which, as a first-time, self-publishing author, I valued greatly. Robin holds her business and her art to very high standards and her talent shines all the more because of it.

Author of  “Havoc Moon”

Robin was professional, friendly, and—most importantly—creative throughout the entire process. I approached her with no idea what I wanted my book cover to look like, and she still somehow managed to create exactly what I wanted. I was thrilled when she asked to read my manuscript. This helped her capture the mood of the story and incorporate several clever elements symbolic to the story that I never would’ve thought to request. She also has an eye for the subtle, implementing minor tweaks and design characteristics that prove she is detail-oriented and taking the project as seriously as you are. She has the mind of an artist and the technique of an expert. I hope to write many books in my lifetime, and I will ask Robin to craft the cover of every single one.

Author of “Back There Somewhere”

Robin knows how to make people want to pick up a book! Both of my covers “pop” in ways that have gotten them noticed. I’ve been told so by booksellers. Her design skills are incredible. Robin has designed two of my book covers, and both were done brilliantly. Let’s face it, sometimes books are judged by their covers. 

Author of “Whirligig” and “ATM”

Robin did a fantastic job designing the cover of my book. We started with an initial design and then we tweaked it until I was totally thrilled with it. Robin is great at collaboration and at understanding what her client is looking for. She responded to all of my likes and dislikes, and knew exactly what to do to get the cover just to where I wanted it. It takes an experienced and intuitive designer to do that, and that’s exactly what Robin is. I would not hesitate to use her again on any future projects.

Author of “Film Is Like A Battleground”

Robin of MyCustomBookCover.com did a tremendous job with my book cover. I had an idea what I wanted my book cover to look like and she did even better than that. She was quick with queries and was very patient with my requests and/or requirements. The price is very reasonable and the work is top notch. I will definitely be using her services again.

Author of “The Bern Project”

Terms and Conditions © 2024 · mycustombookcover.com. Images and content of this site are owned and trademarked by My Custom Book Cover. All rights reserved.