There are so many things to consider when you’re working towards a cover design for your book. Color choice, design elements, fonts (not papyrus again!), and now, how does it look at a half inch wide? What about an inch and a half wide? Does it still communicate effectively? Watch the progression in these covers for Tom Clancy titles. Tom Clancy has, for a long time, sold books by being Tom Clancy. But even with that kind of market, there’s still been a dramatic shift in how his covers are designed. Here’s a Clancy cover, circa 1997, at about the size that it appears in the kindle store on the iPhone (left). It’s hard to read. It gets a little better if you scale up to about the size that it appears in Amazon’s store browsed from a PC. But, still, not that clear what’s going on. Now, here’s a brand new Clancy cover. It reads incredibly well at this size. It’s got a design element (the gun with the bullseye) that carries well even scaled down like this. And, it’s a good-looking cover full size, too. Subtle differences, but it’s essential that you think through these things as you design (or look at designs for) your cover.