5 Gorgeous Book Covers To Learn From

How to catch your readers’ eye and put your book’s best page forward!

Shelby Sullivan
7 min readSep 5, 2023

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I’ve been designing book covers since I discovered Canva back in 2016. After a year or two of document and graphic design classes, I was able to better understand what makes a book cover a singular work of art.

There are many different design elements that go into book cover design. From font and color to subject and style, book covers can evoke many different feelings and impressions depending on how those elements are used.

So, I’ve picked out 5(ish) gorgeous or simple book covers to try and show you how to take lessons from — and implement into your own designs — professional cover design elements!

Bold and Striking — Priory of the Orange Tree & A Day of Fallen Night

By Samantha Shannon — Illustrations by Ivan Belikov; Covers designed by David Mann.

Probably one of the most striking and beautiful covers to grace the shelves in the last five years was The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. I adore this cover, and — although I didn’t love the book like many people did — I proudly display it on my shelf for its beauty alone.

Now, its new prequel, A Day of Fallen Night, has been revealed. Fans of Priory have been pleasantly surprised by the new cover, and it has been…

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Shelby Sullivan

Hey, I'm Shelby! I'm a professional writer, editor, blogger, and cover designer. Learn to make book covers and contact me at linktr.ee/sulliwrites !