Creating eBook Covers: My Examples

For my first cover I used a single photo

Title	Fire Starter
Author	Diane J Cornwell
Genre	Science Fiction
Sub Genre	Adventure
Series	Standalone
Length	Short Story (6152 words / 24 pages)
Quotes	None

I searched for photos of flames and found three or four that could be used. I settled on the clearest photo.

Creating eBook Covers: Research Genre

You could pay someone to research the genre you wish to study but why when it is so easy to do yourself?

Process

1] Work out your genre and subgenre.

Eg: Mine are mostly Science Fiction, Adventure

2] Search Amazon Kindle for books in your genre and subgenre.

Creating eBook Covers: Software

Software to Create Images and Covers

The image needs to be saved as a Jpeg, therefore it is easier to work in a program that can save as jpeg files.

• Microsoft Paint
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Adobe Photoshop Elements
• Adobe Photoshop
• GIMP (freeware)

There are many other programs, but you will already have Paint if your operating system is Windows.

Creating eBook Covers: Basics

Basics of Creating Book Covers

Reason for covers

• Attract attention of reader.  How? Colour, image, or “mood” of the cover.

• Visually display genre. Why? Make it easy for readers of a particular genre to select my novel from all the other novels.

• Visually display author name and title for readers Why? If the reader is a true fan they will purchase everything written by their favourite authors, no matter which genre.

Creating eBook Covers: Introduction

Introduction

I have never, in my entire life, purchased a book based on the colour, image or text font size displayed on the cover, and I do not intend to start now. So I wondered how I could continue to create covers for my ebooks when most authors don’t think like me.

Completed my 2011 To Do List

I am now taking stock of what I achieved this year.

My novels, novella, novelettes and short story are available on both Smashwords and Kindle Direct. That in itself is a achievement. I can now say I understand how to format into HTML, compile to MOBI files and upload to Kindle Direct, after formatting the word document for Smashwords.