How to go beyond a "basic book cover? 

A lot of people just want "pretty" book covers and although theres nothing wrong with that its not enough to go on to really make your book stand out. For the most part, a book cover does the following:

1. Telling viewers the title and the author
2. Drawing viewers in visually
3. Giving the viewers a "preview" about what your book is about — blatantly or symbolically

Sometimes, this is all a book cover needs to do but sometimes these covers are "one note". You look at it and you get it, and you kind of just look at it once, sometimes you don't remember what they look like.

Here are some things to consider when trying to make an impactful cover:

i. how does it look up close and far away?
In book stores, and on wattpad, your book cover has to draw people in from a distance. If your elements are too small or too similar in color things get lost from afar. Remember, everything is digital now, and thumbnails are tiny.

ii. how memorable is your cover?
Books that are remembered by their covers is not a bad thing. It can help your fans show appreciation to your story; like with John Green's The Fault in Our Stars novel and I was stuck seeing black and white clouds on baby blue for months. Even some people who didn't read the book knew where it was from.

iii. does it pass the 5 second test?
The does not mean the viewer can read and comprehend your cover in a only five seconds. It touches on the idea that your cover has not confused the viewer in the first five seconds. Although they may not be able to process all the words at this time, they can identify where the title is, the author names, if the other test is a subtitle or a quote and what the imagery is of.  In a world where information is readily available, if they don't get it the reader will most likely move on. 

If you are using symbolism on your cover, it doesn't matter if your reader gets what you're conveying with the imagery by just picking up your book. They will have to read the book, but can they identify that it could be a symbol or what the item is? Some people might not know that the cover for Twilight by Stephenie Meyer is a nod to the "forbidden fruit" concept but they can see the hands and they can see it is most definitely holding an apple.

An Example 

This book cover is a good example that ties together what I've said above. I've personally never read it but I always remember it as the book with the red fork. I don't ever remember seeing a book with a red fork on it so if someone else has seen this cover— they'll know what I'm talking about. From far, you can see the red fork. Even if you don't recognize it as a fork at first, the red stand out beautifully. It might not tell you a lot about the book but it has grabbed your attention and its not hard to recognize. Then when you get closer to the cover you can read all the written information.The unnatural red coloring of the fork makes me believe its symbolic — red is a color that can represent life or danger because blood, its also an angry color. The prongs of the fork are bent, almost like fingers. There's tension in the piece because of it.