Book Cover Trends 2024: 5 Styles Designers Are Using

With 2024 firmly in the rearview mirror, let’s take a look back at some of the biggest trends in book cover design we saw across the year. We’ve identified five trends that characterized cover design in 2024, and the techniques they use to catch the eyes of any would-be readers. Let’s get right into it!

1. Illustrations remain center stage

If you take a look at the most popular books published in 2024, the conspicuous common denominator among their covers is the use of illustrations. From the stripped-back, minimalist character depictions featured on the cover of Emily Henry’s Funny Story to the strikingly intricate portrait seen on Sarah J. Maas’ House of Flame and Shadow, it’s clear that illustration-heavy covers are dominating the bestseller list right now.

Let’s turn our attention to Funny Story: a lighthearted romantic romp with a fittingly casual cover. Here, brightly colored characters punctuate a deep blue background, ensuring this pairing pops as the cover’s focal point. The hand-drawn style also plays into long-established romance cover design tropes, establishing a strong visual identity that fans of the genre will instantly recognize.

The typography continues the cartoonish motif, opting for a sans-serif-style font. Paired with a similarly informal, scrawl-like font for the additional details, these fonts and colors are left deliberately subtle to ensure the focus remains on the cover’s central image.

2. Symmetrical maximalism

Minimalism has long been one of the most prevalent trends in cover design. The last decade has seen a notable spike in minimalist covers, often tied to the world of contemporary romance (à la Funny Story), but also frequently seen in literary fiction (The Idiot, Normal People, and Yellowface come to mind). Minimalism is still hugely popular, but on the other end of the spectrum, maximalism has also picked up steam in the last twelve months.

“More is more” is the philosophy behind maximalist design: these covers are often distinguished by the use of intriguing textures, vivid color palettes, and elaborate patterns. Maximalist designs are deliberately eye-catching and waste no space — their high level of detail forces bookshop browsers to stop and take in the full scope of the on-page artistry.

Each of these elements is instantly evident on the cover of Vajra Chandrasekera’s Rakesfall. The bright pink background paired with the lush green foliage tastefully blends these colors which technically clash, but still end up looking great together. Every component of this design has its own texture, elegantly balancing their symmetrical, pattern-like arrangement. Emphatic yet orderly, this cover is a prime example of how maximalist design can captivate readers without becoming too chaotic or cluttered.

3. Typography-heavy covers

Maximalism might be on the rise, but that doesn’t mean minimalism is going anywhere any time soon. In particular, covers where the typography does the bulk of the heavy lifting are a popular choice for authors looking for a stripped-back yet sophisticated approach.

If you walked past any bookstore in 2024, you will likely have seen Butter by Asako Yuzuki displayed prominently in the window — and for good reason. This book design is bright, bold, and breaks Western conventions by arranging the title vertically rather than horizontally. This may be traditional in East Asian languages like Japanese, but Western audiences are less accustomed to this style of presentation, giving this cover a punchy visual flair — further punctuated by the katakana lettering (meaning “Butter”) in the top third.

The striking red of the title (and accompanying bloodstains) evoke feelings of urgency and danger — complemented by the intense shade of yellow in the background. These stains are the only non-text elements used here (along with the rotated cow), giving them an air of significance they might struggle to command in a busier context.

4. Botanical/floral motifs

Floral and botanical motifs have been everywhere in fantasy recently, and the 2024 bestseller Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlandsby Heather Fawcett is a prime example. While this design choice has been around in fantasy for a number of years, its rising popularity in sci-fi is a compelling trend worth examining.

The cover of Jeff Vandermeer’s Absolution is an eye-catching, statement-making piece of art that doesn’t need any scientific or technological imagery to convey its sci-fi genre to readers. The reptile is reminiscent of vintage encyclopedia entries, and the detailed scales and sunflowers provide a touch of realism to the cover that’s nicely contrasted by the animal’s distorted body. The shimmering blues and purples add another layer of visual intrigue — resulting in a cover that transforms its wildlife foundations into something mystical and otherworldly, perfectly suited to the genre.

Covers of novels like The Blueprintand (more subtly) Yours for the Takingemploy a similar approach to design as Absolution: nothing about the visual elements are overtly “sci-fi”, but the way they use “Mother Nature” motifs creates an atmosphere suggestive of the unexpected.

5. AI-generated covers

A discussion of 2024 book cover trends wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the rise in AI book covers. With the growing sophistication of tools like Midjourney and Ideogram, many self-published authors are turning to AI covers as a cheap and efficient means of designing their novels’ covers.

For those without the resources to hire a design professional, AI programs can lower the barrier to entry for bringing a book to market. With minimal research and effort, this software can (theoretically) create a more professional cover than a humble author with no design experience. On the flip side, many would contest that AI art (at least in its current state) is often noticeable and off-putting. AI image generation programs are still very new and far from perfect — they struggle with the finer details, and they may equip people with extra appendages or misplace their fingernails.

The contentiousness of this issue has not escaped media attention: SFF publisher Tor Books found itself in the middle of a BookTok scandal when its use of generative AI images was spotted by readers. In 2023, Bloomsbury was embroiled in a similar controversy: another Sarah J. Maas novel, House of Earth and Blood,caused a stir when it was discovered to have an AI-generated image on its cover. As the use of AI tools continues to rise, and opinions become increasingly polarized, expect more stories like these to make headlines in the coming years.

That concludes our list! Of course, these are by no means the only current trends in cover design, but they do provide a good sense of what’s popular across different genres — and what might still be to come.

Ultimately, you don’t need to follow any trend for a cover to be successful. It’s more important to make good design choices for your novel (like hiring a design professional!) to give your book the best chance of selling. Maximalism might be the flavor of the week, but millions of books with minimalist covers are still flying off the shelves — so don’t just automatically go with the tide, but think instead about what best reflects the story you have written.

Ethan Jaiswal is a writer and marketer for Reedsy, a publishing platform that connects authors with editors, designers, and marketers to help them publish a book. Away from the keyboard, you’ll find Ethan mixing tracks behind DJ decks, reading, or watching Manchester United FC through gritted teeth.