No matter what anyone says, people do judge a book by its cover. It’s the first encounter anyone will have with your book, so it should be attractive, professional, typo-free, and it should reflect the genre somewhat. Tall order on an indie budget, we know.
Below we’ve provided links to articles which will help you design and create your own covers. We’ve also included some links about hiring and working with book cover artists. We’ll be adding more articles as we publish them. Best of luck with your cover!
INTRODUCTION
How we vet covers at Indies Unlimited
Bad book covers from a reader’s perspective
A visual comparison of “homemade” good vs. bad book covers
DESIGN
The Case for Legible Titles
Title Envy (Choose the Right Size for Your Title)
Judging a Book by Its Cover (Snark Alert!)
How to Work with a Cover Artist
Tips: What I Learned as a Book Cover Contest Judge
CREATE
How to Make an eBook Cover Using Microsoft Publisher
Making a Cover Using Canva
Making an eBook Box Set Cover in GIMP
Royalty-free Images and Music
More Free Music and Photos
6 Places to Find Public Domain Images
14 Sites for Making a Spectacular Book Cover
FONTS/TYPEFACES
Typeface and Font for Book Covers
300+ Fool-Proof Fonts to use for your Book Cover Design (by genre)
How to Download and Install Fonts
DISTRIBUTE
Marketing Uses for Book Covers
BOOK COVER CONTESTS
The Book Designer
The Authors DB
50 Books/50 Covers Competition
BOOK COVER SWAG SOURCES
(these links are provided as a service & do not indicate endorsement by IU)
Magnetic Business Card Backing from Staples
Magnetic Business Card Backing from Avery
Prescored Printable Business Card Magnet Sheets
Printable Magnet Sheets from Staples
Printable Magnet Sheets from Avery
Magnetic Business Cards from Vistaprint
Custom Bookmarks from Zazzle
Custom Bookmarks from UPrinting
Book Cover Jewelry from Etsy
BOOK COVER DESIGNERS
The designers below are used by some of the staff right here at Indies Unlimited. Of course, as with any service, your mileage may vary, but our staff is pretty happy with them. (Here they are, in no particular order…)
Dreams2Media
TreasureLine Publishing
Yocla Designs
BeauteBook
Jun Ares
IU does not officially endorse vendors, but we are glad to share information that will help authors make educated decisions. – The Admin.