Ooh — scary…
Take your thriller readers on a chilling journey into the unknown. Again. And again. And again. And again.

Worried that people won’t realise your book is a thriller? Just add a silhouette — preferably of a man running.
That should do the trick.

Words fail us at the sheer number of these copycats out there. And more are churned out every week.
So… What’s the formula for chick lit with a contemporary urban twist?
1. Add a knocked-back cityscape for instant escapism.
2. Make sure your title is in scribbly writing, to make it all feel a lot more personal.
3. Sprinkle liberally with […]

Yes, we know they’re hard-hitting.
Yes, we know they have “immediate visual resonance” (and don’t pretend you’ve never used a phrase like that at a covers meeting).
And yes, we know they look good as thumbnails.
But oh, this is getting just so boring… they really are the easy way out.

Big moody skies are popping up everywhere. The perfect way to make your book look deep and clever with just a hint of menace… while leaving lots of space for that pesky title. Handy.

We’re delighted to welcome Fiona Curran, Design Director at Williams Murray Hamm. When she spoke at the recent Bookseller Cover Design Conference, we discovered that Fiona is a fellow Copycat Cover obsessive…
Within My Head
 “Everyone is preoccupied with trying to deliver something authentic, but at the same time they’re all obsessed with karaoke — doing bad impressions of […]

Hang on a minute… whose world is it? It seems to belong to a lot of people. And don’t think that by hiding it in a whole sentence you make it sound a bit less egocentric or a bit more intellectual. It’s still ridiculously pompous.

Clouds are at the cutting edge at the moment… so just stick one on the cover and let it float away. Don’t forget to make the look minimalist and modern to catch the Twitter zeitgeist.

Got a murder mystery on your hands? Try an abandoned house: creepy, lonely and sinister. Perfect if you want to avoid the more violent aspects of the genre and instead appear a little more haunting. If you can add a sepia tint, then so much the better…

Eager to cash in on the Dan Brown phenomenon? Would you also like a bit of that Stephenie Meyer money? Try fusing religion and gothic horror together to create something modern, scary and mysterious. It’s easy: just find a monk but don’t show their face. You can add to the effect with moody lighting and, […]