In your quest to self-publish your novel or short story, you may have some trouble with how to design a book cover. There are several ways to make an attractive cover for your book, but most writers fail in this particular area because they can’t afford photo editing software or aren’t confident enough in their artistic skills to do the job themselves. Making a book cover graphic is a simple process that anyone can do with little guidance and effort.
You have artistic ability as a writer; it’s primarily with words, but this artistic ability can also be manipulated into graphic design. Your goal with self-publishing is to do it in the way that is most profitable for you, while also appearing professional enough to make the sale. Learning how to make your own book cover will greatly reduce the cost of producing your novel or short story.
Creating a book cover is not as difficult as it seems. The first thing to do is gather ideas at your local bookstore; Check out several new stories in their genre and compare styles, formats, graphics, and layouts. One thing you will find in common with almost all books is that they have a title and the author’s name on the cover. Your main focus will be on the title of the book; this is what grabs the reader’s attention and makes them want to take your book off the shelf.
The title of a book gives a basic description of what the book is about. It must fascinate your reader to the point that they have to learn it. Your title is a simple word or phrase that represents the main focus of your book. In general, what is your book about in five words or less? To choose a suitable title, brainstorm the content of your book and come up with a word or phrase that sums it all up for your reader. Your title is the first impression of the book, so this is a crucial stage when designing a book cover.
Once you have a satisfactory title for your book, open your word processing program or photo editing software and type it in along with your signature. Play around with different fonts and font sizes as well as placements on the page. You’re looking for a layout that automatically makes your potential readers focus on your headline. Don’t use plain fonts; try to use a font that fits the era or time period of your story. Make it a readable font that gives your reader a good idea of your book, but at the same time subconsciously tells them a little bit about your book. When playing around with font types and sizes, make sure the byline is smaller than the title so you don’t distract from your main focal point.
Now think of a color that matches the theme of your book. The theme of a book is the main image that people get when they read your book. Examples of themes are love equals red and death equals black. Each theme should have a corresponding color. The theme color you choose will be the background color of your cover.
If you have some creativity in you, and I know you do, try choosing a particular scene in your book that has a corresponding image (a bar, a mountain, a river…) that you can use to design a book cover background. instead of a simple color. Pictures tend to give the reader a picture of a scene within your book, so that when they read it, they can have a better mental picture of what’s going on around them. Don’t choose an image that will take all attention away from your headline.
Once you have a title, font, and background, choose a complementary color for your book’s title and signature font. Making your title and signature stand out from the background is a key ingredient in designing your own book cover. Play around with different color harmonies to see which presents the best mood as you look at it. If it looks good, you’re done. Have others watch it too to give you constructive feedback to make it even better.
Learning how to design a book cover may take a bit of time and effort on your part, but it will ultimately pay off when you introduce your book to the world. You don’t have to be a full-fledged artist to do this work; all you need is a little creativity to effectively create a great book cover.
