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How to make a good cover on Wattpad: the ultimate guide 

Anastasia
7 minute read
09.07.2021

Do you know what Wattpad and Youtube have in common? 

Audience and importance of catchy thumbnails. 

Both platforms are widely used by millennials and Gen Z. And, if you want to succeed there, your content needs a trendy thumbnail. In this case — a good Wattpad book cover. 

Users scroll their Wattpad recommendations fast. Stories with the most genre-relevant and eye-pleasing covers get the most clicks. 

So, how to make a good cover on Wattpad to get the readers’ attention? Let’s figure it out. 

Wattpad cover guidelines 

There are plenty of articles that teach you how to DIY a Wattpad cover. We, as a book cover design company, want to teach you the basic theory of a good Wattpad cover. 

An effective Wattpad cover is simple and yet well-planned. Each design decision should be justified, relevant to the genre, and add to coherent visual storytelling. Treat a Wattpad cover as canvas: every brushstroke should be deliberate to not ruin the final result.

We’ll look into specifics later, but first, let’s take a look at our canvas. 

Wattpad cover size 

The recommended size of the Wattpad book cover is 512 x 800 pixels. It looks good on different screens and devices. 

The dimensions of a Wattpad cover are almost identical to the dimensions of a common book cover. Which is good news. It means all the hours you’ve spent adoring different book art will help you create an effective Wattpad cover.   

Wattpad cover background

A background of a Wattpad cover serves two main purposes: 

  • Helps to contrast the additional imagery, title, and author name so they are legible;
  • Emphasizes the emotional message of the cover. 

What it means for you:

  • Make sure the color and imagery suit the emotional atmosphere of your Wattpad cover;
  • Pick a simple background without too much detail so it doesn’t distract from other elements of the Wattpad cover;

The selection of a good Wattpad cover background comes down to picking colors well. Colors create contrasts and associations with emotions. Said associations differ from culture to culture. So, do your research beforehand. 

But, if you’re from a Western country, here a few common associations: 

  • Red: passion, love, danger;
  • Orange: energy, vitality, youth;
  • Yellow: happiness, hope, but also deceit;
  • Green: life, abundance, nature;
  • Blue: calmness, responsibility, sadness;
  • Purple: creativity, Royalty, wealth;
  • Black: mystery, elegance, evil;
  • Gray: conservatism, formality, wisdom. 

The formula is simple: pick a color, find a background image where the dominating hue suits your story and its mood, and you have a foundation for a Wattpad cover. Remember to seek fairly simple backgrounds that don’t overwhelm the reader. 

Here are a few nice examples we found on Wattpad.: 1, 2, 3.  

Quarantine by Bellha HIggin as an example of wattpad cover Quarantine by Bellha HIggin as an exmaple of wattpad cover Quarantine by Bellha HIggin as an exmaple of Wattpad cover

If you still decide to pick a fairly busy Wattpad cover background with a complex concept or a lot of detail, be cautious. It will mean, you’ll have to do extra work with typography so it doesn’t blend with the background. Also, you’ll have to ensure the layout of all the elements is intuitive so the viewer’s eye doesn’t struggle to follow the cover’s visuals. 

If you don’t have design experience and well-polished skills, better hire a professional for a complex Wattpad story cover. 

Pictures for Wattpad cover

First things first. Where to look for a picture of a Wattpad cover? 

We suggest using royalty-free stock images repositories. Some of the most popular choices include: 

The imagery of the Wattpad cover background should suit your genre and story and leave space for the typography. Aim for the images that direct human gaze either towards the top, bottom, or center of the cover. This is where you would place your title. 

Wattpad cover fonts 

Not all Wattpad covers have text on them. Some authors decide to use art alone for their books. It results in covers that look more like posters. Such an approach can work, but we advise against it. 

Why? 

The first reason is that people are used to book covers with text on them. There’s some degree of comfort to it. When we see a Wattpad cover, our eyes automatically start searching for the title. 

The second reason is that it’s easier to memorize the title of the book if it’s tied to the cover art. 

So, embrace the typography and pick your fonts and colors for a Wattpad cover carefully. 

There are 4 ingredients to the successful Wattpad cover typography: 

  1. Getting the font right;
  2. Getting the font color right;
  3. Getting the font size right; 
  4. Getting the location of the text on the cover right. 

Fonts. Don’t underestimate fonts. They are crucial for specifying the genre and vibe of your Wattpad story. 

Different fonts lend themselves to different genres better. 

For example: 

  • Fantasy: Yana, Artisan, Blackletter, Libre Baskerville, Black Chancery, Beyond Wonderland,  
  • Science fiction: Roboto, Orbitron, Akashi, Cosmic Warm Recharge, Geom Graphic, Optimus Princeps 
  • Romance: Cassandra, Vegan Style, Countryside, Beautiful People, Leoscar Serif, Love Sequel 
  • Mystery & Thriller: Gotham, Helvetica, Bebas Neue, Gill Sans, Falling Skies, LHF Hick Sticks, LHF Euphoria 
  • Horror: you can try mystery and thriller fonts as well as Creaphy, In the Woods, Scream Real, Feral, Ravenscroft. 
  • Nonfiction: Gotham, Hoefler, Helvetica, Roboto, Trajan Pro

If in doubt which font to pick for your Wattpad story, here’s a rule of thumb: 

  • Modern-looking angular fonts are good for sci-fi, action, and thriller; 
  • Cursive fonts are good for romance and fantasy;
  • Minimalistic serifs are good for thrillers, crime & mystery.

Font size. We have a single piece of advice for the Wattpad cover font size. Keep it big enough, so it’s legible but not too big so it gets in the way of other visuals. But don’t pick a size less than 28 – 32 pt. 

Text colors. You should pick a font color that is in contrast with the background of your cover and suits the emotional atmosphere. 

If you can’t for your life pick colors that go together well, use a color wheel. The colors on the opposite or close to opposite sides of the wheel usually suit one another while creating discernable contrasts. 

If in doubt, pick black or white. Those colors work 99% of the time.  

Text location. The safest locations for the text on a Wattpad book cover are the center, bottom, or top of the cover. If you have no experience, we suggest sticking to those options. 

Wattpad inspiration book cover Wattpad inspiration book cover Wattpad inspiration book cover

Wattpad covers tips and tricks

Now that you know the general understanding of how book cover design works, it’s time for universal Wattpad covers tips and tricks:

  • Do your research before designing your own cover. Scour your genre on Wattpad. See which covers attract your attention and ask yourself why. Analyze why some covers fail in your eyes and try to avoid these mistakes. 
  • Make sure the Wattpad cover suits the genre of your book. A reader needs but a single glance to recognize the genre of a good book cover design.  
  • Make sure the Wattpad cover visuals make sense in the context of your story.
  • After the cover is complete, ask somebody to give feedback. It’s a good way to check whether the cover isn’t confusing and 

If you hit all the boxes, your Wattpad cover is ready for the market.  

Wattpad covers ideas

Finding an idea for your Wattpad story cover can be a real challenge. You want something that will appeal to a lot of people and represent your genre well.

If you struggle to find a good Wattpad cover idea, the best solution is to gather a lot of references. Try to find as many images that represent the vibe you’re aiming for as possible. Seek other covers, album art, illustrations, vector graphics, etc. Combine them into a single pile of inspiration and see where it gets you. 

If you’re just starting the cover design endeavor, we suggest sticking to classics. If you write romances, it’s okay to include a couple on a Wattpad cover. If it’s sci-fi that you write, the picture of cosmos is a surefire approach. Or if it’s a mystery that takes place in the woods, a gloomy forest will do the job. You want to keep a Wattpad cover simple and close to the genre.  

Summing Up

To generate clicks, a Wattpad book cover must look good and catchy. It doesn’t mean you should try to jump over your head to create something fancy or unique. A simple but pleasant-looking and genre-friendly Wattpad cover will do the job. Remember to follow the advice in this article, and your chances of success will grow. 

Or if you want a professional Wattpad book cover design on budget starting at $5, contact us. We can handle the work of any complexity and implement any high-level book cover concept. 

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Anastasia
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