Series: Self publishing book cover design Part 1 of 4

Today,  I wanted to share with other self publishing authors how to design your book cover.  I uncovered a secret way to get the most unique cover for your money. It’s been proven over and over again the job of the book cover is to sell the book. A smart cover hooks the reader’s interest.

But how do you start?

10 Basic steps.

Develop keywords.
Decide your target audience.
Start an account with create space.
Get ISBN
What are the demographics of your book?
Develop ideas for covers before you seek a designer
 What is most valuable to the reader?
What is your message?
Choose images
Choose color palette

 

After you do these ten basic steps. I chose the most professional source of designers at 99 designs. I encourage you to shop around to find different sources. After searching for days this was the best choice for me. There is a video tutorial on youtube you can watch on 99 designs. It is not the cheapest way however it’s the way to get the most designers and best product. It’s called Crowdsourcing Contest and starts at 299.00. My experience was more than exceptional.

I got these items: hardback cover, paperback cover, audio book cover, kindle cover, pdf design without text, banner for my website, jpg files for marketing on facebook and twitter, 3d designs pictures of the book. 99designs

Start with giving an in depth description of your book. This will helps the designers to come up with ideas on the colors and your book as a product. Use the keywords from the above list and your target audience to design your unique cover. Write at least three paragraphs about your book.

Tell the designers what you want. Spell out everything. Find similar book covers you like and develop a style.

Keep a folder on your desktop and copy and save book covers you like into that file. This will come in handy when describe your style. Think outside the box. I gathered tattoos of my keywords. Try shutterstock, istockphotos, gettyimages, google keywords for images, etc.

Crowdsourcing is a contest and you pick the best design. I had 32 designs entries. My experience produced this cover below. The talent was superb. 99designs did all the work! I was very pleased with the outcome of my book cover design and my designer was professional, dependable, and creative. My freelancer was from Romania.

Remember to start with 10 basic steps.

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