From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksI’m currently finishing my second collection of short stories. In fact, once I’m done editing the last story, the book will be ready!

However, I still need to design a book cover. Lorelei Logsdon recently informed me of this great website the other day, and I now consider it one of the the best resources of its kind.

Called Rate Book Cover, it allows authors to test possible book covers for reader feedback. Basically, you upload your book cover and that’s it. Visitors will rate it using one to five stars, and that will allow you to know instantly if a cover has traction with readers or not.

That’s not all, though! You can also browse the site to see what kind of covers people like. It’s like an instant trend-o-meter!

All this is available for free. There are two paid options: for a daily fee of 99c, you can have your cover Featured in the top-left corner of the home page, where everyone will see it immediately. As the site is already seeing over a thousand page-views per day, this is not a bad deal.

Also, for a one time $5 charge you have the option to place a “buy now” icon under your cover, linking directly to your book’s Amazon page. A nice touch is the ability to use an affiliate link here.

As for me, I uploaded a covers from my epic fantasy series, Pearseus; my collection of short sci-fi stories, The Power of Six; and my children’s book, Runaway Smile. Within a couple of days, they already had some 40 votes each. Sadly, the scores were between three and four. So, I now have to redesign all of my book covers! Sigh…

Other resources

If you’re looking for other places where you can test-drive your covers and get great feedback, you can try Help me choose my cover. Basically, you upload your covers and create a poll. Visitors can then vote on your covers. This is a great tool when trying to choose between alternative designs.

You may also create a targeted Google survey and send the link to your friends and followers, distribute it through your Newsletter/Email list etc. This will allow you to target a specific audience (your readers), although a lot of people who have never heard of you will also vote. This may seem as a problem, but you should keep in mind that you have just reached a lot of potential new readers!

Also, be sure to check out this great post on Freebooksy on How to Create a Best-selling Book Cover!


While I’m redesigning my book covers, why don’t you enjoy my children’s book, Runaway Smile for free?