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Every once in a while, a book cover comes along that doesn’t scream its awfulness at you right away. Instead, it lures you in with the soft promise of a sunset, a peaceful lake, and two people in a boat… only for you to realize, with a growing sense of dread, that...
If romance is supposed to sweep you off your feet, One Time in Paris looks more like it tripped over a tourist brochure and landed face-first into a free clip art library. This cover tries so hard to whisper “Parisian love story” but ends up screaming “Microsoft...
Cozy mysteries often live in that sweet spot where cupcakes meet corpses, but Death Whisk’s cover looks like it couldn’t decide whether it was auditioning for The Food Network or an episode of CSI. We’ve got a giant whisk, jammed into what appears to be a bowl of...
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if a motivational poster mated with a Windows XP screensaver, look no further than The 7 Universal Laws. This cover is a shining—literally glowing—example of how cosmic ambition can collide with design mediocrity and create...
Some covers whisper. Some covers shout. And then there’s Indie Author Confidential, which pulls you aside in the darkest corner of a Barnes & Noble bargain bin and mutters, “Psst… wanna see my clip art collection?” Where to begin with this beauty? The padlock....
Creativity may matter, but apparently composition doesn’t. This cover is the equivalent of being locked in an elementary school art room overnight while a sugar-fueled class let loose with watercolors and clip art. We’ve got paintbrushes, rulers, pencils, easels, and...
Some book covers hit you with wolves, glowing orbs, and smoldering billionaires. Relatable Writing takes a different path — it bores you to death with the energy of a corporate training manual someone forgot in the break room. Let’s start with that title treatment....
Piccadilly Publishing—the house that “authors-turned-publishers” built, and the covers that make Canva templates weep. Every time they drop a new release, it’s less of a marketing campaign and more of a public service announcement for why professional designers exist....
Sometimes a book cover is so desperate to be uplifting that it overshoots and lands squarely in the uncanny valley of stock photo theology. Exceedingly Abundant Life is one of those covers. It’s less “divine inspiration” and more “church PowerPoint slide that got lost...
Some covers are bad in a charming way, and some covers are bad in a way that makes you question whether Adobe should revoke someone’s Photoshop license. This one? It’s the latter. Let’s start with our leading man. The so-called grumpy billionaire is smoldering at us...
Here we have Jim Brady – Leading Seaman, brought to us by Piccadilly Publishing, the outfit run by two authors who seem determined to singlehandedly keep the world supplied with loud, lurid, and laughably bad covers. Bless their hearts—they’re consistent. At first...
Sometimes a cover sets out to be deep and symbolic, but instead lands squarely in the uncanny valley of Photoshop. Written Off is one of those covers. It clearly wants to say something about fractured identity, brokenness, and the process of piecing a life back...
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.”