How to Design a Book Cover

What a book cover has to do

A cover has two jobs. Online it has to work as a small thumbnail next to dozens of others, and on a shelf or a table it has to be picked up. In both places it tells a reader, in a second or two, what kind of book this is and whether it is for them.

Everything else in this guide serves that: a clear title, an obvious genre, an image or design that holds at small size, and files that print correctly.

The parts of a print book cover

A printed paperback cover is one flat piece of artwork that wraps around the book. It has three main areas:

• The front cover: the title, the author name, a subtitle or tagline if you use one, and the main image or design.
• The spine: the title and author name running along the edge, plus a logo if you have one. The spine is only as wide as the pages are thick, so its width depends on the page count and the paper.
• The back cover: the blurb, an optional review quote or short author bio, and the barcode with the ISBN.

Start with the specifications

Decide the trim size, the page count and the paper before you design anything, because the cover is built around them. The trim size sets the width and height of the front and back, and the page count and paper set the spine.

Design on the printer's template where you can, and leave bleed: artwork that runs to the edge has to extend past the trim line so a small shift in cutting does not leave a white edge. Our formatting guide states a bleed of 0.125 in (3.2 mm) where art runs to the edge. Keep important text and faces well inside the trim, in the safe area.

Use high-resolution images, and keep the files in the colour mode your printer asks for. Print files are normally prepared for print colour and eBook covers for screens. Your printer or designer will confirm the exact requirements.

Print cover or eBook cover?

An eBook cover is only the front, shown on a screen, so it needs no spine, back or barcode. Because it is seen small, a clear title matters even more. If you publish in both formats, design the front once, then build the full wrap for print around it.

Our packages from Complete include both the printed book and the eBook, so the same front cover is used for both.

Design principles that work

• Follow the conventions of your genre. Readers pick books by signals: a thriller, a romance, a business book and a children's book each look different, and a cover that ignores this confuses the buyer.
• Make the title the first thing the eye reads, at thumbnail size. If you cannot read it small, simplify.
• Use one strong image or idea rather than several competing ones.
• Limit yourself to two typefaces, and choose ones that stay readable at small sizes.
• Keep contrast high between text and background, and avoid placing text over busy parts of an image.
• Put the author name where it is easy to find, larger if your name sells the book.
• For a series, repeat the layout so the books look like a set.

Choosing images and fonts

Use only images and fonts you have the right to use on a printed, sold book. Stock images, illustrations and typefaces come with licences, and some licences do not cover resale or print runs. Keep the licence for each element, and ask your designer to confirm that everything on the cover is cleared for commercial use.

If you commission original artwork, agree in writing who owns it and where it may be used, so you can reuse it on the eBook, the back cover and your marketing.

Cover ideas by kind of book

• Memoir and biography: a strong portrait or a single telling object, with the title large and the name clear.
• Business and self-help: bold type, a clear promise in the subtitle and plenty of white space.
• Fiction: an image and colour palette that signal the genre, with the title treated as part of the artwork.
• Faith and devotional books: calm, legible type and imagery that suits the tone; see our Christian book cover design page.
• Children's books: bright, friendly artwork that matches the interior; see our children's book publishing page.

A front-cover checklist

• Is the title readable as a thumbnail?
• Does it look like the genre it is?
• Is there one clear focal point?
• Is all important text inside the safe area?
• Is the author name correct and spelled the same everywhere?
• Does it still work in black and white, for a printout or a screen reader's preview?

The back cover: blurb, bio and barcode

The back cover continues the sale. Lead with a short, specific blurb about what the reader gets, add a review quote or a line about you if you have one, and keep the layout clean.

A printed book needs an ISBN and barcode. The barcode sits on the back cover in a clear area, usually the lower corner. With Harmony Publishing we assign the ISBN and barcode and place them for you.

Design it yourself or hire a designer?

Designing a cover yourself can work if you have design experience and can prepare print-ready files to the specification. Most authors are better served by a professional, because a cover is judged by strangers in seconds and mistakes in the files cost time and money at the printer.

If you hire a designer, give a clear brief: the genre, the readers, two or three covers you like and why, the title and author name as they will appear, the trim size and page count, and the blurb for the back.

How much should you pay for professional book cover design?

The right price depends on what you get: how many concepts and revisions, whether the full wrap and the eBook cover are included, and whether the designer prepares print-ready files. Compare quotes by scope, not by the headline number.

A professional cover design is $399 as a standalone service when you order printing with us. Every Harmony publishing package includes a cover: Basic Cover Design in Essentials ($699), Standard Cover Design in Complete ($1,299), Deluxe Cover Design in Premium ($2,499), 100 paperback books (no hardcover) in Rockstar ($4,999), 200 Hardcovers & 300 Paperback Books in Legend ($9,999). For market prices across designers, see our guide to book cover design costs.

Common book cover mistakes

• A title too small or too decorative to read as a thumbnail.
• Artwork or text too close to the trim, so it is cut off.
• A cover that does not look like its genre.
• Low-resolution images that print blurred.
• Guessing the spine width instead of calculating it from the final page count and paper.
• Forgetting the barcode area on the back cover.

Book cover design at Harmony Publishing

We design custom covers for print and eBook, with the barcode and ISBN built in, and we build the cover from your final page count. See the details on our book cover design services page, or compare the publishing packages to see which cover tier comes with each.

Frequently asked questions