The #1 lesson to learn about book cover design

I’ve written before about how I’ve bought books based on their cover (and sometimes not bought them), but I don’t know if I mentioned that I also design book covers under the moniker Rook Book Designs.

When I started writing, I had some Photoshop skills but needed more practice before I could turn the ideas in my head into covers (especially around typography — fonts, treatment and hierarchy). But let me tell you, not being able to create covers straight away was a good thing: if I’d had the...