Book cover skill

#Read first

Cover.md for the title, the author, the genre, the image, the look and the blurb; any style reference or artwork wired in.

#Front and back: flat artwork

Each cover is the print file itself: flat and straight on, filling the whole picture to every edge, with no book, spine, page edges, rounded corners, shadow or mockup.

#Front cover (2:3)

• One strong image that says the genre at a glance, built around one focal point in the lower half, with the upper third left calm and empty for the title: the type never touches the subject.
• The title exactly as Cover.md spells it, large enough to read when the cover is 120 px tall in a store list; the author's name smaller but clear; a subtitle only if Cover.md has one.
• Type and image designed together: a typeface that suits the genre (a high-contrast serif for literary fiction, a condensed sans for a thriller, hand lettering for children's books), set in the calm area, never over the focal point.
• Cover craft: a limited palette, depth and texture, the image running off every edge, nothing important within 3% of the edges, where it's trimmed.

#Back cover (2:3)

• The front's art carrying on (its sky, sea, wall or texture), or a calm field in its colours: clearly the same book, with no new focal point.
• The blurb from Cover.md word for word, in a narrow column (about 45 characters a line) at a readable size.
• A plain white barcode box at the bottom right with no digits in it (the printer adds the real one), and the publisher's name small at the bottom left, with the price if Cover.md gives one.
• The blurb set plainly on a calm area of the art: no glow or drop shadow behind it.
• The left edge (beside the spine) and the top kept calm; no title as large as the front's.

#Mockup (4:3)

The printed book photographed as a real hardback on a simple surface in soft daylight: one copy standing with the wired front facing us and a second lying beside it face down, its spine showing the title. The front exactly as designed; the back's blurb is never redrawn.

#Avoid

Misspelled titles or names, more than two typefaces, type over a face, clip-art, stock-photo clichés, clutter, invented review quotes, and a back that looks like another book.