The Cover module turns a short brief into three candidate covers, then lets you iterate on the one you like until it's publishable. This article walks through the full flow.
Open the Cover module
From the main sidebar, click Cover. If you haven't opened it before for this book, you land on the brief form. Otherwise you land on your current cover with previous versions listed on the right.
Write the brief
The brief is the single most important input. Three fields:
- Genre and subgenre. "Cozy mystery", "literary fiction", "grimdark fantasy". Be specific. "Fiction" is too broad.
- Mood. Two or three adjectives. "Quiet, autumnal, slightly ominous." Not "amazing." Mood words that evoke a specific reader reaction work best.
- One-line description. What the book is about in a sentence. You are not writing ad copy here. You are describing the book to someone looking over your shoulder.
You can optionally paste in your blurb and list of comparable titles. Both help the generator hit the genre conventions of your shelf.
Click Generate three candidates. Generation takes about 45 seconds.
Pick a direction
You will see three candidates laid out in a row. Each has a different typographic and visual treatment. Click one to select it; the others move to Alternates on the right side.
What to look for:
- Genre fit. Does it look like the shelf it will sit on? A thriller cover should read as a thriller at 10% zoom.
- Legibility at thumbnail. Most browsing happens at thumbnail size. Squint. If the title is unreadable at 120 pixels wide, move on.
- Title hierarchy. Title, author, series. In that order of prominence, almost always.
You are picking a direction, not a finished cover. Iteration is where the cover earns its keep.
Iterate
The iteration panel on the right has four sections:
- Typography. Font, size, weight, letter spacing. You can drag the title, subtitle, and author byline to reposition them.
- Colour. Primary, secondary, accent. A palette picker with curated options per genre, plus a custom hex input.
- Imagery. Regenerate the background, swap to a stock photo, or upload your own image.
- Effects. Grain, vignette, texture overlays. Usually subtle is better.
Changes are non-destructive. Every tweak creates a new version, visible in the right sidebar. Click any prior version to revert.
Reference images
To steer the generator toward a specific look, click Add reference in the iteration panel and upload 1 to 3 images. The generator will match mood, palette, and composition, not copy the images directly.
Good references:
- Covers from your genre that sell well
- Film stills with the mood you want
- Art you've been collecting on a mood board
Bad references:
- Other books' covers you plan to mimic closely (risk of derivative work)
- Images with people's faces (unreliable reproduction)
- Very low-resolution sources
References are not stored after the generation completes; they influence the model once and are discarded.
Upload your own art
If you've commissioned an illustration or have a stock photo, click Imagery → Upload. Supported formats: JPG, PNG, TIFF. Minimum 2000px on the longest side; 3000px or more is better.
Uploaded art sits behind the typography and effects layers. You can still tweak title placement, add grain, and so on, all without touching the underlying image.
Variations
If you're close to finished but want to explore alternates, click Generate variations from the current version. This produces five variations based on your current cover, not new directions. Use it for:
- Trying different title placements
- Exploring colour alternates without starting over
- Generating "quiet" and "loud" versions of the same cover for A/B testing on retailers
Save a named version
Press ⌘⌥S to save a named snapshot ("final", "audiobook-variant", "paperback"). Named versions never auto-expire. Use them as milestones.
Credits
Cover work is credit-heavy by nature. Rough cost per action:
- Three-candidate generation. ~500 credits
- Regenerate imagery. ~150 credits
- Generate variations (5). ~300 credits
- Typography and colour changes. Free (no model call).
Your Usage page shows cover credits separately from writing credits so you can see where spending goes.
When to stop
Covers earn their keep when they land the genre before the eye lands on the title. If a reader browsing your shelf can tell what kind of book it is in a glance, you are done. Stop iterating. Export.
Series covers
If your book is part of a series, the Cover module has a Series template mode. Set the first book's cover, then mark it as the series template. Future books:
- Inherit typography, palette, and layout.
- Swap the imagery layer per book.
- Keep title positioning and spine placement consistent.
Series readers shelf-match on instinct. A visibly consistent series earns faster in a genre where readers buy the whole set once they commit to book one.
To set up a series template:
- Finish book one's cover.
- Click Set as series template in the version sidebar.
- For each new book, click New from series template on the Cover module landing page.
- You only need to update imagery and the book-specific title.
Breaking the template per-book is always possible; the template is a starting point, not a lock.
Audiobook covers
KDP's audiobook arm (ACX) and other audiobook retailers require square covers (3000×3000, 1:1 ratio), not the rectangular ebook shape. Under Cover → Export → Audiobook, Bellwether re-crops your ebook cover to square and gives you a panel to reposition the crop.
Audiobook covers are read at very small sizes in audiobook apps. Title and author legibility at 100 pixels matter more here than anywhere else.
Accessibility
Under Cover → Accessibility check, Bellwether runs:
- Title contrast against background (WCAG AA minimum)
- Font size at thumbnail legibility
- Readability of title in greyscale (important for older e-ink devices)
Fix flagged issues or accept them. None are hard blockers; accessibility checks are for your own quality control.
Rights and licensing
Anything you generate with Bellwether's cover tools is licensed to you for use on your published book. Specifically:
- Images generated by our model. Licensed to you for use on the cover of the book you generated them for. You can use them on the book's ebook and print covers, promotional materials tied to that book, and your author website.
- Typography (Bellwether's bundled fonts). Licensed for book cover use including print and ebook.
- Uploaded images. You retain whatever rights you already have to them. Bellwether makes no claim.
- Reference images you upload for inspiration. Discarded after generation. Not retained, not re-trained on.
You cannot use covers generated for one book as the cover of a different book without regenerating. Legal-speak aside: don't try to make one generated cover cover three series books. Pay for three generations.
When to hire a human
The Cover module produces publishable covers for most genres. Cases where a human designer still wins:
- Complex illustrated covers with character artwork and narrative scenes (most fantasy and romance in specific sub-genres).
- Typographic covers for literary fiction where the typography itself is the design statement.
- Books that need to exactly match an existing series look by a human designer you've worked with before.
- Unusual trims (coffee table, art books, children's picture books) where the cover is a full illustrated spread.
If you're spending more than 3 days iterating on the generator and still not happy, consider that the design needs a human. The Cover module is a tool, not a guarantee.
Common edge cases
The generator keeps producing the same look. Your brief is too narrow. Widen "mood" by one degree or add a reference image.
My uploaded art looks pixelated in preview. The preview shows the final print DPI. If the source is below 2000px, the preview will show softness. Upload a higher-resolution source.
Typography snaps to odd positions. Turn off Snap to grid in the iteration panel menu for freeform dragging.
A generation failed and deducted credits. If a generation errors on our end, credits are refunded within 24 hours. If you don't see them back by then, contact support with the cover's timestamp.
The generator refuses to produce covers with people's faces. Intentional. Face generation is unreliable and sits in legal grey area. Upload your own face-containing imagery (with appropriate rights) and let the generator work around it.
My cover looks different in the final export than in preview. The preview is sRGB; print export is CMYK. Some colours shift. Use the Print preview toggle to see the simulated CMYK before exporting.