Creating great book covers

How to create an alternate cover edition of a book on goodreads. Cooler still, the artist ended up making use of them after the cover shot. Easy guide to creating great looking book covers youtube. Cover designs are probably the hardest thing for designers to design because it should show the heart and the soul of the book in one single image. Heres how to make a book cover that will help you sell books. These 50 awesome book covers will inspire you learn canva. To create a cover that readers will love, graphic designers need to think outside the box our list of the 100 most creative cover ideas takes a look at the book covers that really stand out from the crowd.

But before we get into our recommendations, well start with a caveat. May 17, 20 all of these are great ideas, but since they are wellemployed by major publishers and others, they really arent secrets. And, the best part is that you dont need to have a design background to come up with a stunning image. Nov 17, 2017 one of the great things about book covers is that there is almost no graphic style that cant work. For insider secrets to getting your book into retail and online stores, enroll in this course for some triedandtrue tips. How to use a stock illustration to create a book cover.

When we decided to enter the self publishing niche, creating a piece of software to design front covers, we analysed 200 bestsellers across the four most popular niches horror, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, thriller and suspense and romance on. Lets look and learn from 50 fascinating book cover designs. The five steps to creating an awesome book cover design. Nonetheless, these ideas are very good for selfpublishing authors who dont have the benefits of a publishers staff of professional designers and copywriters. Now that you have written great content you need a beautiful book or ebook cover to do it justice. Weve added him to the hire a professional section because he offers madeforyou book cover templates, but this site is also a fabulous resource if you decide to make your book cover yourself. Free wattpad cover maker with online templates adobe spark. Cover design secrets you must know if you want anyone to. Your book cover isnt just a picture, it is your packaging. This is because a book cover is a piece of art with a specific. How to make an animated book cover that blows peoples. These 50 awesome book covers will inspire you learn. Book covers exist to give visual form to written content.

More people use our free ebook creator than any other on. You dont have to build the spine into the inside pages, but you will for the outside covers. Png image of the front cover alone, a print cover will require a bit more thought and attention. The utilitarian type contrasts with the optical illusions of the black and white shards, creating a neat sense of vertigo. Mar 30, 2018 even in a deep and textbased world like literature, you still have to think about creative book covers.

Diy your cover, here are some inexpensive options for creating a book cover. He explains why selfpublished books often look selfpublished, and suggests five great fonts for book covers. Online retailers like amazon do not distinguish between traditional and selfpublished books which means independent authors are often competing again big 5 publishers. Design book cover for free with online templates adobe spark.

But it took me a while longer to figure out how to customize your front cover into a full print cover for createspace or other pod providers. What makes a good book cover business of illustration. Writers have wild imaginations, and its the designers job to create. Dec 28, 2018 3d book covers are great to use in book trailers if you decide to use video marketing to promote your book a 3d book cover is a must for digital publishing because they make your ebook look like a real professional paperback book. This is an introduction to book cover design, based on a presentation i gave at a writing conference in ecuador. Read this tutorial to learn some rules for designing a standout cover for your graphic novels. Writers have wild imaginations, and its the designers job to create a cover that represents all of the wondrous worlds their pages create.

Choose a predesigned template from hundreds of exclusive designs to create a great book cover. I use them to highlight my lists, so i dont forget what im doing. How to create an alternate cover edition of a book on. Learn exactly how to use canva to supercharge your. In the small size the distinctive typography just about disappears into illegibility, and the most valuable real estate on the coverthe top halfis just a black rectangle. Want to create a comic book covers to attract readers and entice people to buy your comic. Mar 30, 2017 8 cover design secrets manipulate readers into buying books. Great places to find your book cover ideas and inspiration. Easier than you might imagine and can improve your book sales. Sometimes i need to see something several times before it makes sense, and many of these theories seemed to make a lot more sense to me after reading the book. Click the all editions link that exists underneath the covers of the book in the other editions area of the page. If i had adobe andor knew how to use it, i wouldnt need to buy a book on cover design. Its a good habit to build the outside covers in a separate indesign file than the inside pages. Not only are the covers printed differently, there is also the matter of creating the spine for the book.

At the end of 20 i put out a package of diy book cover templates in microsoft word and revolutionized publishing with a howto guide to designing amazing book covers in an easy to use program youre already familiar with. The title is one of the most important elements on your cover. Truth be told, yes, you should judge a book by its cover, especially when it comes to comic book covers. Jun 23, 2017 heres how to create a great looking cover for your kindle book to be sold at amazon. Its affordable and possible to create your own beautiful, bestseller worthy book covers. Head over to our inspiration page to pore over beautiful book covers, and find great ideas for book typography. Design book covers with canvas free book cover maker. Cover design secrets you must know if you want anyone to buy. Apr 28, 2020 these covers are the winners from joel friedlander, the book designer s monthly ebook cover design awards.

How to create a bestselling cover written word media. Nov 28, 2019 select the mockup style that you would like to use for your book. Create a book cover in minutes, with easy to use tools and a wide range of professionally designed templates. The ultimate guide to creating an award winning book cover. Fiverr top rated seller will provide book design services and create awesome professional ebook cover design including 3d mockup within 2 days.

The online software that is both an excellent book mockup generator and ebook cover creator that thousands of authors and entrepreneurs are using to instantly create free ebook covers, 3d book mockups and book png files. This is one of the most important pieces of copy youll write, since it has a lot of work to do representing your book and showing people whats unique, interesting, or especially valuable about what you. Just select a template, edit the content and youre done. Dimension requirements your ebook cover design must follow to sell online. It should instantly communicate to the reader the kind of book it contains so it needs to fit in with the packaging that similar products use. Diy book covers free book design templates and tutorials. How to analyze the covers in your category and competitors to create covers thatll work for your target market. Im actually trying to narrow down book covers right now.

This is an introduction to book cover design, based on a presentation i gave. How to use stock photos for book cover designs shutterstock. Who to ask for help if you need a professional book cover design artist. Even though weve all been told since childhood to never judge a book by its cover, the fact is that book cover design does attract readers. This is because a book cover is a piece of art with a specific purpose. Illustrated book covers made a huge comeback in the last decade, with the popularity of decorative designs contributing to growing hardback sales the relaunched jim kayillustrated harry potter series is a good example of how illustrated styles continue to be dominant in the children and young adult sectors, while british. Mar 12, 2020 ill show you how i created three redesigned covers for the classic novels 1984, wuthering heights, and the great gatsby using adobe indesign.

Dec 20, 2010 this is great information wish id found it earlier, but im bookmarking it, now so i can reference it in the future. Canvas book cover maker makes designing book covers amazingly simple even for nondesigners. Cover designer ninai freitas urges authors to think of covers for books as a longterm investment. You are choosing to run your own publishing company, and should expect to pay what a real publisher would pay to skilled professionals to perform the tasks associated with publication. Mar 29, 2019 click the more details link found just below the book s publication date, format and page numbering section. The book covers some basics, things ive seen before, but they are presented in the authors unique way which makes them easy to understand. Canvas free book cover maker is ridiculously easy to use even for the novice or notsotechsavvy writer. If youre willing to dig for it, theres a lot of good, free information about cover creation online.

Derek murphys cover design secrets should be mandatory reading for any writer who is on the verge of publishing. Make sure it sells out by creating an awesome cover design. Stepbystep guide to creating great kindle ebook covers at little or no cost write bites 1. There are good and bad book covers, and a good designer can clearly tell you the difference between them. Jul 04, 2019 great book covers can be cryptic too, as we can see from the cover of jenny offills dept. Create awesome professional ebook cover design by rroxx. A great book cover design, at its most basic level, is something that will help readers take you and your book seriously. You dont need any prior design experience, simply browse our book and ebook cover templates and make adjustments as needed. Creating a bestselling and popular book is hard enough, so follow the above steps to create your own book cover template with an easily accessible program. Select the mockup style that you would like to use for your book. Since youve selected your title, you should have a clear idea of what message you want your book cover to send.

Unfortunately, having a beautiful book cover is frequently equated with high expenses. This will allow you to visualise the arrangement of type and images, and judge how well elements are centered on the page. Jun 28, 2019 if youre creating a cover for a print book, the setup and export process for your cover artwork will be quite different to exporting a design for a digital ebook. This comes up whenever authors whove worked with mendelsund talk about his work. A great book cover design, at its most basic level, is something that will help. Many on a shelf for beautiful book covers would be coffeetable type books with covers showing illustrations of wonderful paintings, sculpture, architecture or photographs which becky might be at least partly referring to. Perfectly suiting a book dwelling on the use of simple tools to create great things, bickfordsmith uses of a random stack of pencils to create an incredibly cool cover. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. I have several books like this,and some others that i thought were really appropriate for the book, and also had a very. Bottom line, book covers are more important than ever. Even in a deep and textbased world like literature, you still have to think about creative book covers.

If you dont have access to indesign or a similar professional software, you can still create your book cover using stock images. Coming up with book cover ideas that are perfectly suited to a book can be a tough task. Creating a hierarchy or order of text elements on your cover will help a potential reader to see the important information about your book quickly, and help to promote a wellbalanced and attractive layout unless the author is particularly wellknown see j. From minimalist book covers to complex and extravagant, this list has it covered. If your book stands a chance at succeeding, its design has to match or, if possible, exceed what the. If youre on the hunt for book cover makers, youre probably looking to diy the cover for your book. In other words, making a great book cover isnt just about making. Heres how to create a great looking cover for your kindle book to be sold at amazon. Click the more details link found just below the books publication date, format and page numbering section.

Novel book covers do great when they send an emotional message congruent with the story, while nonfiction book covers that are witty and intriguing sell well. The best tools, tricks, and tutorials to create your book cover art yourself. Magenta asked 15 book designers to nominate the best covers that they hadnt created themselves. Upload an image or choose one of the millions of images with. With graphicsprings book cover maker you can design stunning covers in just a few minutes. What about creating a separate version for the thumbnail. Youve done the hard work and created an amazing book. If youre interested in designing your own book cover then we have great news. This is also a great place to create a board specifically to save book covers for future reference. Also, half the book is devoted to creating covers with adobe software, which is the gold standard in design. A successfully designed book cover will convey the tone of your book, will whisper hints without giving it all away, and will excite readers into actually opening up the book and reading. Adobe sparks wattpad book cover maker can assist you with brainstorming and designing a cover that piques curiosity and engages your readers on a whole new level.

Its not every day you run into someone whose specialty is back cover copy for your book. Canva e book cover design masterclass for entrepreneurs. Eminent designer helen yentus was given the task of creating new covers for the complete works of albert camus, and we think this is the coolest. You can have the best tools such as photoshop, illustrator, or indesign but these programs dont automatically make a book cover. How to create professional, high converting, beautiful kindle covers in 15 minutes or less. It is better to have a welldesigned cover that can help increase sales. One of the great things about book covers is that there is almost no graphic style that cant work. Learn exactly how to use canva to supercharge your kindle business while creating 6 readytouse kindle covers. Mar 04, 2016 looking for some book design inspiration. An eyecatching design can make the difference between a book that sells and one that stalls, so dont let your future bestseller get passed over due to a soso cover design. A great selection of reasonablypriced premade covers as well as design packages for covers and ads. If you ask book designers to explain what makes for a great cover, however, they can tell you about how the various design elementsthe typeface, the color scheme, and the compositioncome together to create a visual metaphor for the text. Find out more about creating inside pages for your books with this straightforward tutorial.

At the same time, it should be visually striking and appealing. Youve put a great deal of work and thought into your book, and your cover should reflect that effort. Narrow the list of editions down a bit to your exact format type. But if you can approach it from a buyers perspective that will help immensely. May 17, 2017 if you ask book designers to explain what makes for a great cover, however, they can tell you about how the various design elementsthe typeface, the color scheme, and the compositioncome together to create a visual metaphor for the text. More than just listing the dos and donts of effective covers, read. Goodreads there are so many books on goodreads for you to look at as covers inspiration. Your book will be competing with works whose covers cost a great deal more than five dollars.

Make an amazing book cover in minutes using placeits book cover maker. Making the entire design a puzzle causes a reader to wonder about what the book is going to be about. Mar 21, 2016 creating a successful book cover takes a lot of work. Canva e book cover design masterclass for entrepreneurs udemy. Four steps to create a great cover for your selfpublished book. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading create your own kindle ebook cover.