When it comes to cover images for your ebook – the world is your oyster. 
You can choose from a virtually unlimited selection of images including – using your own photos or images on the cover.
One of the best things about self-publishing your ebook is that you can “experiment” with different images to see how the image of your ebook cover affects sales and or downloads.
One of the most important issues affecting the design of your ebook cover is how it will be displayed when offered for sale online. Take a moment and search for an ebook on Ereadable and you’ll see why it’s so important that the cover image for your ebook conveys what your ebook is all about.
There’s no doubt about it, ebook covers sell ebooks. James Moushon wrote a post eBook Cover Study – Can you really till about an eBook by its cover? in which he shares his analysis of the eBook covers for the eBooks Amazon ranked as their top 100 Customer Favorites for 2010.
The ebook covers in the study were graded and assigned to one of four different categories: Good, Ave, Poor, and Unreadable
In order to receive a ranking of “good”, the ebook cover had to meet the following criteria:
- The Author’s name could be read in the thumbnail image of the cover
- The Title of the ebook could be read in the thumbnail image of the cover.
- The image or background did not interfere with the legibility of the two.
Moushon shares the following take away in the post:
All top authors had good eBook covers.
Even though all the top ebook authors had “good” ebook covers – (covers which met the criteria above) some top publishers actually offered “poor” ebook covers. So much for “I’ll allow my publisher to make the decisions about my ebook cover” mentality.
Keep Moushon’s criteria in mind for “good” ebook covers when choosing your ebook cover design.
