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As an avid reader, I have a confession to make. (No, I’m not discussing my Vampire addiction. That’s more of an interest, you see.) My dirty little secret? I’m horribly snobbish when it comes to book covers.

Based on a quick glance, I will make a snap decision to 1) read the blurb or 2) move on to the next book cover – all solely based on the book cover. If it doesn’t look professional, has no visual interest and doesn’t convey a genre that I read it, then I’m on to the next one. Simple as that.

Let this be a lesson to all you authors and Indie Publishers out there:

Your Book Cover is Your First Chance to Grab the reader!

(Let the above also be a lesson… Fancy fonts sure are purty, but they are dang hard to read!)

That said, I’m finding it terribly hard to put into words what makes a book cover work. I’m a designer by day so my eye just knows. I don’t think I’d explain it adequately, so I’ll just give you a few quick examples:

In a similar vein, take some time to browse popular books in the genre you write in. You may start to notice a theme or style among them. While originality is a good thing, deviating too far from the norm can convey the wrong message as well.

Unless you are skilled with graphic design, producing your own cover image may not be the best idea if you really want to package a professional book. Shoot, I’m a graphic designer by trade, and even I can see that my earlier covers pale in comparison to my newer ones.

If you are in the market for a stellar cover, I’ve listed below a few links to Cover Designers that I’ve heard good things about, in no particular order:

Streetlight Graphics - They did this cover for Talia Jager that I adore! 

Flip City Covers


JSimmons Illustration


RazzDazz Design

Extended Imagery -Cover Designer to Kilborn, Crouch and Konrath!

I’m sure I’m leaving out some, so if anyone has a great cover designer, and they want to share, please feel free to leave it in the comments section.