How to get a cover

How to get a cover

There are a couple ways to get great cover art for your ebook. The first is to create it yourself. This is the most time-consuming of the options.

Hardest - do it yourself

To make your own cover, use your favorite drawing, painting or graphics software. Draw a rectangle. Add a book spine and pages to give your rectangle three dimensions to look like a closed or partially open book. Fill your drawing with interesting colors or patterns. Add your title and author byline to the front and spine. Embellish and revise ad nauseum.
If you're wondering which graphics program to use, there are many to choose from. Some standard office programs provide the ability to create graphics, including MS Word. More flexible, but more complicated graphics software you could use just as well includes Macromedia Fireworks, CorelDraw, or Adobe Photoshop. Professional cover art designers and graphics artists tend to use the pure, flexible, more complex, programs for their work.

Developing your cover from scratch is do-able, and even you could do it if you were so inclined. But I don't recommend the do-it-yourself approach. This is because, if you're short on software skills, artistic talent, or time or if you would rather focus your energies elsewhere, then there are more efficient ways to get cover art.
A couple shortcuts Shortcuts to the build-it-from-scratch approach include using templates or using ebook cover art software.

Templates are available for purchase on the Internet, and some sites even offer free basic templates if you will link back to their site. Buying or borrowing templates will still require you to add your own text and additional graphic elements, so you'll still be investing some time, just a little less time than drawing each line of the picture from absolute zero.

I've listed some web sites where you can get free templates in the online resources chapter. Again, most free template sites will ask for a link displayed in your ebook.
Although I don't have any reason to advocate purchasing cover art templates, I've also included a couple websites that sell ebook cover templates, just FYI. Purchased templates should not require a link back, and if they do, then definitely don't buy those.

You can also buy specialty ebook cover software from a number of web sites. I don't recommend this either. The software generally is a glorified set of templates, but gives you more choices and more freedom to change this and that. You will still do the work of designing your own cover. I've included web addresses where you can check out a couple of these packages in the online resources listed at the end of this ebook, FYI.

If you do design your ebook cover art using free or purchased templates, or free or purchased software, you own the copyrights to the finished artwork and to anything else you design with the templates or programs.
My recommendation - hire an ebook cover designer

I suggest that you hire a designer to prepare your cover art. There are numerous reasons. When you hire a designer to create your ebook cover art, you will get the following benefits:
1. You get full copyright and exclusive ownership of the finished artwork.

2. Professionals with professional skills can turn around your project quickly. Sometimes in a matter of days.

3. You avoid struggling with software to create your own artwork.

4. Designers are familiar with what types of colors, fonts, and overall designs are better for marketability.

5. An artist can likely also help you create matching graphics for your web page menus, headers, etc.

Artists who design ebook covers generally charge from $50 to $500. If your investment of, say, $100 results in an additional 100 ebook sales, wouldn't that be a good investment? YES! This is why I recommend professionally designed ebook cover art. The cost is completely offset with improved marketability and increased sales.