Comments on: Good Examples of Bad Book Covers

By: Jill Place

Jill Place — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 01:48:25 +0000

I’m with you! I wouldn’t take a graphic step without my graphic artist. I’m so glad I found him and he gives a unified look to all my stuff. And I agree with Jennifer; I wouldn’t know what to do without my web master either. Blogs and copy changes . . . I can write them and my assistant can post them. Frees up your time for what YOU do best.

By: Jennifer Truesdale

Jennifer Truesdale — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 13:55:19 +0000

I REALLY want to know what Savannah was expecting!

Great post Deb. I’m a firm believer in do what you do well and hire others to do the rest!

By: Denise Banks-Grasedyck

Denise Banks-Grasedyck — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 15:29:27 +0000

Great post! In addition to all the great tips on what NOT to do when designing my own DYI novel cover, this post made me laugh aloud. In my bookstore experiences it seems that the number of novels involving wolves, wolf-like beings and straight out werewolves is oddly over proportionally represented in the book-covers-gone-terribly-wrong section, so it was particularly entertaining to see your examples.

And these two lines seemed so familiar to the me, they brought tears of laughter to my eyes:
“Are we talking about a wolf in pink pumps singing karaoke in a smoky nightclub?
My brain hurts with the infinite possibilities of what this book may be about.”

By: Deb Dorchak

Deb Dorchak — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 03:22:47 +0000

Aly, if you want to see a ton more, check out the Lousy Book Covers link at the end of the post. I spent an hour on there one night finding one good bad example after the next! I had to make myself stop before I had a whole book written here. And that may not be such a bad idea.

By: Deb Dorchak

Deb Dorchak — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 03:20:57 +0000

Oh Elizabeth, this is just the tip of the iceberg. But, if you can learn from these mistakes, they’ll definitely help. And really, book covers aren’t that much different than websites. I’ve seen a lot of these kinds of mistakes done on sites too.

By: Deb Dorchak

Deb Dorchak — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 03:19:19 +0000

They really are the first line for getting readers to buy your book. Now more than ever, book covers really need to stand out…and not in a bad way!

By: Deb Dorchak

Deb Dorchak — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 03:18:03 +0000

Good! Now you know a little bit more than you did before

By: Aly Pain

Aly Pain — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 23:36:04 +0000

Oh wow. Those are very well chosen examples of what not to do and how much more attention I need to put into anything I publish!! Thank you for breaking it down into basic things to look for and pointing out the price of not doing it. Yikes!

By: Elizabeth Clark

Elizabeth Clark — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 04:01:46 +0000

Who knew there were so many things to consider when creating a book cover? Great tips, and I’ll never look at a book cover the same way again.

By: Wanda Baader

Wanda Baader — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 17:37:42 +0000

Great advice and thanks for the examples. Book covers are truly the first impression and your points are spot on.