As a self-published author, the cover wasn’t the last thing I thought of, but it was the last thing I did before publishing either book. Unfortunately, it’s a difficult aspect to get right. Do you keep it simple? Hire a cover artist? Watch YouTube videos and attempt it yourself?

I love digital design and couldn’t wait to reach the cover design aspect of my book launch. Time flies when you’re hunched over your laptop on Affinity Designer. As much as I enjoy designing my own covers, there is one question that plagues me; will other people like it?

It’s easy to say we should write and create for ourselves and other people’s opinions don’t matter, but if you want to sell books it does matter. Who here has judged a book by its cover?

Let’s face it, we all have.

If you’re walking down the book aisle in any shop or browsing eBooks on Amazon, the first thing you notice is the book cover. From there, my eye goes to the title and then the description or blurb. If your book-shopping process mirrors mine, there are two chances to reject the book before even finding out what it’s about.

It’s an unfair process. An amazing book could be avoided because of a hideous cover or poor title. Getting these aspects of the book right might seem easy, but they’re often overlooked until it’s too late. For better or worse, I design my own covers. Would more people be attracted to the book if it had a different cover or name? I don’t know, but while the idea of not judging a book by its cover is a good one, I believe it’s a false hope.

What about you? Do you judge books by their covers, or ignore the covers to see a book’s inner beauty?

Happy reading!