What happens when a book designer gives herself thirty fictional books, thirty days, and a blank canvas?
I’m about to find out.
For the next 30 days, I’m taking on a personal book cover design challenge: 30 fictional books, 30 different covers, one cover design every day.
The books don’t exist. The authors don’t exist. The stories don’t exist.
But the design possibilities do.
Why a book cover challenge?
I love the part of book design where a handful of words on a page have to become something visual.
A title, an author name, a genre, and a few implied clues about a story are surprisingly powerful starting points. From there, the challenge is to imagine what the book might feel like before anyone has read a single page.
And because each book is fictional, there are no existing covers, established visual identities, or publisher guidelines to work within. I get to experiment.
Some covers might be quiet and literary. Others might be bold, atmospheric, romantic, mysterious, historical, strange, or completely unexpected.
The goal isn't to create thirty versions of the same design.
It's to see how much range I can explore within the world of book cover design.
The 30-book list
Here's the lineup I'll be working through over the next 30 days:
The House at Briar Lake by Eleanor Voss; Genre: Gothic Mystery
What We Left Behind by Daniel Mercer; Genre: Literary Fiction
The Last Orchard by Clara Whitmore; Genre: Historical Fiction
A Map of Forgotten Things by Julian Hart; Genre: Literary Fiction
The Silence Between Us by Mara Ellison; Genre: Psychological Thriller
Beneath the Winter Garden by Rebecca Vale; Genre: Historical Romance
The Night Clerk by Thomas Wren; Genre: Crime Thriller
When the River Turned by Elise Rowan; Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The Girls of Willow Street by Natalie Pierce; Genre: Women's Fiction
A Season for Ghosts by Arthur Bellamy; Genre: Supernatural Fiction
The Inheritance of Rain by Lydia March; Genre: Literary Fiction
Seven Days in October by Graham Ellis; Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The Glassmaker's Daughter by Vivienne Cole; Genre: Historical Fiction
Under a Borrowed Sky by Hannah Reeves; Genre: Romance
The Hollow at Blackwater by Simon Kessler; Genre: Horror
Letters from Saint Agnes by Margaret Bell; Genre: Historical Fiction
The Things We Don't Say by Caroline West; Genre: Women's Fiction
A Stranger in the Garden by Peter Alden; Genre: Mystery
The Stars We Couldn't Reach by Naomi Foster; Genre: Science Fiction
The Bookshop at the Edge of Town by Claire Bennett; Genre: Cozy Fiction
Where the Wild Roses Grow by Samuel Reed; Genre: Family Saga
The Vanishing of Clara Bell by Audrey Sinclair; Genre: Mystery Thriller
All the Roads We Took by Benjamin Hale; Genre: Literary Fiction
The House of Salt and Smoke by Isabel Crane; Genre: Fantasy
After the Fire by Louise Merritt Domestic; Genre: Thriller
The Cartographer's Secret by Edward Finch; Genre: Historical Mystery
A Thousand Small Winters by Nora Caldwell; Genre: Literary Fiction
The Ocean Between Houses by James Avery; Genre: Magical Realism
The Midnight Correspondence by Sophie Laurent; Genre: Romantic Mystery
Before We Were Strangers by Michael Rowan; Genre: Contemporary Romance
What happens after the challenge?
Here's the fun part.
These aren't going to disappear into a folder at the end of the month.
After I design each cover, I'll be adding the finished designs to the LV Book Design premade cover shop.
That means these fictional books will become real, ready-to-use cover designs for authors.
If you see a cover during the challenge that makes you think, That looks like my book, you'll be able to purchase the design and make it yours.
The fictional title and author are simply placeholders for the challenge. Once a cover is purchased, I'll customize it for your book with your title, author name, and other agreed-upon text.
Follow along
I'll be sharing the covers throughout the challenge, so you can watch the collection take shape from day one to day thirty.
Thirty books.
Thirty genres and story worlds.
Thirty opportunities to try something different.
And hopefully, thirty new covers for the LV Book Design shop.
Let the challenge begin!