Despite the popular phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” we all do.

A cover can make or break a book’s success, no matter the quality of the story inside. If your own book buying habits aren’t enough to convince you, Ana and Thea, over at Book Smugglers*, proved this point through a 2010 survey, in which 79% of the 600+ participants reported that book covers play a decisive role in their decision to purchase a book. (For more interesting results from their book cover survey, read the full blog post here.)

Plainly put, a book’s cover is important. Super important.

I’ve been making my own book covers for several years now. ** I know what I consider appealing and also the basic cover design standards for books in the cozy reading genre. I used these pieces of information along with my mad-Canva skills to create 3 different options. Why 3? Because sometimes what your brain creates the first time isn’t the best idea… its just the first idea. I find if I you push myself to move past the most obvious choice, I often come up with something even more magical and magnificent. (Hint, this is true for more than just book covers!) I showed these 3 options to my writing friends, to my sister and also my cousins. I was shocked when their least favorite was the cover I’d been leaning towards selecting.

I decided I needed to try again. So I went back into Canva and made a few more, five more actually. Now I had 8 designs to choose from. But I still didn’t know which one I liked best. So, I decided to let my readers help me select the best one. After all, they were the target market, right? Give the people what they want? Chances are if you let the people pick, you’ll be able to more easily deliver what the people want.

Earlier this week I shared the cover options on Facebook and asked people to complete a Google form. I’m asking you to do the same today. Then, next week… I’ll do a big cover reveal! Thank you in advance for your help!

What do you think? Which one is your favorite? I’d love your input! Please vote here.

If you’d like to learn how to design a book cover or learn more about the process, check out these resources.

Blog Post: Birthing a Book - Many people liken the process of creating a book to the experience of growing and birthing a baby. I would agree on many levels. For the most part growing a baby is a behind the scenes job. The cover of a book is easily the most visible portion of the entire writing process. Often times, if done well, the cover is more memorable than the name of the author and sometimes even the title. Today could be compared to one of those gender reveal events. Today I’m going to share with you… the book cover. (This post was the cover reveal post for my book Close Quarters.)

* The Book Smugglers is a blog dedicated to speculative and genre fiction for all ages. In addition to being an outlet for Ana and Thea’s bottomless obsession with books, reviews, and assorted popgeekery, it is also the home of original SFF short fiction and nonfiction. The Book Smugglers won the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 2020.

This post was made beautiful by Canva.

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