Designing book covers tutorial

This is a critique and a tutorial to teach and illustrate good cover design rules dtg magazine design department dtg magazine, the original design zine since 1990. Book cover design rules, tips and tricks presented by fred showker as part of judging the wiley design challenge. Canvas free book cover maker is ridiculously easy to use even for the novice or notsotechsavvy writer. We discuss spine width, layout, colors and typography.

Heres everything you need to create a book cover their readers will love. In this tutorial well be creating a print paperback cover. Sad to say, thats the way many actually are created. Weve even seen authors themselves, or authors friends or family members designing covers. How to design your book cover free is a powerful design centered stepbystep explanation of how you can start today. We have extremely high standards for our book cover design and creative work and our book cover designs always stand out with premium and professional level design aesthetic. Yet architects, product designers, and other key professionals in this new field. A great book cover design, at its most basic level, is something that will help readers take you and your book seriously. We cherrypicked 68 brilliant covers to give you some book cover ideas. When uploading your own images to cover creator, make sure. But fear not, because you dont have to be a technological whiz to create a striking cover design with canvas free online book cover maker. Select the rectangular frame tool and drag to create a frame that surrounds the front cover page. And every day is different the process of designing a cover takes ages and at any one time ill be working on at least half a dozen titles. This will allow you to visualise the arrangement of type and images, and judge how well elements are centered on the page.

Designing book covers is an exciting assignment for any graphic designer. Book covers today have to work even harder to stand out amongst crowded shelves, and to look arresting at short distances or shrunken down to thumbnail size on sites like. Make sure it extends to the red bleed lines at the top and bottom to ensure that your art prints correctly to the very edge of the paper. If your client does not yet have a barcode, you can reserve a 2 x 1. Book cover design can be a really fun and rewarding job for a designer, if they know how to go about it. How to design a contemporary book cover creative bloq. Design book covers with canvas free book cover maker. More than 1,300 covers, searchable by designer, title, author, publisher, publication date, art director, photographer. If youre looking to inspire a great back cover, read this post thats all about the books back. When you are designing a book cover, you are visually representing the chapters, paragraphs, characters, events, settings, and ideas, all in a single image.

This is great, as the tutorial shows the importance of guidelines margins and also focuses on the overall book cover rather than just the front page. Its easy to open the templates, switch the images and edit the text, and save the file as a readytouse cover. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a book cover of the size 5. Youve done the hard work and created an amazing book. I hope i get to do one before they stop printing them. I might be working on, say, a vampire love story, a romance anthology, historic fiction, an urban thriller and a graphic novel in fact thats pretty much exactly what ive got on right now.

Design book cover for free with online templates adobe spark. Lets be honest, we all judge a book by its cover most of the time and there are legions of blogs dedicated to the pastime. Getting words and ideas out to the world can be liberating. Diy book covers free book design templates and tutorials. Even some of the most critically acclaimed and widelyread books are. When designing nonfiction covers, we want to communicate to the reader the benefit of buying and reading the book. Whether the cover of your new novel needs to make a bold statement or your freshly baked cookbook cover needs to pop, bookbabys designers will create a custom book cover that you can be proud of. Cover creator uses the book details you enter during title setup and adds your book s isbn to the barcode area of the back cover. This is a book of action and doesnt just tell you how i created my covers, but also reveals the secret to helping you also unleash your inner creativity. If you join as a member, youll get access to a huge collection of book cover templates, so that you can design your own book covers quickly, without starting from scratch. Sinem erkas has been designing book jackets for eight years, and her typographic covers for f.

Do not decide on a book cover until you have read this book. See more ideas about book cover design, book design and cover. I guess not, free tools provide limited access to editing and does. View part 2 designing book jackets based on the design in this tutorial. How to make a book cover design photoshop tutorial youtube. How to set up your cover document in indesign step 1. Many cover creator templates allow you to choose an image from our image gallery or upload your own image. Cover design secrets you must know if you want anyone to buy. At the time, fitzgeralds stories were out of, so loads of publishers were republishing his books, and i imagined many of them would end up as pastiches. Every printed book requires an isbn barcode in the book cover design. However, just because you can make your own covers, doesnt mean you should without guidance, you can use all my tools and still make ugly covers. Basically, book cover design is one of the books most important assets and can have an enormous impact on sales so you need to get it right. By creating alternative covers for books, they will engage with the plot, characters, motifs, and tone of the book in a new way.

If you have access to adobe photoshop and have time to play around, you can make a pretty amazing book cover by yourself. Mar 27, 2010 learn how to setup your indesign file to create a 6x9 book cover. How to design a book cover for print and free template. Designing a book cover cover design shares the same basic elements as page design. Walk into a book store and you cant help but be struck by the range of styles used in contemporary book cover design.

Learn how to make book covers in this comprehensive. Yes, you will find multiple online free tools and softwares to create free book cover designs. Learn how to design your own book covers with my online video course, cover design secrets that sell, a huge package of design templates, recommended fonts for every genre, and resource lists to help you find the best cover art and photography. Designing for sustainability is an innovation shaping both the design industry and design education today. Apr 02, 2020 adobe indesign is the pro designers software of choice for creating beautiful book covers. Ill dip in here or there, but its strictly an informationgathering trip. Even if you end up hiring a designer, learning the basics of cover design and how to use some free online design tools will make it. May 11, 2011 but with nonfiction, skimming the book is usually enough to get me ready. In this course, well start with examples of good book cover design, brainstorm ideas, and well create designs with adobe indesign, photoshop, and.

Introduction to cover creator cover creator is a free tool intended to help you design a basic cover that meets kdp specifications. Mar 28, 2018 how to design a book cover for print and free template downloads how to make your own book cover. This is an introduction to book cover design, based on a presentation i gave at a writing conference in ecuador. Access the cover by clicking the icon at the top left of the main toolbar. Designing a book cover for a classic title to make it modern and compelling for readers is a big task. Something you may encounter during your journeys as a book cover designer is designing a set of books. Apart from your ability to execute a design, the most important aspect of book covers is their ability to connect with the target market. Designing a book cover might seem complicated, but the technical aspects are actually much easier than youd think.

Here youll see some outstanding photoshop work but are they good book cover designs. Caring about fantastic book cover design is one of those nonnegotiables for all authors. How to design a book cover for ebooks and more stencil. Jan 27, 2016 designing a book cover for a classic title to make it modern and compelling for readers is a big task. So it is the responsibility of your book designer or you, if you choose to design your book yourself to ensure that the details of your book lead your future readers to your book, give off a. Oct 27, 2015 designing a book cover, including design tips, ways to use photoshop to add artistic effects, and how to load your finished cover to blurb. Hi everyone, in this tutorial, i have explained about design book cover, graphic design in photoshop. Designing book covers few people think about the way book covers come into life, and most think you just call an artist and say make a book cover. Even though weve all been told since childhood to never judge a book by its cover, the fact is that book cover design does attract readers. To see the kind of cover you can create with the tool, check out these examples. Designing a book cover linkedin learning, formerly. It covers nearly fifty years of design work and will be appreciated by anyone who loves goreys unique and strangely beautiful style. I spend more time visualizing ideas in my head than i do actually creating the cover.

If cover creator doesnt meet your formatting needs, try our doityourself guidelines ebook and paperback and templates paperback. Affordable book cover design creativindie book cover design. The first way to promote a book is to have an attractive and relevant cover. But with nonfiction, skimming the book is usually enough to get me ready. However, the one issue that selfpublishing authors always seem to face is promoting their book or story. Canvas book cover maker makes designing book covers amazingly simple even for nondesigners. Learning objectives upon completion of this lesson, students will.

The best tools, tricks, and tutorials to create your book cover art yourself. Writing a book or story can be incredibly fulfilling to a writer. In this tutorial, carlyn beccia will show you the steps she used to redesign one of her favorite childhood stories, watership down by richard adams. So i made over 150 book cover templates in ms word, so that authors could use a program they are already familiar with. However, ebooklaunch does excellent custom covers for a very reasonable price, and im confident they can help you if youre looking for something more affordable. Even if youre a relative beginner to indesign, this tutorial will show you how you can create printready covers for paperback books quickly and easily.

Get images for your cover you can choose an image from our image gallery or from your computer. But although i personally believe in paying professionals, im also aware that some people want to have a go themselves, or need to because of. Designing ebook covers lets design beautiful ebook covers your client wrote the next great ebook. Well give you a free estimate and answer your questions. Learn how to design a book that will be cherished for years to come. How to find the best art and photos that nobody else is using. Our knowledgeable team has years of experience in print design in a wide variety of genres. Derek murphys cover design secrets should be mandatory reading for any writer who is on the verge of publishing.

Im particularly excited about how my last book cover turned out and thought id share my process. How to make your own book cover in adobe photoshop. This is especially true for many classic books that predate digital publishing and often lack cover artwork and compelling designs that drawin readers or help to promote a book title online. Make sure it sells out by creating an awesome cover design. Mar 30, 2017 8 cover design secrets manipulate readers into buying books. Read this tutorial to learn some rules to designing a. Once you learn how to use and place guides, youll be making book covers in no time. View part 2 designing book jackets based on the design in this. More than just listing the dos and donts of effective covers, read. Its always best to design the front of your cover only first, before you create a full cover, with spine and back. I had a breakthrough when i discovered microsoft word has features that make designing easy if you know what youre doing. Customize your book cover to suit your book genre change the images.

An eyecatching design can make the difference between a book that sells and one that stalls, so dont let your future bestseller get passed over due to a soso cover design. And the book cover archive is a great resource for the appreciation and categorization of excellence in book cover design, edited and maintained by ben pieratt of general projects and eric jacobsen of whisky van gogh go. Heres a short stepbystep of the book cover i just made for james carters. When designing a book cover david airey graphic designer. But if you do decide to make your own cover, here are 7 steps that youll want to follow. The basic how to make book cover design in photoshop cc, i hope you enjoy this video. Our custom book cover design will get your book or ebook noticed. Decide if you are going to tackle this project yourself or hire a professional cover designer to do it for you.

We have had the pleasure of designing hundreds of book covers for talented authors across nearly every genre. Making book covers is fun and if you publish a lot of books learning how to design your own book covers may save you a lot of money. Learn how to make book covers in this comprehensive indesign. With those two rules youve focused on the intent of the book, and youve attempted to zero in on the psychological positioning of the reader. Designing book covers with photoshop and illustrator. If your book stands a chance at succeeding, its design has to match or, if possible. Nigel french breaks down the components of an elegant and readable book, starting from the ground up in adobe indesign. Who to ask for help if you need a professional book cover design artist.

However, if you want to create an ebook cover you should choose web rather than print and set the dimensions of your cover in pixels. To get the official isbn barcode, you will need to contact your client. The diy book cover designer successful selfpublished authors tend to talk more about their marketing efforts than the ins and outs of how they created the actual book. Call us so we can discuss your book design and project needs. Truth be told, yes, you should judge a book by its cover, especially when it comes to comic books. Derek murphy of creativindie covers is a brilliant designer and has designed a number of my own book covers. This class covers setting up your document, placing and styling text, working with images, creating the book cover, and preparing the book for printing. On the paperback content tab, scroll down to the book cover section and click launch cover creator.

Below are some of my favorite design software, book cover design templates, and places to find book cover designers. Although the tutorial is quick and not detailed, it is precise and straight to the point. Sometimes the books are a part of a narratorial series think harry potter, and sometimes they are a part of a collection think penguin classics. Your stepbystep guide to book cover maker, book cover design, book cover template, book cover designer and more. They have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi dots per inch. Scott fitzgeralds novels are a lesson in putting a fresh spin on a classic text. Online retailers like amazon do not distinguish between traditional and selfpublished books which means independent authors are often competing again big 5 publishers. A paperback book s pages are glued together with a paper cover and then cut to size. Upload your own images or choose from our stock library of over 1 million photographs, graphics and illustrations. Weve covered the two cardinal rules of book cover design, 1. If the popularity and ease of selfpublishing has you thinking its easy, think again.