You know what they say, right, or actually one famous writer, George Eliot said? Don’t judge a book by its cover. Whereas that may be true in a metaphorical sense, dig deeper, get to know more, give second chance or thought, you know. In the most literal meaning you are not going to buy an ugly book without knowing what it’s about, right? There should be a separate law for this: books shall always have the best covers possible, award-winning. How are we supposed to convince somebody that doesn’t read to start reading books if not by the look of them. Nice, welcoming, interesting, catchy, sexy, well-thought through, conceptual, artsy, minimalistic, you name it, the design should be decent! Ugly books get forgotten, hidden behind others, except for those that are well-known, widely read and need no introduction. This may be controversial, we know that some of you may say, books are not decorative items. Couldn’t agree more, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve good design. Imagine being a writer, working on a book for some time, getting published but with crappy cover design. Unfair, to say the least. Don’t blame the messenger.

This may change in the not so distant future, to our content, as good design may not be that expensive anymore, and all books will be good looking (sic!), thanks to to generative AI. One creative AI explorer, Umesh has posted on X an prompt idea of that kind:

book cover, front panel, [PROMPT / BOOK] book on a clear desk , top view –s 250

artist: Umesh / source: X

Let’s what are the other. great works. Yes, we know that texts in MJ don’t work yet.

artist: Muriel Lherm / source: X

A bit more minimalistic? No problem. This looks like a perfect cooking book.

artist: Muriel Lherm / prompt: minimalist cook book cover, front panel, product photography, no background, top view –s 250 –v 5.2/ source: X

Let’s flip the coin, shall we? The maximum details approach seems to work too.

artist: Leo Victor / source: X

Journey to the Son nailed it too. BTW. You all shall see the X account. There’s a very emotional story behind it. Creativity full power.

artist: Journey To The Son / source: X

Some Sci-Fi if you like.

artist: Ernesto Araya / prompt: book cover, front panel, text:”HATCH 13″ book on a clear desk , top view. Si fi dieselpunk style book / source: X

artist: Ray Wong / source: X

and artsy, watercolor style.

artist: Jagroop Natt / source: X

artist: TheHermit / source: X

Stable Diffusion works a bit better than MJ with the text. Still not perfect though.

artist: Solomon Sam / source: X

E-books matter too. It is reading experience, thus we thought you may want to learn how to transform it, smoothen, make more aesthetic, not in the future, but now! We have stumbled upon this thread by Andrew Ruiz on simply swapping the unwanted e-book covers by using Bing. Apparently it handles text way better that Midjourney. Check this out.

Toolkit: Bing / Prompt: “The Global Negotiator” book cover image / source: X