Edit and improve a cover

Open the editing tools#

Open the cover's More menu (the three dots on the card). On a phone, tap the cover and choose More. The editing tools are Edit title & author, Restyle typography, Change elements or layout, Replace person, Try a different style and Text-free cover.

You can also ask the Cover Expert for a change in plain words: select Chat about this cover on the card.

Advanced editing tools are available to Pro and Enterprise users; on other plans their rows show a Pro badge. The interface shows the credit cost before a generation-based edit.

Edit cover text#

Choose Edit title & author.

For supported covers, BeYourCover detects the existing text and separates it into editable layers. Text detection uses one image credit the first time; reopening a cached layout does not repeat detection.

After detection you can:

• Select and drag title, subtitle, author, and other detected text layers, or nudge the selected layer with the arrow keys (hold Shift for bigger steps).
• Add, duplicate, show, hide, or delete any layer from the Text layers panel.
• Change the font and font size, letter spacing, and line height. Type an exact size into the size box, or use the arrows beside it to step up and down.
• Set text color from suggested swatches, a custom picker, or the eyedropper.
• Align text left, center, or right, and center the text box horizontally or vertically on the cover with one click.
• Apply bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, or uppercase.
• Add a drop shadow or an outline to make text readable over busy artwork.
• Zoom the canvas and fit it to the screen.
• Save a new composite cover version.

Add, hide, or delete text layers#

The Text layers panel lists every layer on the cover. Click a row to select that layer on the canvas, use the eye icon to show or hide it, or the trash icon to delete it. Add text layer creates a new layer in the middle of the cover — drag it into place and style it like any detected layer. Hidden layers stay in the layout but are left out of the saved cover.

On a desktop screen the panel floats to the left of the cover. On a phone it sits at the bottom of the screen as a Text layers bar showing the selected layer — tap it to open the full list, and it closes again as soon as you pick a layer, so the cover stays visible while you work.

If traces of the original text are still visible on the background, select Remove leftover text in the top bar and confirm — it re-runs the AI eraser on the background, free, in about 20 seconds. Each run cleans whatever is still there, up to three runs per cover. After the third run the button is turned off.

Text editing saves a new cover result. Review the saved version in the cover grid before exporting.

Restyle typography#

Choose Restyle typography when the words are correct but the type treatment feels weak.

BeYourCover analyzes the cover and suggests up to three typography directions. You can:

• Select one to three suggestions.
• Reuse a suggestion's full prompt and modify it.
• Ignore the suggestions and write custom typography instructions.

Each selected direction creates one new cover and uses one image credit. Custom instructions create one cover.

You are only charged for the covers you get. If a direction fails, its credit is returned — a restyle that produces two covers out of three costs two credits, and one that produces none costs nothing.

Good custom instructions describe hierarchy and treatment rather than only naming a font:

Make the title a tall condensed sans serif in uppercase, increase spacing, keep the author small, and use warm ivory type with a subtle shadow.

Change elements or layout#

Choose Change elements or layout to transform the visual content with a natural-language instruction. You can also ask the Cover Expert for the same kind of change in the chat.

Examples:

• Replace the dragon with a burning sword.
• Change the background to a misty pine forest.
• Remove the second figure and move the title higher.

The transformation uses one image credit and creates a new version. If the run fails, the credit is returned. Describe one coherent change per run; a long list of unrelated changes is harder to preserve accurately.

Use a reference image#

To show what you want instead of only describing it, select Attach a reference image (optional) in the same window and upload a JPG, PNG or WebP image. The first time, you accept the reference image terms. Then name the part to change, for example Make the ox look like the one in the reference image. The edit model sees your cover and the reference together. It redraws only that part to match the reference, in your cover's own art style, and keeps the rest of the cover and its text. The cost is the same: one image credit. Try precise mode after an edit with a reference runs again with the same reference.

On Pro and Enterprise, a reference image that you attach with the paperclip in the Cover Expert chat also reaches the edits that the chat applies (Apply edit · 1 credit).

Try precise mode#

A transformation can sometimes change parts of the cover you did not mention, such as the title colour or the background. When that happens, choose Try precise mode in the "Not quite right?" box that appears after the new version.

Precise mode runs the same instruction again on the original cover, not on the new version, and keeps everything you did not mention. It uses one image credit and creates another version, so you can compare both. If the run fails, the credit is returned. Choose Dismiss to close the box without a second run.

Replace the person on a cover#

Choose Replace person to put a real person, such as yourself, onto a cover that shows a person. BeYourCover keeps the cover's pose, framing, clothing, art style and text, and changes only who the person is.

1. Open the cover's More menu and choose Replace person.
2. Upload a photo of one person (JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 8 MB). A clear, front-facing photo of the face and shoulders in good light gives the best likeness.
3. Optional: say which person to replace, for example the man on the left. Without it, BeYourCover replaces the main person on the cover.
4. Confirm that you are the person in the photo, or that you have their permission, and that the person is 18 or older. You confirm this for every run.
5. Choose Replace person.

You can also attach the photo with the paperclip in Cover Expert and ask to put that person on the cover. Cover Expert then opens Replace person with the photo already added.

One run makes two new versions with two different AI models, for one image credit, so you can keep the better likeness. If only one model succeeds, you get one version and the credit is used. If both fail, the credit is returned.

Before any credit is used, BeYourCover checks the photo. It refuses a photo that shows more than one person, a person who may be under 18, or signs that it shows a public figure (for example a caption, a magazine layout or a red carpet). If the photo check cannot run, try again in a minute; no credit is used.

Enterprise workspaces can also run Replace person through the API and the MCP server. The caller confirms consent on every call, as you do here.

If the original face is blurred or partly hidden by design, the new face stays blurred or hidden in the same way. Try precise mode is not offered after a person swap, because that mode cannot see your photo.

Try a different visual style#

Choose Try a different style to convert the existing concept into another template or visual family.

1. Review the templates for the book's genre.
2. Select a template.
3. Confirm Convert Style.

Style conversion uses one image credit. If the run fails, the credit is returned. Converting illustration to photorealism is experimental; the most reliable results stay within similar categories, such as illustration-to-illustration or photo-to-photo.

Create or view a text-free cover#

The Text-free cover action removes the title and author from the image. After it is generated, the action changes to See text-free cover.

Use the clean version as a base for custom typography or external layout work. The preview window can create and download a high-resolution text-free version.

Generating the text-free version uses one image credit. If the run fails, the credit is returned.

Use the Cover Expert chat#

Select Chat about this cover on a card. The Cover Expert panel opens on the Chat tab with that cover attached as a "Talking about" chip, and the card reads In chat. A new chat offers a few suggested openings under Start with:

• Analyze my cover and propose new approaches — a critique of what is working, plus fresh directions worth exploring.
• Does it signal my genre? — whether a browsing reader instantly knows what kind of book this is.
• Check how it reads as a thumbnail — how the cover holds up at Amazon search size.
• Generate 2 new versions (2 credits) — two new covers without a conversation. Paid accounts only.
• New cover in the series look (1 credit) — for a book in a series. Paid accounts only; on Basic it opens the Pro upgrade.

These are shortcuts, not a menu you have to pick from. The message box is active as soon as the chat opens, so you can skip them and say what you actually came for — a change you want, a question about your audience, or a description of an element to fix.

The chat is available on every plan. Chatting costs nothing; generating a version or applying an edit uses one credit. On a free account, a generated version is a blurred free preview, one per book, and the chat allows 20 messages per book.

You can:

• Explain your audience, market, or visual goal.
• Ask what is not working.
• Choose between proposed directions.
• Pick one or more proposed directions and generate them, one credit each (Generate 2 versions · 2 credits for two directions). Each picked direction becomes a new cover that BeYourCover's art director designs from scratch. The art director does not see the current cover, so the layout and type can change. A free account picks one direction (Pick a direction, then Generate this version).
• Generate a complete cover that the expert proposes, for one credit (Generate this version · 1 credit). The expert hands the change to BeYourCover's art director, which redesigns the current cover with that change and keeps everything you did not ask to change. A new version takes about half a minute longer than a small edit.
• Apply a localized edit for one credit (Apply edit · 1 credit).
• Create an audiobook cover when the expert recommends that output.
• Bring other covers into the conversation with Add cover or by typing @.

Chat messages themselves do not consume image credits. Applying an edit or generating a version does. The conversation is saved per book and resumes when you come back. Use New chat to start over.

Describing an object exactly#

When a specific element has to look a particular way — a weapon, a piece of clothing, an artifact that recurs across a series — write out the full description rather than a short request. Detail is used as written: the expert carries your wording into the edit unchanged instead of condensing it, so constraints such as no rivets, a straight flat spine, or a subtle edge-catch, not an all-over glow reach the renderer intact.

State what the thing is not, as well as what it is. Negative constraints (not steel, no glowing runes, no ornamentation) do more work than adjectives alone. If several attempts drift away from your description, ask the expert to generate a new full version built around it rather than continuing to edit — a fresh version bakes the description into the cover's own prompt, so later edits keep it.

A short request works too — make the cloak more epic is a perfectly good thing to ask. The expert turns that into specific direction for you, deciding what changes in shape, scale, movement, and lighting deliver it. Describe the element in full when you already know exactly what you want; ask in a sentence when you would rather the expert make those calls.

Changing the text on a cover#

To change how existing text looks — the font, color, size or position of the title, subtitle or author line — ask in the chat, for example change only the author font to match the subtitle, keep it white. The expert proposes an edit of the current cover that changes only that text and keeps the rest of the cover as it is (Apply edit · 1 credit). If you want to pick fonts and positions yourself, ask for the manual text editor instead. The text editor replaces AI-drawn lettering, such as a metallic or illustrated title, with standard fonts.

Edits and new versions#

An edit changes the current cover and keeps everything else. A new version is a new cover: the art director redesigns the current cover with the requested change and keeps what you do not mention, but the scene and layout can still differ. A picked direction starts from scratch. A new version cannot bring back an earlier cover. To keep a cover you like and change one thing, ask for an edit of that cover.

The same panel also has a Create tab for new covers without a conversation (not on a free account), and in the chat you can type @ to bring in any of your covers — see Continue an existing book.

Edit in the right order#

For fewer wasted credits:

1. Settle the overall visual concept.
2. Use style conversion or transformation for major artwork changes.
3. Generate close variations.
4. Restyle or manually edit typography.
5. Create text-free, audiobook, marketing, and print outputs from the final cover.