Most cover mistakes aren't dramatic; they're small, fixable problems that quietly cost sales because a browsing reader never consciously notices them, they just scroll past. Here are the ones that come up most often with self-published covers, and how to catch them before launch.
This is part of the Complete Guide to Book Cover Design and Interior Layout.
This is the single most common problem. A title that reads perfectly on a large screen can become an unreadable smear at thumbnail size, especially with thin fonts, low contrast between text and background, or text placed over a busy part of the image. Always test your cover at the size it'll actually be seen: a small search-result thumbnail, not a full-screen preview.
A cover that doesn't match what readers expect from its genre, without a deliberate reason, sends the wrong browsing readers toward the book and fails to catch the right ones. This is often unintentional: an author drawn to a particular image or color scheme without checking it against genre norms. See Book Cover Design by Genre.
Covers crowded with multiple focal points, excessive detail, or competing design elements tend to read as cluttered and amateurish, especially at small sizes. A single clear focal point almost always outperforms a busy composition.
Generic stock photos, especially ones that are visibly overused across many other book covers, undercut a sense of professionalism and originality. If you're using stock imagery, look for less common options, or have a designer meaningfully alter and combine elements rather than using an image close to untouched.
For print books, the cover isn't just the front. Spine text needs to be legible (crucial for bookstore and library shelving, where the spine is often all a browsing reader sees), and the back cover copy and design need the same care as the front. A striking front cover paired with a neglected spine or back cover undercuts the overall impression.
Typography choices carry as much genre signal as imagery. A playful, rounded font on a dark thriller, or a harsh, aggressive font on a cozy romance, creates a subtle mismatch that readers register even if they can't articulate why the cover feels "off."
Design software has made it easy for anyone to try their hand at a cover, but composition, typography, and color theory are genuine skills. A cover assembled without that background often has technical issues, poor spacing, inconsistent alignment, low-resolution images, that are hard for an untrained eye to spot but easy for a browsing reader to sense as "not quite professional."
Committing to a cover without getting any outside opinion, or without checking it against thumbnail size and genre comps, is a common and avoidable mistake. A cover that looks great to the author, who already knows the story, can read very differently to someone encountering it cold.
If you're publishing a series, later covers that don't visually match earlier ones (in style, typography, or color family) can confuse readers trying to identify which books belong together, and can make the series look less professional as a whole.
Avoid These Mistakes From the Start
Entrada Publishing's cover designers handle composition, typography, genre research, and technical specifications, so these common pitfalls don't make it to your published cover.
Text or imagery that doesn't read clearly at thumbnail size, since that's how most readers first encounter a cover while browsing online.
They can, but generic or visibly overused stock imagery undercuts a sense of originality. Look for less common images, or have a designer meaningfully alter and combine elements.
Yes, especially for bookstore and library shelving, where the spine is often the only part of the cover a browsing reader sees. Spine text needs to be legible and consistent with the rest of the design.
Shrink it to thumbnail size, compare it against current bestsellers in your genre, and get honest feedback from people outside your immediate circle who haven't already read the manuscript.