However long it took you to write your book the chances are you've spent a lot of time on it, you've read through what was initially a tangled mess of structure, formatting and grammatical errors to get to a stage where you're now ready for an editor to add that last little bit of polish.When this blog started several months ago I wrote about how important it was for ebook authors to give their book the best possible cover they could afford in order to attract potential readers.
So why is it that authors are still making the same mistakes despite the likes of Joe Konrath, the veritable king of epublishing underlining the same critical factors on his blog which has hundreds of followers.
I'm a regular on Kindle boards and I'm still horrified by some of the book covers people are putting out there, the very same people who complain about the lack of sales on the boards at a later point. Remember this is a book that might have taken over two years to write, I find it strange that people who would dedicate that amount of time to writing a story for others to read completely ignores the importance of the cover design to promote it to their potential readership.
The key to a good cover is content, specifically content that hints at the main story elements or characters that appear in your book, however, before you set your sights on that content there are other factors that you must consider before finally deciding on what image or design is going to represent your book.
The first factor you need to consider is how you are positioning your book to the marketplace, that is to say, what sums up your book to your audience in terms of genre, can you explain what the synopsis of the book is within two sentences or less so that you can position it as something people can relate to?- for example " A taught hi-tech thriller of modern intrigue and action set in Dubai". Positioning your book allows you to see where you fit within the marketplace, because the first thing you'll want to know is how many other thrillers are there that are also set within the Middle East.
The second factor you need to consider is what is the single biggest draw for your book, is it the title of the book, the story or your lead character. I've lost count of amount of covers I've seen on Kindle Boards that feature a bland photo depicting field with clouds or just clouds and really bad typography. There's absolutely nothing compelling in covers that are so vague that they say nothing about the content of your first book,hear me when I say that readers want to be engaged with your story the second they lay eyes on your cover, the last two years of your life have been spent hunched over a PC and you're killing your chances stone dead with poor design choices.
The third factor is competition - what are competitors or established authors putting on their front covers in terms of design? If you're writing sword and sorcery fantasy novels then you're going to need to look into that genre to see what has gone before, yet another wizard and a dragon on the cover aren't necessarily the best choices to run with. Picking out a dramatic or core story element involving the protagonist might be what works in separating your book from the myriad of others within the genre. Researching this area is essential and you really need to invest the time here. The chances are you already read books in the genre you decided to write in, its a good idea to gather all those books and have them in front of you so that you can see how effective their typography and design layout is. What colours are prominent, what fonts work better than others, is the authors name big or small, illustration or photographic media?, its the pieces that all come together to create a cover.
Finally you need to be brutally honest with yourself, before you decide on the cover get feedback from friends or family and if you have a choice of two or more designs get a vote. Just because you like the cover doesn't mean that someone else will, this book isn't written for you its written for others and you need to realise that more than you probably think. Ask yourself the question"Is my cover design giving my book the best possible chance in the marketplace?". If you have even the smallest amount of doubt on the answer then you need to rethink your design. There is no point in releasing two years of effort with a cover you don't believe in.
Some people will complain they can't afford a designer for their cover, sorry, but thats bullshit, if you can afford an editor then you can throw some money at a designer too, and if you can't then you should save the money and hold off releasing the book until you can afford it. Remember this is time you invested in the story, don't throw all that away with a shoddy cover you spent 30 mins on. Sources like Devianart have hundreds of designers who also freelance at vastly reduced fees, local art colleges or searches on the forums will also point you in the right direction.
Design programs such as Photoshop Elements is a cut down version of its more expensive big sister product Photoshop but still contains a comprehensive graphics package at a fraction of the price, coupled with the awesome step by step book Photoshop Elements book for Digital Photographers you should be able to get something together fairly easily.
I use both Photoshop Elements and the above mentioned book to create images for my zazzle store, I'm no whizz kid by any means but the simple step by step instructions on image manipulation will help you get the most from your images or photos for your book cover.
Alternatively you can consider book design packages if you want to save money and have total control of the books look and feel, there are many programs out there and one that comes highly recommended is Book Cover Pro, its easy to use, even for the novice and you can either use the background templates they provide on their own site over at www.bookcoverpro.com or click and drag jpeg and tiff formatted files into your book cover pro templates.
DO
Look at competitor covers
Research your genre
Spend time positioning your book
get feedback on your chosen cover from friends and family
invest in a designer to create your cover
DON'T
Use images that are vague more than they are 'arty' or alluring
Slap text on a stockphoto as an easy, cheap fix
Use small script fonts you can't read when the cover is reduced in size
Use standard fonts, experiment with new ones.
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