We can deny it all we want, but every single one of us judges books by their covers. Time and again, I've witnessed brilliant authors struggle to find readers because their book covers failed to make that crucial first impression. Think about it: when was the last time you clicked on a book with an amateur-looking cover?
Good news though. You don't need a $5,000 design budget to create covers that sell. What you need is an understanding of how readers' brains process visual information and make split-second decisions.
Book covers are silent salespeople that work around the clock to turn browsers into buyers. While authors spend months refining their manuscript, most neglect the psychological forces that dictate whether readers will even open their book. This step-by-step approach shows you how to leverage color psychology, visual hierarchy, and emotional triggers to make covers that prompt instant action.
Understanding these principles becomes particularly valuable as online book sales continue dominating the market. Professional book editing services report that properly designed covers can increase sales by 300% or more. The following seven-step approach combines established psychological research with current market data to maximize your book's commercial appeal.
Step 1: Choose Colors That Trigger Emotional Responses
Colors affect how people feel about your book before they even read your title. Book marketing services know this. They don't pick colors because they “look nice.” They choose them because they trigger specific emotional responses.
One 2020 study asked nearly 4,600 people from 30 different countries about what emotions they connect with various colors. Here are the results:
- Love: Red (68%) and pink (50%) were most highly associated
- Happiness: Yellow (52%) and orange (44%) dominated this category
- Relief: White (43%) and blue (35%) were shared here
- Negative emotions: Black (51%) for sadness, brown (36%) for disgust
Keep this list on a Post-It near your computer as you are working on your cover design. Cross-reference it to make sure you select the colors that trigger the right emotional responses!
Take it from the pros. Terry Begue's Attract & Keep Customers for Life has yellow and red cover. In this way, he cleverly uses colors that people associate with joy and love to suggest that building customer trust should feel good and create meaningful relationships.
Your action steps:
- Pick a primary color that matches your book's main emotion (blue for trust, red for passion, etc.)
- Choose 1-2 complementary colors that enhance this feeling
- Test your color scheme by reducing it to grayscale, it should still have strong contrast
- Create a simple mood board with examples of successful books in your genre
Besides selecting the core colors, you will also have to look at how the selections would look on various platforms and devices. This is required as you move to the subsequent step of creating visual hierarchy
Step 2: Guide the Eye With Visual Hierarchy
Have you ever noticed how your eyes always seem to follow a specific sequence when reading a professional book cover? No coincidence. Book publishing services position things carefully to dictate precisely where you look first, second, and third.
When I work with aspiring writers, I'll have them glance at the cover of a bestselling book for 3 seconds, then describe what they recall. Nearly always, they recall things in this order:
- The title (or author name for famous writers)
- The main image
- The subtitle or tagline
Your cover requires the same level of clarity. Otherwise, potential readers are left confused and proceed to the next book.
Visual hierarchy simply means getting the most prominent things to stand out and less prominent things to recede. Book formatting services and professional book editing companies use size, contrast, and positioning to achieve this. The largest things grab your attention first, followed by high-contrast items, then the rest.
With your visual hierarchy established, you can now focus on selecting imagery that reinforces your emotional messaging without overwhelming the text elements.
Step 3: Choose Images That Connect Emotionally
The right image evokes an emotion in readers before they have read one word. The cover photo is what will get a mediocre book sold over a fantastic book with a bad cover.
I collaborated with a leadership writer whose initial cover was a bland stock photo of a mountain. Unoriginal. Mediocre. We swapped it for a plain silhouette of a figure standing slightly separated from a group, subtle visual metaphor that instantly conveyed "leadership" without being cliché.
Effective book marketing strategies and book promotion campaigns are based on visuals that tap into the reader's underlying emotions:
- For business books: Visual metaphors work better than literal images. A maze suggests problem-solving. A lighthouse implies guidance.
- For self-help: Show the "after" state, not the problem. People want to see what they'll become, not what they're trying to escape.
- For memoirs: Authentic, slightly imperfect images connect better than overly polished photos.
When choosing images, ask yourself: “Would this make sense as a movie poster for my book?” If not, keep looking.
The relationship between your imagery and genre conventions forms the foundation for the next critical step in creating market-appropriate designs.
Step 4: Follow Genre Rules (While Breaking One)
No one in self-publishing discusses this, yet readers do have expectations about what various genres are supposed to look like. If you mess with them significantly and people won't know what they are reading.
I found this out the difficult way when I was working with an author on her romance novel. She wanted a minimalist, literary-style cover since she felt that romance covers were "cheesy" Result? Terrible sales. Romance readers weren't finding her book since it wasn't saying "romance" visually.
Every genre has unwritten visual rules:
- Business books will tend to utilize navy blue, few pictures, and huge author titles
- Thrillers usually have dark colors, high contrast, and bold sans-serif fonts
- Romance novels show emotional connections through character imagery
- Self-help books utilize vivid colors and motivational images
Your action plan:
- Research the top 20 bestsellers in your particular subcategory
- List typical visual components (colors, types of images, types of fonts)
- Follow 90% of these conventions
- Break ONE rule in a creative manner to be different but not unrecognizable
Understanding your competitive landscape prepares you for the technical considerations that ensure your design works across all sales platforms.
Step 5: Make It Work as a Tiny Thumbnail
Most book sales are online now, don't you know, where your cover is first seen by readers as a tiny thumbnail.Book marketing companies and book publishing marketing experts know that if your cover does not work small, it won't work at all.
The ugly reality? That lovely intricate artwork you hired someone to do may be totally unintelligible when reduced to Amazon search size (roughly 150 pixels wide). I have watched beautiful covers become illegible blobs at thumbnail size.
Test your cover by:
- Shrinking it to 150 × 225 pixels (standard Amazon search size)
- Viewing it from 2 feet away from your screen
- Asking someone else what they can identify in 3 seconds
- Checking if your title is still readable
Elements that work in thumbnails:
- High contrast between text and background
- Simple, bold imagery
- Large, clear typography
- Distinct color schemes that stand out from competitors
Publishing houses are fixated on thumbnail testing because they understand that most purchases begin right here. Your cover may be beautiful full size, but if it doesn't cut it in thumbnail form, your sales will be poor.
With thumbnail optimization complete, you can proceed to test how your cover performs with actual readers before finalizing your design.
Step 6: Test With Real Humans (Not Friends)
Your opinion about your cover doesn't matter much. Neither does your spouse's or your best friend's. What matters is how your target readers respond to it.
Book publishing marketing strategies that work always include testing. Here's how to do it without spending a fortune:
- Create a simple Facebook ad showing your cover options to your target demographic—people who match your ideal readers. Run it for $20 and see which cover gets more clicks.
- Post design options in relevant online communities (with permission) and ask for feedback.
- Use book cover testing sites like PickFu or 99designs polls where you can target specific demographics.
- Create mock Amazon search results showing your cover alongside competitors and ask which they'd click first.
Don't ask “Which cover do you like better?” Instead, ask “Which book would you be more likely to buy?” or “Which cover makes you more curious about the content?”
Market research data guides your final refinements and ensures your cover aligns with proven psychological triggers rather than assumptions about reader preferences.
Step 7: Add Psychological Triggers That Drive Action
The difference between a good cover and a great one? Psychological triggers that push browsers to become buyers. These subtle elements tap into hardwired human decision-making patterns.
I once worked with a business author whose book had solid reviews but mediocre sales. We added a small “As featured in Forbes” badge to the cover, since he had previously written articles in that publication. Nothing else about the book cover changed. Yet, sales jumped the following month. The social proof trigger worked.
Best book marketing services use these triggers strategically:
- Social Proof: Bestseller stickers, award stickers, or "over 100,000 copies sold" instill confidence.
- Scarcity: "Limited edition" or numbering of series implies value and collectability
- Authenticity: Endorsements or testimonials by known authorities build trust
- Curiosity: Promising subtitles that offer something certain, something useful, bridge information gaps readers are willing to fill
Try these proven techniques:
- Add a testimonial from someone your audience respects
- Include “Bestselling Author” if you've hit any bestseller list
- Use a subtitle that promises specific benefits (“The 7-Day Method to…”)
- Consider a series indicator if you plan multiple books
- Test adding credentials that establish your expertise
One caution: psychological triggers must be authentic. Fake bestseller claims or manufactured endorsements damage trust permanently. Use only honest triggers that you can substantiate.
Conclusion
Creating a book cover that sells doesn't require years of design experience or a massive budget. What it requires is understanding how readers think and feel when they see your book for the first time.
By employing the correct colors, making things easy to understand, and including actual credibility indicators, you're speaking directly to readers' subconscious choice-making. Remember that good authors with poor covers lose out on readers every day. Don't let that be you. Your professionalism deserves a cover that opens doors, not one that slams them shut.
Once you're aware of these psychological triggers, you'll notice them everywhere. You'll understand precisely why certain books grab your attention and others don't. Just this awareness will make you a more intelligent writer and marketer.mYour book represents months of effort and hard-won knowledge. Do it justice with a cover that will make browsers into eager readers.
Want to bypass trial and error? Authors On Mission has assisted more than 1,100 entrepreneurs and business book in making bestselling books with covers that sell. Our Book Cover Contest provides 30+ different design concepts, so you can utilize these psychological principles without the uncertainty.
Book your free consultation at AuthorsOnMission.com and learn how we can transform your turn your expertise into a #1 bestseller with a cover that works as hard as you do.
