Note the colors from the front cover are being continued on the back. Additional color is added with the author photo and the various text colors. Here I was lucky that the colors in the author photo perfectly complimented the colors on the front and back cover.

Note the number of impressive reader reviews on the back cover. Not something that a beginner can count on, but helpful for sales if at all possible. Sometimes it can be effective to use one horizontal picture to spread across the entire front and back cover, as shown here. Another book by this author was also designed by Rick Schroeppel of this company, and has won the ETWG Book Cover Award!

This scene from the front cover is repeated on the back cover, except for the figure of Martin Luther. This gives consistency of color and design. This is a new edition of an already existing book. At the time, I felt lucky to have been in the position to re-design the cover of a book that I was assigned to read in college, several years earlier!

The texting bubbles on the back cover provide an interesting visual effect, while also helping to get the written message across to potential readers. This was not my idea, but I am always ready to include the ideas of others, especially if they are good ideas, as in this instance!

Here's a good example of a dust cover jacket for a hardcover book. I no longer offer hardcovers with dust jackets, but KDP now offers a nice new casebound hardcover version which I can produce for you for an additional $100.

Don't you love trains? Shown is a fictionalized representation of a Russian train on the Trans Siberian Railroad. Note the wrap-around effect of the frozen tundra of the Russian landscape. Kind of reminds one of the movie "Dr. Zhivago." Cover is reproduced with permission of the author.

Sometimes an author may choose to include the author bio in the interior of the book. That way, there will be more room for the all-important sales copy and/or endorsements on the back cover. But you are always in charge, and all decisions are made by you the author and/or your representative. Note where it says that this book is a finalist in the Foreword Indies Book Awards!

Here's a good example of a back cover with good sales copy and three nice reviews/endorsements. The author bio was printed in the back part of the book interior or possibly on the Amazon page, as I recall. Note that there are more clouds and water repeated on the back cover, adding color and interest.

In this instance, red is the color that brings home the idea that we are talking about a horror story here. The back cover is pretty straightforward. The author didn't have any endorsements, so he just went with a nice summary/sales copy paragraph, and an interesting author biography.