When I decided to publish books on my own, I wanted some inspiration for the cover. I’m not a designer but I have a good eye for design. So when The Girl Between Two Worlds was picked up by Anvil Publishing, I looked forward to working with the artist to create the cover.
I sent out some concepts I had in mind and they sent me back studies of the cover. What I had in mind were not as good as the ones that the artist came up with. They were amazing.
Even though the designing part was not something I did, I still had to do my homework in this department.
The steps to a good cover
First, I went through the covers of my book’s genre and looked at what was out there. It provided me with ideas of what I liked and what I didn’t. It also gave me ideas about what covers were being used a lot.
Second, I went through some DIY sites for cover making to see what layouts are available out there. I also wanted to get some idea on the fonts and colours that would suit the book. Canva is a good free site to get into for book covers, including ebooks.
Third, I asked freelance artists for their rates on making book covers. It is a good step so I know how much I need to spend to do it myself (this was before the book was picked up).
When I began discussions on the cover, there were studies that stood out to me more than the others. I learned to compromise with the marketing team when we had differing opinions about which cover should be used. In the end, we ended up with one we were all happy with. I was lucky to have a very talented artist for my book but it does help when authors do their homework as well.
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