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If you’ve ever wanted a motivational poster that whispers, “Don’t bother,” this one’s for you. Follow Weary Dreams boldly commands you to chase your ambitions—but only the tired ones. Not the bold dreams. Not the vibrant dreams. No, no—weary dreams. The ones limping...
You know a cover’s in trouble when your first reaction is, “What is this cat full of?” and your second is, “Oh no, it’s haunted.” Let’s begin with the obvious: the title Tail of the Moon Ritual is already hanging on by a whisker. It sounds like an overambitious anime...
Welcome to this week’s edition of Tinsel, Tattoos, and Tragedy, where we unwrap book covers that deserve a lump of coal in every design software's stocking. Today’s victim of festive failure: Sleighing the Motorcycle Man by Morgan Jane Mitchell. Buckle up—this sleigh...
Picture this: You walk into a bookstore looking for a thrilling murder mystery—something with tension, suspense, maybe a femme fatale or a trench-coated detective. Instead, you stumble on A Killer Ending, and what greets you? A cheerful cartoon of beach dogs...
When the devil said “the details are where I dwell,” he apparently meant in this cover’s Photoshop folder, because Only the Devil by Isabel Jolie is a masterclass in visual chaos—and not the intentional kind. This isn’t just bad. This is the literary equivalent of...
Every once in a while, a book cover comes along that breaks not just design rules but the very fabric of seasonal logic. Caught By Her Guardian looks like someone mashed together a steamy romance, a wildlife documentary, and a Hallmark movie and decided, “Yes, this is...
There are covers that whisper fantasy, covers that shout romance, and then there is Magic in His Arms, a cover that barges into the room wearing mismatched cosplay and demands you accept it as art. This visual fever dream manages to combine every hallmark of...
Deck the halls and brace your eyeballs, because Stray Hearts and Mistletoe is here to jingle your nerves with all the grace of a tinsel tornado. If this cover were a Christmas sweater, it would be the itchy, unwashed thrift-store kind — featuring blinking lights,...
Let’s take a cozy stroll down the frosty lane of misguided design decisions with If You Believe in Love, a cover that boldly asks the question: what if we made a book jacket entirely out of expired stock photos and hope? At first glance, this looks like a postcard...
Deck the halls and prep the eye bleach, because Tangle My Tinsel is here, sleighing everything except the art of coherent design. If your holiday wish was to see a romance cover that looks like it was gift-wrapped by a malfunctioning glitter cannon, congratulations —...
There are twelve dukes, but not a single decent lighting source among them. Welcome to 12 Dukes of Christmas, a cover that starts off promising — “Ooh, period romance!” — and then collapses into a glittering gold puddle of stock photo tomfoolery, lighting crimes, and...
Somewhere, deep in the snowy wasteland of mismatched stock photos and design regret, stands a man — shirtless, stone-faced, and holding a peppermint stick like it’s a loaded weapon. Welcome to The Candy Cane Cowboy, where the only thing frostier than the background is...
A Note to Authors Featured Here
The purpose of Horrible Covers is not only to critique but also to highlight how much cover design matters to a book’s success. Many authors set out with the best intentions but end up with covers that don’t reflect the quality of their writing — sometimes because they tried to do it themselves, sometimes because they relied on someone who wasn’t a professional cover designer.
We understand how frustrating that can be.
Our aim is simple: to help writers put their best work forward with cover art that does justice to the story inside. If you’ve been featured here and are ready to level up your presentation, reach out through our contact form and mention “Horrible Covers Author.”