How to Create the Perfect Cover for Your Mystery Novel

by Juliet Allarton

Picture the scene: you’ve just put the finishing touches on your mystery novel. Your plot is airtight, your characters are well-rounded, and you’ve built tension like your life depended on it. Your next step is to self-publish, but there’s just one problem: you need a book cover.

How can you create an enigmatic yet iconic cover design, like the cover of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code or Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs? Never fear; here’s how to perfect that all-important cover in four key steps.

1. Research your audience

Marketing is impossible if you don’t know to whom you’re selling — and this applies across all kinds of products and services. Imagine if, instead of a book, you’d worked for months creating a beautiful aged cheddar. Now it’s time to sell it, but you’re not getting any traction… until you realize you’ve been exclusively trying to sell your cheese at a vegan food festival.

Metaphors aside, understanding your target audience is one of the most crucial parts of the marketing process. And mystery readers, like readers of any given book genre, tend to fall into a few key demographics. Here are some key stats about mystery/crime readership, according to a study from Nielsen Market Research:

• 47% of readers are over 55
• Over two-thirds of readers are women
• Less than 20% of readers are under 30

You can dive even deeper by homing in on your mystery subgenre — are you writing a cozy mystery? Maybe a noir? Perhaps a locked-room mystery? The demographics vary slightly for each of these subgenres, so it’s important to be specific when researching.

Once you’ve worked out exactly whom your mystery novel is for, you can tailor your design strategy based on their interests.

2. Tap into recent trends

It may come as a surprise, but many mystery book covers (especially cozy mysteries) are actually moving away from the dark tones with which they’ve long been associated.

There are a few reasons for this — mostly related to standing out from the crowd, but also because readers find “unusual” covers more exciting. When you’re marketing your book to mystery readers who are obsessed with drama, you can bet that excitement is a key factor.

Some recent trends across mystery covers include brighter colors, massive lettering, and illustrations (rather than photos). Have a look at this mystery book cover gallery to see what many recent designs have in common.

Three examples of recent mystery cover designs from bestselling authors.

3. Define your design elements of choice

Now it’s time to think about some of your own favorite mystery covers. It’s likely they all involve the same two elements: a striking image (either illustrated or photorealistic) and bold text. In truth, this is a reliable formula for any kind of book cover — however, these elements must work together in harmony if you want to attract readers.

Start by making a mindmap or Pinterest board of your favorite designs. (The latter can also be invaluable for communicating ideas with a potential cover designer!) Think about font choices, illustrations vs. stock images, and whether you should include certain iconography.

Another tip for choosing what to feature on your front cover is to think about the most important scene in your book. Then you can capture this through a design — just make sure you’re not spoiling anything! Once you’ve pulled some elements together, play around with your design on software such as Canva to see whether things might clash.

Here are a few examples of strong book cover elements in action:

Let’s break these down:

1. The Da Vinci Code’s cover displays a rose, representing an important scene within the story. By using this symbolism on the front cover, the designer not only taps into a key scene, but also alludes to the iconographic themes in the book — again, without spoiling anything in the plot.
2. Set against a black background, the red typography of Gone Girl steals the limelight — with bold, capitalized lettering to emphasize the dramatic tone of the book. The red color also symbolizes rage, passion and blood. Finally, we get a bit of intrigue with the pale blonde strands of hair on the left side, implying a woman in motion… but is she running to or from something?
3. Leaning into more modern, less “ominous” trends, Death in the Sun captures the feel of a cozy mystery using bright colors and simple illustrations. However, as we can infer from the title, this book isn’t all sunshine and rainbows — and this is also reflected in the dark, shadowy border of the cover.

4. Hire a professional designer

While you could spend months researching and planning the perfect book cover design, there’s always the option of collaborating with a professional who’s had years to perfect their craft. And that gives you more time for the important things, like writing (or baking, or bingeing your favorite Netflix series… we’re not judging!).

Professional book cover designers understand the trends of the mystery genre, will help to communicate your vision effectively, and are experts at making things look gorgeous. However, while it will save you time, you will of course be paying for the service — so make sure you weigh up the pros and cons before taking this leap.

Just like the icing on a cake, a great book cover should never be rushed. Take your time researching and mapping out your perfect design, or find a seasoned professional to help you create something timeless.

Whichever path you take, remember to pat yourself on the back for even getting this far! Best of luck in designing (and marketing) an incredible mystery novel for the ages.

Juliet Allarton is a content marketer and writer for Reedsy, a publishing platform that connects authors with editors, designers, and marketers to help them publish a book. In her spare time, Juliet enjoys reading, working on her own mystery novel, and songwriting.