While PickFu is incredibly useful for ebook authors, it’s also a vital testing tool for authors who plan to publish their books in print. One author recently tested four print book cover design options for a book about Canadian facts and trivia. She specifically asked poll respondents which cover they’d pick up in a store.

Option A crowds its cover with chunky illustrations and playful font.
Option B has a cleaner look, with the subtitle set in a circle surrounded by Canadian landmarks.
Option C is similar to Option B but with a different color scheme and illustration.
Option D neatly lays out the Canadian landmarks illustration on the bottom half of the page.

Can you guess which one won?

Are you a risk-taker, or do you usually stay away from, say, the edges of cliffs? Do you consider yourself a bold person, someone who radiates confidence? And finally, do you have to live dangerously in order to be bold?

One author set out to answer these questions when she created a PickFu poll to choose a cover for her book Live a Bold Life: Your 30 Day Mission to a Fearless Future.

Option A’s mustard-yellow cover doesn’t feature any danger-evoking images, but the word bold stands out from the rest of the title. In stark contrast, Option B features an illustration of a person standing at the edge of a cliff.

Can you guess which one won?

Most business owners are interested in books about marketing. But what if you wrote a book about account-based marketing (ABM) — a strategy in which the standard funnel gets flipped on its head — and wanted it to catch a reader’s attention? You’d need to demonstrate the upside-down nature of ABM through creative book cover design ideas.

One pair of authors tested two different cover designs for their book, ABM is B2B. Why Traditional Marketing is Broken and How to Fix It in a recent PickFu poll.

Option A’s bright yellow cover features a broken heart behind the subtitle. Option B features a soft blue cover with an egg cracked in the middle of it.

Can you guess which one won?

If you write an e-book, you might assume you can get away with spending less time on your book cover than someone who’s publishing a physical book.

But e-book covers matter just as much as physical book covers. When potential customers browse an online selection, the cover is the first thing they see. For some books, covers are especially important because they reflect what the book is selling.

Take this recent PickFu poll, run by the author of a DIY interior design e-book aimed at women. The pollster created a ranked poll on PickFu to find out which of their covers attracted the audience best.

Option A features a book cover with a tidy text box against a clean, modern-looking room. You can’t see a whole lot of the home because the focus is on the tables, but the title and subtitle look professional.

Option B removes the box and shifts the title upward, helping potential readers to see more of the room.

Option C introduces new font colors and shifts a banner of text over the fireplace.

Can you guess which one won?

When someone mentions cyber hackers, you usually think, ugh! Those people who can breach my computer’s privacy and steal my information and money? I stay away from them.

But what if you needed people to see the other side of cyber hackers, and you decided to write a book about it? What type of title would convince readers to look past their negative assumptions and get them to pick up your book?

One author created a PickFu poll to answer this question.

Option A’s title is The Cyber Crisis: Why the Hackers We Fear are the Hackers We Need.

Option B is Cyber Soldiers: How Hackers Can Save Us.

Can you guess which one won?