Self-Publisher's Guide: How To Design Your Own Cover

Other articles in the Self-Publisher's Guide Series

Part 1: Reasons To Self-Publish Your Novel

Part 2: Don't Hire An Editor

As a self-publisher, it’s in your best interest to keep the cost of your book as low as possible. That means doing everything you can on your own, on your own. In keeping with the DIY spirit of my self-publisher’s guide, today let’s look at book covers. Why and how to make your own book covers, as well as how not to make them.

They say you should never judge a book by its cover. If you’ve ever gone to a book store, then trust me, everyone there (and yes, that means you too) have violated this rule. As human beings, we’re inherently shallow creatures. Especially in a world where there are so many shiny things vying for our attention. Book covers are no exception.

When marketing your work, presentation means everything. And in the case of books, presentation starts with the very first thing that the audience sees; the cover.

Professional artists have set standards for what a book cover should and shouldn’t look like.

It can seem a little intimidating for self-published authors to create their own book covers. Especially those with limited artistic ability. But if you want to save money on your work while still making something that’s presentable and easy on the eyes, then it’s important to learn the basics. Fortunately for you, the basics is all you’ll ever need.

Before I continue on, I’d like you to do something that I did when I started designing my own cover. Go to a bookstore, or a library, and simply look at book covers. More importantly, look at the simpler, less intricate covers, as opposed to the more complex ones.

Now, if you’re going to design your own covers, the first thing you have to do is recognize your limitations. If you’re anything like me, then you wouldn’t know the first thing about designing the cover for Spy Kids 4D, so don’t even try.

Your cover has to be perfect in what it is. So why not create something that’s easy to perfect?

Exercise Minimalism

Exercising minimalism can be a great thing for self-published authors, because they don’t have as many details for the artist to worry about. But don’t get me wrong. Even minimalism requires attention to detail. But there is a significantly smaller gradient for the artist to be judged on what their cover should look like.

Maintaining Artistic Poetry

I don’t know if there is an artsy-fartsy term for what I am describing, but in essence your cover has to be consistent in every way, shape, and form. Everything from the background to the font, to the objects on the cover.

Let’s look back at the cover I presented earlier.

Now being a self-published author myself, I’m aware that it might not be entirely diplomatic for me to criticize other self-published writers. But it’s always been my philosophy that the greatest way to learn is through expressions of tough love. I wish Christ Turner all the best, but there is no denying the fact that the cover for this novel is a complete disaster. And so with no ill-intentions in mind, let’s all strive to learn from it.

The first problem is the image on the cover itself. It’s pixilated, it’s murky, and worst of all, it tells the reader very little about what the book is about. Then there is the issue of the fonts. One bright red, one bright yellow, and another black with silver borders. These are contradictory colors, and they do nothing but conflict with the natural brown hue of the cover itself.

Keep in mind that like in writing, art has to have a sense of poetry. The details you put in have to fit together in some thematic way. Take this, and compare it to the cover of a fan fiction short story I’m currently working on (which will be done by the end of the week).

The only colors you see here are blue and white. Nothing in the cover breaks or distracts the audience’s attention. The details and the style are simple, but they match.

If you’re going to design your own cover, the first lesson you have to learn is that in order to make an effective cover, you have to make sure that the tone throughout your cover stays consistent.

Photography

Photography is an alternative to making cover designs, and it has the advantage of requiring less digital design.

Fear Of The Dead is my first self-published novel about four characters living in a somber, zombie infested world where everyone they know is either dead, or missing. I knew after I was done with my manuscript that I wanted a cover that was less digital, and more emotionally raw. It had to be dark, it had to be gritty, and it had to depressing. So I took several picture’s of a hand behind a curtain, and voila. The heavy presence of shadows adds to the depressive nature of my book, and with fading the color on my font, I was able to make the cover tonally and emotionally consistent.

This required less in the way of digital editing. But I will admit, it took me three whole days just to come up with the idea.

If you have a camera, then snapping shots for your cover can be an effective way to create a book cover. Just practice a while to develop your photographic eye, and eventually you’ll know what works.

I don’t know what this picture says.

It’s important that when designing your own cover, you’re aware of how much of the soul of your manuscript is reflected in that cover. These are the following details you have to convey in your cover:

A) The set pieces

B) The tone

The best example I have of this is the cover for my upcoming novel, I, Jimmy Cheng. Part murder mystery, part parody of the mystery and autobiography genre, the cover tells you everything you need to know about the upcoming book, which will hopefully be out within two months.

I hope this has been a learning experience.