Thrillers sell tension before plot. The cover has to feel like something is about to happen — a door ajar, a figure at the edge of the frame, a title with the wrong amount of space around it. Horror adds one more rule: restraint. The moment a cover shows the monster, the reader has already decided.
What you receive
- A limited palette — usually two colours and a light source — because a dark cover with red, blue and gold in it turns to mud at 120 px.
- Typography with weight: condensed or high-contrast type, tight tracking, and a title that reads as a shape before it reads as words.
- Composition for the thumbnail: a single focal point, off-centre, with negative space that survives the crop.
- Full wrap and ebook exports, plus square audio art on request.
- Series template so book two reads as the same author without repeating the image.
How the design is made
- Subgenre and threat. Domestic suspense, police procedural, psychological, supernatural, slasher — each has a different visual grammar and a different reader.
- Two concepts, one figurative and one abstract, because the market rewards both.
- Refinement: contrast, grain, type weight, and the exact amount of visible detail.
- Thumbnail test on a real category page, then all exports.
What we avoid on purpose
Blood where suggestion would do. Faces that read as stock photography. Titles set in a decorative serif that vanishes in dark mode. And the biggest mistake in the genre: a busy composite that looks terrifying at full size and like grey noise in a search result, which is the only place most readers will ever see it.
Series and launch sets
A three-book launch benefits from one template and three different images — the reader recognises the author, not the artwork. The Professional tier covers three covers at a per-book price that makes a series launch viable before the first title has earned anything.
Thriller, horror and everything between
Psychological suspense wants a wrong detail in an ordinary room. Domestic noir wants an intimacy that feels unsafe: a bed, a kitchen, a wedding ring. Police procedurals want a location with authority in it, a corridor, a light in fog. Supernatural horror is the one subgenre where the restrained image almost always wins: a shape at the tree line, a handprint on glass, a door open exactly as far as it should not be. When a manuscript straddles two of these, we follow the one the blurb leads with, because the cover’s job is to match the promise the reader already clicked on, not to summarise the plot.
Dark mode and small screens
Most of these covers are first seen on a phone at night, in a list of eight other dark covers. We check the design at that brightness, against both a white page and a black one, and adjust the mid-tones until the title still separates from the background. Covers that fail this test look striking in a portfolio and invisible in a store, which is the commonest reason a well-written thriller under-sells.
Pricing
| Tier | Scope | Price | Was | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 cover | $40 | $50 | |
| Professional | 3 covers | $120 | $120 | |
| Bulk / Authority | 10 covers | $350 | $350 |
Frequent questions
Can you work from a photo I supply?
Yes, if the licence allows commercial use. We will composite, grade and light it to fit the genre rather than pasting it in.
Is gore acceptable?
We will design it if you ask, but we will recommend the restrained version first: it sells better and it does not get your ads rejected.
How long does a cover take?
Three to four working days for a single cover, seven to ten for a three-book series.
Brief a thriller cover — send the blurb and the subgenre and we will come back with two directions.