Your ebook cover design is an attention-grabber for the great ebook you just wrote.
Covers are important — we most definitely judge books by them! And the cover images we’re judging are increasingly small. That means our covers must look great at full size and be legible when drastically reduced.
If you’re not a designer, you may feel unqualified to tackle your cover design yourself.
Today’s post is here to help. I put together a handful of standard cover formats you can use as inspiration and a starting point for your next ebook cover design.
Check them out below, and be sure to read the description of each style so you can see if it fits with the kind of ebook you’ve written.
Ebook cover design — Contemporary and Asymmetrical
Use a large image that fills the page from edge to edge.
Choose an area in the upper right quadrant to add your title.
Overlay it with a shape that’s colored grey, and make it translucent so the image shows through.
Add your title, tagline (if using) and author name. Use light colors for best contrast.
Align your type flush right.
Related: Font Styles that Work: 5 Favorite Free Font Combinations
Ebook cover design — Classic and Symmetrical
Find a subtle textured background that fills the page from edge to edge.
Draw a solid-colored rectangle above it.
Add a white bordered rectangle inside the first one.
Pick a serif font and write some of your words in all capital letters.
Center your title and tagline on your background, and consider using a dingbat font between information.
Ebook cover design — Color Bar Fun
Find an image that fits in a square shape, or is almost square-shaped.
Add a colored rectangle below it.
Try filling it with a color that is found in the image.
Find a font with some personality, and center it below the image.
Use the font in a color that contrasts with the colored rectangle.
This can look either formal or informal depending on your image and font choices.
Ebook cover design — Minimalist
Find an image that’s on a white ground.
You can find these on stock photo sites by typing in the object you’re looking for and “white background.”
Or, find an image of a frame on a white ground, and place another image inside it.
Choose a classic serif font, and use it in one bold color.
This is a formal but contemporary style that will stand out because of its simplicity.
Ebook cover design — All Type
Choose a bold, dramatic background color, and use it from edge to edge.
Find a simple, clean font, and use it in all capital letters, varying the weights between regular and bold.
Look at your background color and pick a color from the opposite side of the color wheel for your title font.
Doing this will help your text to “pop.”
Find an illustration that reinforces your title, and use it in white either above or below your title.
Related: The 5 Pillars of a Successful Ebook
Related: What Kind of Ebook Should I Write?
From here on out, make it a point to look at paper and ebook covers as you browse for books to buy.
Analyze them, take them apart, and try to pinpoint what makes them work.
4 thoughts on “Ebook Cover Design: 5 Captivating Styles You Can Borrow”
Thanks for the cover ideas… very nice… although only ONE has the author name on it. Not sure if that was intentional… most would want that on the front… or I would think so.
I have been doing Kindle covers recently, which are very similar, and the biggest challenge is to convince the client not to “write a book” on the book cover.
Thanks for pointing this out, Christine. You can add an author name to any of these: just make it smaller and less prominent.
It’s difficult to convince people to pare down their cover info, but I agree: it must be done if you want your cover to be readable!
Hi Pamela,
Love these tips, especially the minimalist, white ground and all type advice. I think these two methods work particularly well online.
By the way, I’m getting closer on that little red eBook of mine 😉
Thanks, Craig. Can’t wait to see it!
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