The Marketing Power of a Well Designed Book Cover

Is your book cover sabotaging your success? In this episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, I break down why your book cover is more than just a pretty design—it’s your silent sales partner. A well-crafted cover can increase book sales by up to 70%, while a poor design could leave your work collecting dust.

We’ll explore:

• The psychology behind colour and font choices that drive readers to buy.
• Why first impressions matter—especially on Amazon or in bookstores.
• Real-life examples of authors who turned failing books into bestsellers with a simple cover redesign.
• Practical tips for DIY covers and how to know when to invest in professional design.

If your book isn’t selling the way you hoped, it might be time to look at your cover. Tune in to learn how to create a cover that boosts visibility, enhances your brand, and drives more sales.

👉 Listen now and give your book the visual makeover it deserves!

🔗 For more resources on writing, publishing, and marketing your book, visit automaticauthority.com.

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Transcript

So did you know that a well designed book cover can boost sales by up to a whole 70%? That's huge you guys, just from a cover. In a world where [00:01:00] people literally do judge books by their covers, this one element could be the difference between your book flying off the shelves or gathering dust and thus making sales of your next level offers in your business. 

So stick around because we're going to explore why design matters, how it shapes perception, and the simple steps that you can take to create a cover helps sell your book. All right, there's something that I hear all the time and it's content is king so long as the words are great and the teachings are good and the framework is good the book will sell itself. 

Not true. Not true at all. Think about the last time that you walked through a bookstore or you were scrolling on Amazon. What caught your eye first? It's not the content, it's the cover. You could have the most transformative, groundbreaking content in the entire world, but if the cover falls flat, then you are missing opportunities. 

A poor cover pretty much says, I couldn't be bothered to put effort into what [00:02:00] I am offering you, and I stand for low quality. And whether we like it or not, readers make snap decisions. looking at stuff like that. A professionally designed cover not only draws attention but also communicates the tone, the genre, and the professionalism of the work. 

I was in a Facebook group scrolling over the Christmas period and a lovely woman in a writer's group had put up a cover and I could Clearly see that she had done the cover herself and that she had no graphic design skills and that's not a reflection on her at all. But she was saying my first book didn't sell and so I've changed the cover a bit. 

What do you think of this new cover? And I can tell you immediately that the reason her book wasn't selling is because her covers. were poor quality. They were done in Canva. So, you know, you're up against millions of books that are being uploaded every day into the various genres on Amazon. And if your cover is crap, people aren't going to buy it. 

It's like when you're house hunting, [00:03:00] right? Let's say you can afford all the houses in a specific street. Well, you're not going to pick the one that looks Shitty, are you? And she was saying to the comments, cause people were saying, look, the cover's not great. That could be why it's not selling. They were very nice about it. 

And she pretty much came back and said, not all of us have the money to invest in a professional cover designer. Then that brings up the question to me of, well, then why did you write a book in the first place? If you don't want it to sell, because all of these things, add up to sales. And if you're not willing to put the money behind the cover design, then gonna sell. 

So then what's the point of writing the book in the first place? It seems like a waste of time and energy to me. Anyway, that's just an example that I wanted to share with you. So consider this 75 percent of people looking for books, Never even make it past the cover. They don't even put click the look what's inside button on Amazon. 

That's a huge percentage. All right. And it's not just about aesthetics [00:04:00] either. The right cover says to the reader, Hey, this is for you. You're my person. Pick me up, read me. I'm for you. I can solve your problem. It invites them into the experience and sets the tone before they even flip a page. And here's the thing. 

It's not just about catching attention either. It's also about keeping it. If your cover misleads the reader or doesn't accurately represent what you are teaching, then you're not only going to lose sales, but you're also going to risk negative reviews. And we don't want that either. We don't want readers to feel deceived if they expect one thing and receive another. 

So let's break down the elements of what makes a cover work. It's magic. It's more than just. Picking a pretty image, getting a good brand photo and slapping it up there. It's more than a good font. It's so many things. So the first thing I want to talk about is the psychology of color. Yes, it sounds a bit woo woo, but I promise you it works. 

Colors evoke emotions. Let's jump into the fiction area for a moment. A thriller [00:05:00] might use dark, moody tones. Well, our self help books lean towards your bright, uplifting colors, so you want to choose colors that align with your messaging. And, for example, blue. Blue is often associated with trust and with calmness, whereas red, you know, we think about passion, we think about urgency. 

And these subtle hues really help. Play directly into how readers subconsciously perceive your book. So use them to your advantage. Do some, do some Googling. There's so many color wheel charts out there about the color psychology. So go check it out. Next up, typography, right? Also known as fonts, right? 

Fonts communicate on a subconscious level. Serif fonts, they feel classic. They feel trustworthy. Sans serif feel modern. They feel classic. Bold, you know, bubble fonts kind of feel like a child, like playful, and your typography should match the book's vibe. So for example, fantasy novels often use ornate fonts, like wispy kind of things, [00:06:00] while books, business books tend to stick to clean, sleek typefaces. 

So don't underestimate the power of good font, good spacing, and also a crowded cover feels unprofessional. You don't want it to feel like you. Vomited everything up on there. Go and take a look at some of your favorite business books. And once you've listened to this episode, reflect back on why these covers sell so well. 

The last thing I want to talk about here is imagery. A picture is worth a thousand words. All right. The right image can create intrigue or tell a story before the reader even opens the book. So you want to be asking yourself what single image best represents my book. So if you are a thought leader or you're really well known. 

Or you're writing a kind of like a memoir thing, a striking portrait often works on the front. Maybe you need a more dramatic scene or a symbolic object, or maybe you need custom artwork. You need to really consider what represents your book. And if you're [00:07:00] working with a designer, and I strongly suggest that you invest in doing so, have these conversations with them early on. 

If you are insisting on DIYing, please research covers in your genre to see what's working. Go onto Amazon, go into all the different book sections that you can go into, and have a look at books that are selling well. Have a look in their top 100 in your specific category, and you will start to see patterns that emerge. 

Learn from books that are already selling well. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, okay? Let me share a real life example. One of my clients, she had a book that wasn't performing well at all, and the content was incredible. And when she sent it over to me, I took one look at the cover and I went, uh, yeah, I can see that this is the issue. 

The cover, not so great. It blended in and honestly, her sales reflected that. So after my design team really drummed up a striking new cover for her that better represented her genre and her message. Sales literally doubled within a few months. The [00:08:00] redesign positioned the book to stand out and readers took notice and the sales said so. 

Sometimes that fresh coat of paint is all the taste to breathe new life into your work. Here's another example. Another client I work with released a leadership book with a muted generic cover. I'm talking, this thing was boring as hell. It didn't scream groundbreaking. It didn't scream I can change your life. 

It didn't scream, I know stuff. It was just like, so after rebranding with bold gold typography, a minimalist design, the book saw a 40 percent increase in sales within the first month of relaunch. The takeaway, never underestimate the power of visual rebranding. And just because you've already launched it doesn't mean you can't change it. 

We do it all the time. So let's sum it up. Number one, a well designed cover can boost your book's visibility in sales significantly. Two, don't underestimate the power of color, typography, and imagery in communicating your book's tone and genre. And three, a redesign can revitalize sales and breathe new life into a book that's [00:09:00] underperforming. 

If it's already performing well, don't go ahead and play with it. Don't fix what isn't broken. Leave it alone. But if it's underperforming, perhaps your cover is the issue. Number four, you want to really align your cover with reader expectations so that you don't mislead them and generate mismatched clients and negative reviews. 

Nobody wants that. Your book deserves to shine and the cover is honestly the first impression that you'll make. Right? I want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on book cover design? Have you ever bought a book purely because the cover drew you in? I already know the answer to that. Of course you have. 

Drop a comment, send me a message. I'd love to know. And if you're looking for more insights on writing, publishing, or marketing your book, check out my other episodes or head over to automaticauthority. com. Until next time, keep writing, keep designing and remember your book cover matters more than you think. 

Don't let it damage your brand. Make sure it enhances it.