Poor cover design is one of the most common reasons for low book sales. According to a recent survey, 57% of Americans buy books (and 80% avoid books) solely based on their covers. A book cover should immediately grab attention, convey the genre, and entice readers to explore further — if not, even the most compelling content may go unnoticed.
If your book isn’t selling as well as you hoped, is your book cover to blame? In this post, you’ll learn the signs it might be. Moreover, you’ll learn how to get your book cover right the first time so it can work as an effective marketing tool and boost your sales.
Signs your book cover might be hurting sales
Look out for these indicators:
- Early readers and reviewers are excited about your book’s concept, and there’s some buzz around its launch. However, there’s a mismatch between this enthusiasm and actual sales. Despite the initial hype, readers aren’t making the purchase.
- Your book is getting great reviews, but you’ve received feedback from readers that they initially hesitated to pick it up because of the cover. Even with its positive reception, more potential readers might have passed it by.
- You’re running ads for your book and gaining impressions, but those impressions aren’t translating into clicks. Your book cover may be one element of your ad design that isn’t resonating with your ideal readers.
- The cover doesn’t view well in thumbnail size. For your book cover to stand out in online retailer displays and drive readers to click to learn more about your book, the thumbnail version should be clear and eye-catching.
- This is a sequel with lower sales than previous books in the series. In some cases, the reason for this is inconsistent serial branding, and readers simply don’t realize this book continues the story.
- Your book cover is noticeably different from other books in the same genre, or it’s difficult for readers to identify your book’s genre at a glance.
If any of these signs apply to you, consider redesigning your cover to boost your book’s appeal. In the next section, we cover how to start fresh with researching and sourcing cover design ideas — later, we’ll discuss how to validate these new ideas!
Creating a book cover that sells
Analyze bestsellers in your genre
Go to Goodreads, BookBub, or one of the major ebook retailers and study bestsellers in your genre. Take note of the colors, fonts, images, and styles that dominate their covers. Are they character-based, object-based, or typography-based? Are they illustrated or made using stock photos? What is the common typography style and color scheme? This exercise will help you understand what readers expect to see when looking for a book like yours.
Looking at the top bestsellers in romantic comedy, notice how they all share features that make the genre immediately recognizable: vivid colors, chunky typography, and vector illustrations of the characters and settings of the story.
Hire a professional book cover designer
Book cover designers already have the knowledge and experience of what works best in your genre, so paying a professional for a cover can be a reliable way to ensure you’re meeting genre standards. Before hiring a designer, check their portfolio to get a sense of the quality of their work, and be sure to discuss the details of your book’s themes and audience.
You can find more tips about how to work with a book cover designer here, and start your search for a designer with this list of recommended design resources.
Book cover design by MiblArt
Run design contests
If you’re looking for multiple cover design ideas, try sourcing them from a design contest! Platforms like 99designs and DesignCrowd allow you to open contests to their communities of freelance artists, who then submit ideas for you to choose from. You can ensure the quality of submissions by providing a design brief including details about your book.
Here’s an example of what a design contest looks like:
And some of the designs participants submitted to this contest:
Getting feedback on your cover design
Now that you have a new book cover, you want to make sure it actually works. Below are a few ways you can test your revamped cover to ensure it’s more likely to drive sales — you can use these tips for future book launches, too!
Conduct book cover A/B testing
A/B testing means comparing the results from two versions of a marketing asset to determine which is more effective. You can use this method to guide your cover design choices by testing different covers in ads or online polls (via your email newsletter or platforms like PickFu), comparing their performance based on metrics like clicks or sales and letting the results decide your winning cover.
Tricia O’Malley ran ads to test different book covers with the goal of better appealing to new readers unfamiliar with her series. She looked at the ads’ click-through rates to gauge interest from new readers, and the results led her to redesign the entire series!
Run preorder campaigns
Promoting a preorder is another great way to gauge interest in your book cover. If your cover doesn’t get the engagement you want during the preorder period, you can test a different one before the official release to maximize the success of your launch.
Check out these ideas for promoting preorders on social media, and look for feedback on your cover in the comments or early reviews.
Do a book cover reveal
Like preorders, cover reveals can help create buzz around your book before release, and if the reveal doesn’t get the reception you’re looking for, you still have time to change the design.
To make the most of this strategy, ask your followers to share their thoughts on the cover. Look for trends among the comments rather than subjective opinions. If several people mention the same specific problem, that’s a critique worth paying attention to.
Cover reveal design by Miblart
Post in online communities
As well as sharing your cover design ideas with your followers, try posting them in author Facebook groups (specific to your genre or for creative feedback, like Indie Cover Project) or relevant Reddit forums (like r/SelfPublish or r/BookCovers). These posts work best when you include lots of detail about your book’s content and audience and anything specific you’re looking for feedback on.
Here’s an example of an effective feedback request: Author Cally Taylor shared her book’s genre and description, provided two versions of the cover, and noted that she was looking for the best option for the US market.
Don’t let an ineffective cover hold you back! If you think your cover might be hurting your book’s sales or visibility, it’s worth taking the time to investigate and try out different options to find one that better meets your goals.
The views and opinions expressed in this guest post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of BookBub.
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