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When you title your book Hold Fast, the cover really shouldn’t look like it’s about to let go entirely. Yet here we are, staring at a watercolor fever dream where history, anatomy, and graphic design all walked the plank. Let’s start with our blond sailor, who has...
Somewhere deep in the Alaskan wilderness, a lone wolf howls in the snow... possibly in grief, possibly in artistic protest over being trapped under 14 layers of bad typography. Welcome to Dead Body in the Dark, Book 7 in the Talkeetna Series, and Exhibit A in the...
Nothing says timeless design quite like three completely unrelated clocks photoshopped onto a background the color of burnt peanut butter and despair. Welcome to The Grandfather Clock Owner’s Repair Manual, a cover that boldly asks the question:“What if we designed...
Welcome to Las Vegas, where the lights are bright, the sequins are tight, and book covers apparently audition for a Broadway marquee. The Death of a Showgirl tries so desperately to be cinematic that it skipped “book cover design 101” and went straight to “movie...
At last, a gay gothic Dracula romance — a concept so ripe with potential it practically writes itself. And yet, here we are staring at a cover that looks like it was cobbled together in a middle school computer lab, powered entirely by Microsoft WordArt and free...
Somewhere in a forgotten galaxy far, far away, a lonely spaceship sails through a technicolor Photoshop apocalypse, bravely carrying the burden of a title so aggressively generic it could only be... The Last of the Bullet Chasers. Let’s start with that spacecraft,...
You know what's truly sudden? The whiplash you get when trying to figure out what genre this cover is supposed to be. At first glance, you might assume The Sudden Impulse is a soft meditation on wildflowers, impulse control, and perhaps the secret life of meadows. But...
There are covers that whisper sweet nothings… and then there’s Throw His Heart Over, which speaks in the emotional register of a taxidermied Regency romance interrupted by a horse with questions. At first glance, we’re clearly in historical romance territory —...
There are cluttered covers, and then there’s whatever this is — a digital crime scene that screams “graphic design is my passion” through gritted teeth and drop shadows. Let’s start with the title. “THROW OUT THE JUNK” comes in hot like a passive-aggressive note from...
Some covers invite you into a magical world. All Rocs Wise & Wonderful invites you into a technicolor fever dream where wolves, raves, and questionable design choices collide in a catastrophic explosion of neon fur. The star of the show is what I can only describe...
Some covers whisper subtle intrigue. Others scream “discount Netflix original.” Revenge plants itself firmly in the latter category, trying to pass off neon rain and moody trench coats as “atmospheric” when really, it’s just the stock-photo equivalent of leftover...
Some book covers sink. Some book covers swim. The Kepler Incident doesn’t even make it off the dock before face-planting into the murky waters of bad design. Let’s start with that subtitle: A Sexy Shipwreck Tale. Nothing kills the mood quite like the word “shipwreck”...
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.”