BOOK COVER DESIGN CONTEST
Budget: $15 – $25 USD
BOOK COVER DESIGN CONTEST
Good Luck With That! A Guide to Understanding Jamaicans
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ABOUT THE BOOK
"Good Luck With That!" is a cultural guide that takes readers inside Jamaican culture — the real culture, not the tourist brochure version. It explains why Jamaica is simultaneously holy and raunchy, warm and sharp, relaxed and relentless — and why none of that is a contradiction once you understand the code.
The book is built on a framework called the Three Cs: Contradiction, Confidence, and Community — three forces that shape every aspect of Jamaican life, from Patwah to dancehall, from the yard to the diaspora.
It draws on dozens of Jamaican voices — selectors, pastors, vendors, matriarchs, youth creatives, and diaspora leaders. The tone is warm, witty, confident, and substantive. Think Anthony Bourdain meets Ta-Nehisi Coates, set in Kingston.
Target audience: Non-Jamaicans curious about the culture, travellers, partners/friends/colleagues of Jamaicans, and diaspora readers wanting to see their culture represented with depth.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUICK SPECS
Title: Good Luck With That!
Subtitle: A Guide to Understanding Jamaicans
Author: Colin Beharie
Genre: Cultural Guide / Narrative Nonfiction
Trim size: 6" × 9" (standard nonfiction paperback)
Platform: Amazon KDP + IngramSpark — Paperback + eBook
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR
I want a cover that says: "This is a smart, confident book about a culture that deserves to be understood, not just consumed."
The cover should feel like it belongs on the same shelf as:
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah — bold type, cultural weight, wit
• Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch — clean, identity-focused, smart
• How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston — humour + substance
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson — understated power, typographic
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TONE & MOOD
The cover should communicate four things:
• CONFIDENCE: Jamaica punches above its weight. The cover should too. Bold, not timid.
• WARMTH: Inviting, not intimidating. The reader should feel curious, not excluded.
• WIT: The title is a Jamaican expression dripping with irony. The design should carry that energy — a knowing wink, not a lecture.
• DEPTH: This is not a surface-level book. Hint at layers beneath the vibes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
VISUAL DIRECTION
COLOUR PALETTE
Draw from the Jamaican flag colours (black, gold, green) with white for contrast.
• Black (#000000) — Background or bold text. Grounding, serious.
• Gold/Yellow (#FFD700) — Accent. Energy, warmth, Jamaica.
• Green (#009B3A) — Secondary accent. Natural, Caribbean.
• White (#FFFFFF) — Title text or clean space. Contrast, readability.
Note: Avoid the red/gold/green Rastafarian palette unless used very subtly. The book covers Jamaican culture broadly, not Rastafari specifically.
TYPOGRAPHY
• Title ("Good Luck With That!"): This is the star. Bold, expressive, full of personality. Consider a hand-lettered feel or a display serif with character. The exclamation mark is part of the title — it should feel natural, not shouted.
• Subtitle: Clean, readable sans-serif. Secondary to the title but legible at thumbnail size.
• Author name: Simple, professional.
TWO POSSIBLE APPROACHES
I'm open to either direction — surprise me with what works best:
Approach A — Typographic: Let the title dominate. Strong typography on a bold colour background. Minimal graphic elements — a subtle texture, pattern, or single iconic motif.
Approach B — Illustrative: A stylised illustration or graphic motif that captures Jamaican energy without being literal. Could include abstract elements like a sound system speaker, dancehall silhouettes, overlapping cultural symbols, or a stylised map outline.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚠️ WHAT NOT TO DO
These will result in automatic rejection:
• NO beaches, sunsets, or palm trees. This is not a travel guide.
• NO Rastafarian clichés — no dreadlocks, ganja leaves, or red/gold/green stripes.
• NO reggae album art aesthetics. The book is not about music alone.
• NOTHING that looks like a Lonely Planet or Fodor's travel guide.
• NO overly busy designs. The title must be readable at Amazon thumbnail size.
• NO comic or cartoonish styles. The book is warm and witty, but it's a serious cultural guide.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
THE THUMBNAIL TEST
Most readers will first see this cover as a tiny thumbnail on Amazon. Before submitting, shrink your design and ask:
1. Can I read the title clearly?
2. Does the colour scheme pop against a white background?
3. Does it look like a serious cultural book, not a tourist guide?
If yes to all three, submit it. If no to any, rework it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
DELIVERABLES
For the contest: Submit a front cover design only (high-res JPEG/PNG).
The winner will be commissioned to deliver files for BOTH Amazon KDP and IngramSpark:
• KDP paperback wrap — Front + spine + back, JPEG/PNG, RGB colour, per KDP template for 6"×9"
• IngramSpark wrap — Single PDF, CMYK colour, 0.125" bleed on all sides, per IngramSpark template for 6"×9"
• eBook cover — 1600 × 2560 px, RGB (works for both platforms)
• Source files — Layered PSD, AI, or equivalent in CMYK
IMPORTANT: Please work in CMYK colour mode from the start. An RGB version for KDP can easily be exported from CMYK, but converting the other direction can cause colour shifts. Spine width will be confirmed once the final page count is set.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Colin Beharie is a Jamaican-born writer and cultural commentator based in Norway. He brings a unique cross-cultural perspective, bridging Caribbean and Scandinavian worlds. This book centres Jamaican voices and takes the reader from "tourist" to "visitor." More at cbeharie.com
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Show me something that makes Jamaica proud
and makes a reader on Amazon stop scrolling.
Walk good. And good luck with that.
Good Luck With That! A Guide to Understanding Jamaicans
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ABOUT THE BOOK
"Good Luck With That!" is a cultural guide that takes readers inside Jamaican culture — the real culture, not the tourist brochure version. It explains why Jamaica is simultaneously holy and raunchy, warm and sharp, relaxed and relentless — and why none of that is a contradiction once you understand the code.
The book is built on a framework called the Three Cs: Contradiction, Confidence, and Community — three forces that shape every aspect of Jamaican life, from Patwah to dancehall, from the yard to the diaspora.
It draws on dozens of Jamaican voices — selectors, pastors, vendors, matriarchs, youth creatives, and diaspora leaders. The tone is warm, witty, confident, and substantive. Think Anthony Bourdain meets Ta-Nehisi Coates, set in Kingston.
Target audience: Non-Jamaicans curious about the culture, travellers, partners/friends/colleagues of Jamaicans, and diaspora readers wanting to see their culture represented with depth.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
QUICK SPECS
Title: Good Luck With That!
Subtitle: A Guide to Understanding Jamaicans
Author: Colin Beharie
Genre: Cultural Guide / Narrative Nonfiction
Trim size: 6" × 9" (standard nonfiction paperback)
Platform: Amazon KDP + IngramSpark — Paperback + eBook
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR
I want a cover that says: "This is a smart, confident book about a culture that deserves to be understood, not just consumed."
The cover should feel like it belongs on the same shelf as:
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah — bold type, cultural weight, wit
• Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch — clean, identity-focused, smart
• How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston — humour + substance
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson — understated power, typographic
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TONE & MOOD
The cover should communicate four things:
• CONFIDENCE: Jamaica punches above its weight. The cover should too. Bold, not timid.
• WARMTH: Inviting, not intimidating. The reader should feel curious, not excluded.
• WIT: The title is a Jamaican expression dripping with irony. The design should carry that energy — a knowing wink, not a lecture.
• DEPTH: This is not a surface-level book. Hint at layers beneath the vibes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
VISUAL DIRECTION
COLOUR PALETTE
Draw from the Jamaican flag colours (black, gold, green) with white for contrast.
• Black (#000000) — Background or bold text. Grounding, serious.
• Gold/Yellow (#FFD700) — Accent. Energy, warmth, Jamaica.
• Green (#009B3A) — Secondary accent. Natural, Caribbean.
• White (#FFFFFF) — Title text or clean space. Contrast, readability.
Note: Avoid the red/gold/green Rastafarian palette unless used very subtly. The book covers Jamaican culture broadly, not Rastafari specifically.
TYPOGRAPHY
• Title ("Good Luck With That!"): This is the star. Bold, expressive, full of personality. Consider a hand-lettered feel or a display serif with character. The exclamation mark is part of the title — it should feel natural, not shouted.
• Subtitle: Clean, readable sans-serif. Secondary to the title but legible at thumbnail size.
• Author name: Simple, professional.
TWO POSSIBLE APPROACHES
I'm open to either direction — surprise me with what works best:
Approach A — Typographic: Let the title dominate. Strong typography on a bold colour background. Minimal graphic elements — a subtle texture, pattern, or single iconic motif.
Approach B — Illustrative: A stylised illustration or graphic motif that captures Jamaican energy without being literal. Could include abstract elements like a sound system speaker, dancehall silhouettes, overlapping cultural symbols, or a stylised map outline.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚠️ WHAT NOT TO DO
These will result in automatic rejection:
• NO beaches, sunsets, or palm trees. This is not a travel guide.
• NO Rastafarian clichés — no dreadlocks, ganja leaves, or red/gold/green stripes.
• NO reggae album art aesthetics. The book is not about music alone.
• NOTHING that looks like a Lonely Planet or Fodor's travel guide.
• NO overly busy designs. The title must be readable at Amazon thumbnail size.
• NO comic or cartoonish styles. The book is warm and witty, but it's a serious cultural guide.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
THE THUMBNAIL TEST
Most readers will first see this cover as a tiny thumbnail on Amazon. Before submitting, shrink your design and ask:
1. Can I read the title clearly?
2. Does the colour scheme pop against a white background?
3. Does it look like a serious cultural book, not a tourist guide?
If yes to all three, submit it. If no to any, rework it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
DELIVERABLES
For the contest: Submit a front cover design only (high-res JPEG/PNG).
The winner will be commissioned to deliver files for BOTH Amazon KDP and IngramSpark:
• KDP paperback wrap — Front + spine + back, JPEG/PNG, RGB colour, per KDP template for 6"×9"
• IngramSpark wrap — Single PDF, CMYK colour, 0.125" bleed on all sides, per IngramSpark template for 6"×9"
• eBook cover — 1600 × 2560 px, RGB (works for both platforms)
• Source files — Layered PSD, AI, or equivalent in CMYK
IMPORTANT: Please work in CMYK colour mode from the start. An RGB version for KDP can easily be exported from CMYK, but converting the other direction can cause colour shifts. Spine width will be confirmed once the final page count is set.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Colin Beharie is a Jamaican-born writer and cultural commentator based in Norway. He brings a unique cross-cultural perspective, bridging Caribbean and Scandinavian worlds. This book centres Jamaican voices and takes the reader from "tourist" to "visitor." More at cbeharie.com
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Show me something that makes Jamaica proud
and makes a reader on Amazon stop scrolling.
Walk good. And good luck with that.
Related categories:
Graphic Design
Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Brochure Design
Adobe Illustrator
Book Cover Design
Canva
Print Design