How to Design a Book Cover: 7 Steps for Professional Results

Table Of Content

• Perfect Your Typography
• Comic Book Cover Template (PSD)
• Step 2: Consider your readers

KDP, for example, has a cover calculator and template generator that will turn out a PDF that you can import into your image editing software and lay over your design. 📏 Before you go much further with the design, make sure you’re working to the right dimensions. For ebooks, the standard front cover size on KDP is 2560 x 1600 pixels. We’ll dive into the specifics of print editions later on in this guide.

Perfect Your Typography

With Marq, you won’t waste time learning how to use a complicated software that takes time and expertise to use. Marq is the perfect cross between a simple and a professional design tool. Visme’s online book cover maker is a tool that creates high quality book covers.

Comic Book Cover Template (PSD)

Examples include author and publishing company logos, as well as barcodes so the book can be sold in stores. Literary books most often straddle one or more of these genres and are defined by high-quality writing and profound human stories. Creating a mockup of your book also makes your book cover feel more real to you and others.

Step 2: Consider your readers

If you request any special printing processes (like foil stamping) you will likely have to create a second document that acts as a guide for where you want the foil to go. Some printers will carefully manage how close your text will go to the edges of the spine by giving a specific measurement. A bold and bright aesthetic may work best for children’s books, playful novels, or inspirational stories. You need to figure out your cover aesthetic — i.e., simple or detailed, colorful or dark, modern or fantastical, etc.

Why Do I Need a Book Cover Template?

While the numbers presented in this post are based on real market data, they are still only indicative of the final price tag, not a guarantee. Ultimately, the best way to determine your book's costs is to send a request to professionals and evaluate their specific offers. Once you have some ideas, create mock-ups using book templates or use grids such as a three-by-three, ‘rule of threes’ grid in a design app. Free font-picking-and-combing tools such as Monotype can help you find combinations of fonts you like.

If you’re looking for a little inspiration or need a hand getting your cover done quickly, we can help. You can create a beautiful book cover in minutes with our pre-designed book cover templates. Customize by hand or upload your branding to access a collection of Smart Templates automatically customized to fit your brand. Visme’s free book cover maker is filled with pre-designed templates.

Know what the printer needs

The Best Book Cover Designs of 2023 - kottke.org

The Best Book Cover Designs of 2023.

Posted: Tue, 26 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

For example, the email provider Mailchimp is free for up to 500 contacts, but it quickly gets expensive once you surpass that. If you’re authoring a children’s book, you may need to hire an illustrator to bring your words to life. The average cost to hire a freelance illustrator for a 24-page children’s book is between $1,540 and $4,950. An elaborate illustrated cover (like you might see on a Fantasy novel) would cost more than one that involves working with stock images — if only because of the different skills and time requirements. To find out more about why certain styles cost more, take a look at our guide to cover design.

The Daily Heller: An Ode to Two of George Giusti's Book Cover Designs - PRINT Magazine

The Daily Heller: An Ode to Two of George Giusti's Book Cover Designs.

Posted: Fri, 08 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

What is a book cover maker, and why is it essential for authors?

The Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter book cover examples here target children who are a bit older, so they certainly break that rule. Poetry is all about engaging with a subject in a unique and subjective way, and poetry book covers are no different. The room for creative suggestion and the communication of mood is vast.

Book Cover Mockup With Autumn Leaf (PSD)

A good starting point is the imagery and motifs in your book. The exercise nonetheless gives some insights into key differences in art style, font choice, palette and image saturation between genres. Wielding typography with confidence, Pearson is able to convey the mood of a book instantly, in most cases without the need for supporting imagery. Look at how these three classic novels were redesigned using stock imagery alone.

But that cover is also the first step in converting a curious reader into your customer. Don’t put a dragon on your book cover if there are no dragons. This may lead to a month of increased sales, then trigger countless negative reviews and a swath of readers who will tell everyone they know never to read your books because you’re dishonest. Robinson Crusoe 389 on İstiklal Caddesi is a must-visit while you’re exploring the bustling shopping street. Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below.

If you are not a confident designer and create a subpar book cover design, your book sales will suffer. In addition to photo books, you can shop large prints, calendars, cards and metal tabletops. There are fewer size and style options than most services when it comes to photo books, but the other photo product choices make up for the lack of available styles.

In fact, color meanings and psychology reveal many symbolic underpinnings to a palette. Colors can be a signifier of genre (red and black for thrillers, powder blue for period novels), a psychological mood-setter, and means of catching a reader’s attention. In this style of layout, type and other elements are arranged across a structure of rows and columns.