Just like fashion, book design follows trends, with some things “in” and other things “out.” No one person decides a trend; they blossom and fade according to what is new, interesting, and appealing. Consider some of these cover design trends we’re noticing for 2025.
At 48 Hour Books, we’re proud to help so many authors self-publish their books. Along the way we’ve noted several beautiful, striking trends in book design.
If you’re a book lover and find yourself on #BookTok, you’ll notice just how many authors are utilizing printed edges in their book designs. Edge printing is another way to personalize your book design and complement your book cover. For example, if you are printing a book with a green cover, you may design your edges to reflect the same shade of green. Edge printing is often used for special edition books
At 48 Hour Books, you can add a custom design to the cut edges of your book with our Edge Printing Services. The creativity we have seen with different edge designs has been inspiring.
A typical dust jacket features printing on the front, spine, back, and inside flaps. Authors are incorporating even more design with double-sided dust jacket printing. This means that the reverse side of the dust jacket is also printed.
These designs can be a solid color or feature more design elements to compliment your book cover. A double-sided dust jacket is just another way to make a book design more unique and special. We have seen this trend popular in the romance, romantasy, and fantasy genres.
Like double-sided dust jackets, there’s been a rise in further design customization with printed end sheets in hardcover books. You can add color and designs to the inside end sheets in the front and back of your book. This is just another way to add more design and tell a story through your book design.
48 Hour Books can print double-sided dust jackets and printed end sheets. Simply email us at info@48rbooks.com so we can give you special instructions on how to add these options to your order!
3D Book Covers:
You don’t have to print a special edition book to notice that most popular book covers have started to incorporate some sort of 3D element on the front cover. Many book designs utilize a 3D effect on the book title. 48 Hour Books offers Diamond 3D Printing in clear coat, metallic foil, and smart textures.
Floral imagery and line work has been prevalent on many book covers we’ve seen here at 48 Hour Books. They are usually accompanied with whimsical or bold typography. This design trend is especially popular in the romance genre, but is also popular for poetry books.
One of the most visually striking book cover trends, and one we forecast will continue, is the use of bold typography—the font, size, and spacing of words.
In fact, we’ve seen many gorgeous covers that rely almost exclusively on exquisite typography to carry the theme. Heavy san-serif fonts (Helvetica is a classic example), sized up to a striking scale, immediately catch the eye and convey authority. Lighter sans-serif fonts convey a more subdued approach, but still are dramatic when scaled to a large size.
For more emotional appeal, hand-drawn fonts and hand-lettered titles are a popular design trend. Typographically, hand lettering conveys a down-to-earth tone that is appropriate for many topics.
Some genres we have seen that have relied heavily on typography are business books, self-help books, nonfiction books, planners and journals, and novels.
In the same vein as typography-heavy covers, In the past, a designer might try to fit everything and the kitchen sink onto a book cover, with a palette full of colors, several font designs, and multiple graphic effects. In recent years, we’re seeing a return to clean, simple, minimalistic designs. These book covers let the title do the talking, often supported by a single image or small design elements in addition to the title and author name.
One book design trend you’ll often see is the use of bright colors. Orange is enjoying a revival, but so are several shades of blue, including aqua, teal, cerulean, and cobalt. In the romance genre, black backgrounds are prevalent, with a bright contrasting color like pink or red used in design elements. For other genres, bright colors are often paired with similarly bold typography, or a single striking image or photo.
The last book design trend to consider for your book is the use of retro imagery, perhaps as vintage line art or halftone photographs. Depending on the other design elements (such as color and type), retro imagery can convey a fun, irreverent tone, or it can serve as a callback to previous times in history.
When designing a cover, consider how you might incorporate one or more current design trends to give it a modern feel. While you don’t want to blindly follow every trend, incorporating one or two of them can communicate a level of professionalism and authority via your book design. It shows readers that you’re current with the times, and makes it even more enticing to add to their shelf.
We offer book design templates to help you get started on the right foot. You can simply download a book cover template to get the exact specs you need to design a picture-perfect cover. Our templates are available in a range of sizes and page number combinations for paperback books, hardcover books, dust jackets, and inside pages.
Once your book is designed, take your design a step further with custom book printing. You can customize so many aspects of your final printed book with our high-quality materials and paper. For example, add a dust jacket to your case bound book. Just like commercial books you can buy off the shelf, we offer full-color dust jackets for an extra dose of protection and flair.
For perfect-bound books, the foil-embossed elements of our Diamond 3D covers will stand out, catching the eye and showing your readers your books are professional, high-quality works of art. You can see—and feel—the difference with our specialty book cover designs.
Best of all, you don’t have to go it alone. Our professional book designers are ready to help you give your book a boost, no matter what style or book design trend you’re going for. Give us a call at 800-231-0521 or reach out online to connect with us. We’ll help you design a one-of-a-kind book that truly reflects your story.
Partner with us today to self-publish your book!
Sign up for the 48 Hour Books newsletter to learn how to self-publish your book — and get it printed faster with us than anywhere else.
Sign up for the 48 Hour Books newsletter to learn how to self-publish your book — and get it printed faster with us than anywhere else.
Subscribe to the 48 Hour Books Newsletter for more self-publishing tricks and tips, author spotlights, notices about upcoming deals, and more!
