November 2025 Of Book Covers, Creating and Judging Them

Can’t judge a book by its cover, goes the old adage.

But of course we do, all the time.

The adage of course primarily refers to things other than books, but today we are going to discuss a few things about book covers. Did you know there’s a competition a Christian publishers organization organizes to recognize excellence in cover design?

Pictured above, are a few of the recently-awarded 2025 Top Shelf Award winners for new non-fiction book covers. Other awards were given for outstanding cover design for children’s books, fiction titles, and Bibles.

We’re showing this year’s award-winning nonfiction covers above.

You might find it informative to see some of the covers that won, especially if you are making decisions on a book cover of your own.

If you’ve published a book, you have some stories of your own about that cover design and selection. Harder and more nuanced than you might have expected, is what I’ve heard from authors.

Because there are numerous factors to consider. You want to arrive at something that will be the best visual representation of your book’s content and give some indication of the tone, whether serious or more lighthearted. You need to take into consideration not only the image depicted, but also the design style, typefaces, and color. No doubt you were probably also thinking about what would catch the attention of your prospective readers.

Then there are huge differences between what works for a cover for a fiction book and what works for nonfiction. But it’s worth getting familiar with both.

And you ought to be concerned about how the cover looks online, since that’s where the majority of your book buyers will see it.

If you are working on a book now, you no doubt are thinking about the cover even before finishing the manuscript.

Depending on your publishing relationship, your publisher may provide guidance or even be making this decision. Others of you will be on your own.

Most likely, you will at least have some input.

I’ve met authors who are really excited about their cover concept and want to tell everyone all about it.

I’ve been shown some covers that I thought were not that appealing to me by authors who enthused about the symbolism of a complicated diagram they created.

Or whose cover was beautiful and eye catching despite some hard-to-understand symbolism that was meaningful to the author.

I’ve met authors who feel that their friend’s artwork is the best choice for the cover because of how much it means to them.

And I’ve met many who feel that a Christian book cover must have a cross, or an image of Jesus to make their intentions clear. If that’s you, do take a look at those award-winning covers from the leading Christian publishers.

If you’re working on a cover now and you’ve seen a wonderful concept on a number of other covers in your genre and think you want yours to look just like that, I’d suggest you think again. Make sure you also achieve uniqueness on your cover so it stands out from other other books.

But most of all, the people who I think I’d be listening to are the people who sell books in stores, or who place books to book buyers in those stores. Of course, the majority of books will be sold online, and others sold in person, but the people who have experience watching other humans react to a cover design have some precious wisdom to offer.

I’ve written here before about attending new product meetings when I worked for a Christian publisher. Quite often the author presented the manuscript with a cover design of their own. One of the hard things for authors in bringing us their manuscript was that they no longer had control of their book title or book cover design.

The editorial department had significant input, but the final decision makers on cover designs were the executives in the sales department.

Because those who work with books all the time gain experience in how readers and bookstore personnel who decide what books to order for their stores react to cover designs.

If you are on your own making these decisions, here are a couple of thoughts.

No doubt there is wisdom out there you should look for about elements of design and sizes of type and fonts. I don’t know that much about that design but I do know there are professionals who specialize in book design because it’s that important.

Then there is fashion and popularity of types of covers.  Trends come and go. Sometimes it’s good to be with the trends, and sometimes it’s better to be completely unique. How do you find out what the trends are?

My advice to authors is always to go to a large bookstore near them and take a look at covers both in their genre and outside of it. There will be some similarities and there will be some covers that are very compelling – and others that are totally ridiculous.

Do that several times during your book writing process. Often new titles are on display in the front of the store. Take special note of those titles, as they will presumably be capturing the most current trends.

Christmastime is a great time to do this since stores are decked out with easy to see titles.

And note I didn’t specify Christian bookstores. If you can, take a look at both general market and Christian titles.

And it’s also a great idea to look at covers on publisher websites, as well as on Amazon. On a publisher’s website, you’ll start to see themes and some publishers whose covers you like better than others. You will be training your eye.

Once you have a cover idea, get a mockup made and ask some other people for their thoughts. Do they like version Q better or version Z? What specifically are they reacting to?

Then, be sure to have the cover professionally designed, and a cover design of course includes the front and back and spine.

Covers are that important.

Now let’s get back to that industry competition that gives awards for outstanding covers, while also providing examples of what current best practices are in cover design.

The Top Shelf Awards, described as “honoring excellence in book and Bible design,” are given annually by Evangelical Christian Publishers Association [ECPA] and were recently presented at the industry professional development conference they host called PubU.

ECPA says this about the awards.

“ECPA created the Top Shelf Book Cover Awards to celebrate the year’s best book designs in Christian publishing.

“Covers are judged by top designers in the publishing industry for their merits in appropriateness for the market, level of conceptual thinking, and quality of execution according to contemporary design standards and aesthetics.

“The Top Shelf Awards focus solely on these artistic and technical merits, without considering sales performance, reader engagement, or market reach.”

The awards are given in four categories: non-fiction, fiction, children, and Bibles. Only members of ECPA publishing companies may submit entries.

Aren’t familiar with ECPA? It is the trade association for Christian Publishing companies “dedicated to resourcing its members through networking, information, and advocacy.” More on ECPA and other organizations related to Christian books and publishing in a future edition of Week-ending Words from Buoyancy PR.