What makes a good YA book cover? That’s as subjective as asking anyone what their favourite book is. Still, there are some trends across the board, and I’ve listed a few great websites about YA book covers:
Trends in Young Adult Book Covers: A funny and succinct snapshot of trends in YA book covers, with lots of pretty pictures. Lots.
Goodreads Best YA Book Covers: The best YA book covers, voted by Goodreaders.
How To Judge A YA Book By Its Cover: Here’s a clever and oh-so-snarky analysis of what to do (and what not to do) when deciding on a YA cover.
Uncovering YA Covers: 2011: My favourite YA book cover analysis. Fascinating! And alarming. There aren’t enough protagonists of colour, and there seems to be an awful lot of emphasis on dead girls -__-
If you ask me, a good YA book cover leaves room for the imagination, has great typography, atypical main characters, and stands out from the rest.
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Published by Raidah Shah Idil
Raidah Shah Idil is a student counsellor, poet, writer, and creative instructor with a passion for YA (young adult), fantasy, sci-fi and detective fiction. She was born in Singapore and moved to Australia at the age of 12. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English) and Bachelor of Science (Psychology) from the University of New South Wales in 2005.
After working as a marketing copywriter and studying the Islamic Sciences in Amman, Jordan for nearly two years, she returned to Sydney, got married, then moved to Malaysia. While working as a part-time tutor at Axiom Learning, she works as an online counsellor for Seekershub Global. She has completed her Diploma of Counselling through the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors. Her full-time job is raising her baby daughter. Everything else is squeezed in between. Literally. Her writing has been published in The Feminist Wire, SISTERS magazine, Daily Life, Lip Mag and Venture Beat. Raidah’s poetry was recently published in the ‘Armed With Only Our Souls’ online DDFS chapbook by New York poet Caits Meissner. Her debut double-featured novel, “Finding Jamilah and the Story of Yusuf” was published by MyLegacy publications in early 2014.
In her spare time (ha), she reads, listens to audiobooks, goes on walks, and is always on the lookout for tasty noodle soup. She currently lives in a green, leafy suburb in Kuala Lumpur with her husband, three small children and mother-in-law.
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Raidah Shah Idil 
I’ve heard a book cover is everything especially for a new writer. People will pick up a book depending on its book cover if they don’t necessarily know the author. Thanks for sharing these useful links.
No problem, Maryam! InshaAllah it’ll be of benefit to you, once your book gets out into the world 🙂