Cover Tips

Are you new to writing?  I know many new authors don't have the funds to have beautiful covers made up, and often resort to using the static covers that Createspace has to offer, or they make up their own, thinking through one theme for their book.

Here are some recommendations if you just don't have the funds to hire an Illustrator, or pay someone in the Cover Creation field.

The first thing you should do, is look up some of the covers within your genre that are selling on Amazon right now.  I came up with this idea when doing a book promotion on Instafreebie.  One of the authors mentioned that all of the books with naked men's chests on their cover were flying off the giveaway like hotcakes.  As I scrolled through the listings, I saw his comment was dead on.

You can see that the Covers with some flesh showing got a lot of downloads.  This is a real time indicator, as there is little indication on these books as to what the interior file is, until you download them.

Evidently, a good set of abs and a chiseled chin was a major draw in that genre for your book to be downloaded!  You really need to know your Genre.  Look at the Fonts used and their layout.  Every little detail you can use to make your work stand out, you should try to use it.  For example, look at the fonts used on these books:  

See the difference?  Even a shadow of a character makes readers give it a try, Military men are buff, the first cover uses the reader's imagination!  Try to see what is selling each book, through the cover for your Genre, then go for it!

Sometimes, that might not be what you WANT to do, but you can't go wrong with following trends with a little bit of your own spice mixed in.

Often, if you must create your own cover, you don't have the right tools to do them.  When I first started creating my own cover art, I ran into an immediate issue.  Where could I find royalty free art that I did not have to pay for, nor deal with a lot of restrictions for the use of the art?  Many times I would see something that looked great, then it was from a site that charged a lot for that picture, and it could not have any commercial use.

Then I found a site called 'Pixabay'.  Now, just know, I REALLY didn't want to share this website with anyone, cause I don't want someone taking my cover art.  But I realized that most of the people who read my blog don't write within my genre.  And even if they do, I can personalize my covers so they don't look the same.

The second issue was, HOW do I create cover art without a really good Illustration program?  Then I hit upon just using my Powerpoint.  At first, KDP made you jump through hoops for work that was not at a correct size for their covers.  I must admit, I don't know if I tinkered with my Powerpoint measurements or if their size just worked.  I do know ONE thing though.  You HAVE to DOWNLOAD the picture, then INSERT it into Powerpoint to keep the DPI intact.  You cannot 'Click and Drag' or do a screenshot, THEN 'Click and Drag' that photo onto your Powerpoint file.  It will come out grainy when you stretch it.

Always choose 'Word Art' rather than just use a 'Text Box', so you can stretch and enlarge your text but not have to increase the font size.  You can find Fonts that will enhance your Book Title and Author name on many free font sites.  One I use is Fontcubes.  After you download the fonts, open them by clicking on them.  Then open your Font Book and import the new fonts.  You might get some warnings, but unless they say really dire stuff, I use them.  You have to judge that yourself.

Also, you will have to make a Front AND Back cover, so decide on a theme for your series and stick with it.  That way, readers know what they are viewing and they will get used to the continuity in your series.  If you update covers as I did for my Peace series, I used the old covers with a few changes for the Back Cover, and created new covers.  I got the pictures off of Pixabay for the new covers.  I deleted the backgrounds on some, which you can do on Powerpoint, then created new covers.  Here is an example:

ORIGINAL ART:

This was the original picture

This guy JUST happened to look like what I envisioned for
my main character 'James'.  James is a Serial Killer of Child Abusers
who manage to beat the rap.

And This is the Cover that I managed to combine.  I kept the text in Fall Colors, which worked well. 
See how I got some RED in there?  You may have to work to get it to shine, but don't give up!

It takes a little time and vision to create your own covers, but you can do it.  Inspiration can come from anywhere!  Look at covers in your genre and think, "I would love that for my book, but I would do X, Y and Z."  You can do ANYTHING you set your mind to.  Go outside of your comfort zone, and just CREATE.

I used the cover that was my original on the back cover.  I tend to just make a transparent box for my back cover text and drop a picture behind it.  I stick to a theme for each book.  This first picture is from my Peace Series.

This second cover is from my Consortium Series.  I love the front and back cover of this series! Each subsequent book will have a similar theme.  Use your font's to keep things consistent.  Figure out what color fonts tend to draw your eye in.  Just remember, you won't love every cover you see, but try to find out what sells and do a close approximation with a little twist of your own.  I have read that injecting RED in any cover draws the eye of the reader.  Red stimulates people's imaginations.

 

You just import your work, drop in your fonts, then save your cover as both a Powerpoint file (in case you have to go back and make changes) AND as a JPEG file.  Make sure you save the JPEG file to your Desktop first, so you can write over the file each time you have to make changes.  You may have to make changes to incorporate a barcode (Createspace puts theirs at the bottom of the page on the back cover on the right), or to incorporate the outer fringes where the copy won't print.  

Createspace has one cover Choice, MAJESTIC, that allows you to drop in your Cover as a JPEG file.  Just remember, they only have about 30 Spline Choice colors, so if you make a cover, make sure you can match it up with the Spline covers which will be in the middle of your book cover.  If the colors are off, it will look crazy.

So, don't be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone!  You can make up a great cover, all you have to do is open up a Powerpoint file!  If you have any questions, please reach out to me!  You can do it!  Be encouraged.