By: Sam Allen
We had a chance to talk to an author who writes under the pen name Charles Moore. Charles Moore writes books for self-publishers who are looking for guides on writing both fiction and nonfiction.
He recommended learning to make your own eCovers, but for part-time writers or writers who just would rather not, he had this to say:
As a self-publisher focused on perfecting your work, you come to a bottleneck in the creative process when you go to publish it.
You don’t get a free cover from a publisher using a highly paid graphic designer specialising in book covers. Most book buyers can quickly tell a self-published book from a published book in seconds based on the look of its cover.
With publishers spending $5,000 and up on cover design for top selling published books, how can a self-publisher compete with that? Well guess what? You can’t. But, here is how you can get as close as possible to a $5,000 cover for under $100.
The cheapest route is Fiverr. If you have ordered an eCover design before, you probably did it like many others, giving them just the info they asked for:
Name of book
Author name
Subtitle
The graphic designer doesn't have much to go off of and you probably ended up with a sub-par book cover. You say, “Great job, thanks so much!” and move on. After all, what did you expect for $5 dollars…
For a professional level book cover check out Hugeorange.com and eLance.com. Both places have professional cover designers for cheap. ($100 to $50)
Here is a time tested, proven guide to getting that perfect cover you have in mind. Give your graphic designer this:
1. List exactly what you want on the cover and where.
2. Graphic designers either use generic fonts or crazy, creative fonts. Go to www.dafont.com and pick the font you want and send them the link and name. Make sure it’s easy to read in a thumbnail by testing it in different sizes in your writing software.
3. Have a brief message about what your cover should show. For example, “A business theme without people, showing world currency, and an abstract backdrop.” This will give a clear setting for your cover.
4. Find two to five examples of book covers you like, possibly artwork and other design elements. You can visit stock photo websites to purchase artwork or places like www.diviantart.com to purchase more fiction based art work. For $5, you’re unlikely to get a custom drawing, but they may offer that as an additional gig.
5. Ask for a Jpeg as well as an editable version of the file.
6. When you get the work, post it on a forum for writers or readers, as well as friends and family, and get some feedback.
7. $5 dollars isn’t much, so I either take the feedback I got from my testers back to the original designer and buy another gig, or buy another gig from a new designer, attaching the file that they can edit as well as the feedback I want implemented.
This process will ensure you get an ecover more in line with what you're looking for. You only get one shot at making a first impression, so make it count!
Bookinform would like to thank Charles Moore for his input. If you would like to check out Charles Moore and his books on helping self-publishers, you can find him here.