In the great county fair of life, you have an instant of an instant to grab the judge’s attention. A great zucchini should speak for itself, right? Great. Done. Just set it up and walk away.
Or maybe you put a pretty red bow on it. Make sure the lighting is catching its good side. Maybe you name it Henry. You know it’s a great zucchini, but the folks with the blue ribbons don’t. Yet.
This metaphor is getting out of control, so let’s squash it (ahem) and move on. Let’s talk about covers!
Your product’s cover might be an afterthought. You spent countless hours writing your book or programming your game or recording your album, so a single JPG might seem super trivial. But your great work deserves to get into the right hands, and you know how humans are. Quick, impulsive, always looking for the better party.
I asked a bunch of the Gumroad team to share their favorite product cover images. Hopefully this will give you a taste of the sorts of things that are really singing to us. Also, we’ll be talking more about covers pretty soon when an exciting new feature drops. Editor’s note: remove previous line pending feature release.
So here are some of the team’s favorite product covers.
Who: Ryan
What:Beginning iOS 8 Programming with Swift by AppCoda
Why: I dig the crisp contrast of real wood and a digital book image. I love how they went with showing the book on an iPad instead of using a traditional book cover—perfect since the book is on building iOS apps.
Who: Ben
What:Beartato and the Secret of the Mystery (Beartato Volume 1) by Anthony Clark
Why: I like the way the cover captures the theme of exploration and adventure. And silliness.
Who: Kathleen
What:6 Flat Pencil Brushes (for Photoshop) by Louis Van Driessche
Why: I love how Frank used this awesome gif as his cover to show the differences of his pencil brushes. It helps me fully understand the various ways I could use the brushes even at a glance.
Who: Emmiliese
What:Can’t Crop This Class by Kelly & Jeff Mindell
Why: Kelly and Jeff’s course is taught through a series of in-depth videos, so I really like that they use a video product cover to give potential customers a feel for the course format and for their teaching style.
Who: Jessica
What:Love Story Pre-Order Bundle - CD + Lyric Book by Yelawolf
Why: I like that the cover photo shows what you’ll be receiving, and the stark contrast of the photo really pops. What I love is the little bit of custom CSS to make the price marker and inventory white on black. Ties it all together beautifully.
Who: Sahil:
What:The Tumor: A Short Story by Susannah Breslin
Why: It’s a professional cover, but it’s nothing so crazy that you couldn’t wrangle something of that quality with a bunch of free/online tools. And I like how “A Short Story” sits in the center of the target.
For more on presenting your products, check out this resource on The Anatomy of an Effective Product Page in our Resource Center.
We love hearing your feedback. If you have any questions about quality covers, or any other part of Gumroad, feel free to get in touch.