This month I have been experimenting with different covers. These book effect covers are going to be my standard in my web store. Everything I put in my store will be going to print in the new year, so the book effect will be in keeping.
What I noticed on DTRPG was that these covers stand out from all the regular rectangles.
Have you noticed how many people put copper, silver, gold etc. metals on their covers? Publishers do this to make their books or their covers stand out in the crowd.
The difficulty with metals on your covers is that metal awards keep changing.
The nice thing about putting best seller metals on the cover is that it gives people an idea of the books popularity.
The problem is when you have hundreds of titles they become difficult to keep track of.
Now, by contrast, the book covers are constant and unchanging. Any publisher can do this and not have to constantly update covers.