How to Make an E-Book Cover with Gimp

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Which one looks better? It is only a question of preference. I consider myself fairly creative: Thankfully, it is not difficult to find a professional designer for designing a 3D cover. If your favourite website is not on the list, please tell us about it in the comments. You can select a package consisting of either an ebook cover or both ebook and print cover, then share your ideas about what you would like to see.

They also help you out, if you have absolutely no idea. Pay by Paypal and receive your cover by email within 14 days. If you are not satisfied, they change it for you or give a full refund. Check out the full portfolio here. If you are looking for something more affordable, Vila Design can do pretty much the same thing, but for a fraction of the price. They also offer a 3D cover service and can design a whole marketing package including Facebook banners and bookmarks. Fiona Jayde Media provides plot help, layout design page setting , cover design with the possibility of a photoshoot with a professional photographer!

And also a video trailer; yes, book trailers are on and trending. The options are endless: Pick the package that is right for you or ask her for a quote. If you are at least a bit more visual than I am, you can set out making your own book cover. There is nobody to know your book and your ideas better than you anyway. This guide is specifically focused on designing 3D book covers, but we already have articles on book cover fonts, book cover sizes and book title punctuation:. With a simple Google or Facebook login, you can use it either online or on your iPad. I spent a good 25 minutes playing with it and creating the design below: Some pictures appear to be free at first glance, but if you are planning on selling your book, that counts as commercial use.

Once you are done, you can share your cover on social media or embed it into your website. They also operate a free online service: Just set the side and front image, and it gives you the 3D book cover. You can even set a shadow! If you would like something which looks more like a book and less like a box, Adazing.

The only backside is the spine: The aforementioned 3D book cover generators are all amazing, but they offer limited customization options. If you would like to have something very special, you can also have a go and do it yourself. When you first see this there will be a bar that says No Glow.

Click on this and you will see a selection of colours under a heading Theme Colours. You will then see something like this. Hit OK to apply this to the text. This gives a nice semi-3D effect that makes it seem to float above the image. If you need to use this effect, you can play with the settings until you get something you like. Add another text box. Play with the font size until you are happy and then give it a bit of a glow if needed. It looks a little bare so I am going to add a quote at the top and a tag-line at the bottom that tells the reader that this is a story of Goran and Malik.

They will be able to see that this is one of a putative series of stories.

Set width to and height to Go to the File Tab and choose Save and Send. Select Change File Type.

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Choose Save Current Slide. As far as I can tell Powerpoint does not give you a choice of sizes when you export so you will need to open the JPG in an image editor and adjust the file size. You can do this very easily in Paint , the free image editing and drawing program that comes with Windows 7. For one thing, I am sure you can do much better! Instead take a glance at books in your own genre and see what they look like.

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Note how they use font sizes and various layouts. Find one that you like and try and duplicate the effects. I am not saying copy the cover, just the style in which it is done! Play around with things until you are happy. For example, with The Inquiry Agent see picture on the right sidebar we used two text boxes for the title with the words The Inquiry in a smaller font than the word Agent. As a last word, one of the great advantages of this system is that you now have a template you can use for any future releases in this series.

For example, when I release future Goran and Malik stories all I need do is load a new cover image, change the text in the title textbox and I am done. This may seem like my usual laziness to some but I like to think of it as efficiency. By the way, Henchmen is available for the Kindle right now at Amazon. Awesome, awesome post, Bill. This gives me hope for some of my endeavours.

Bill, I just discovered you and you are a godsend! The cover I made is for a young adult book. My next book in a recipe book for gluten—free cookies. I was surprised to see your example with the same title as the one I have. Can I use the title in your template? I have my own photos. Best to you and take care.

Advice on Writing, Publishing, and Book Promotion

I now realize the template I was referring to came from a different source. Sorry for my mistake. This is very timely for me as I muddle through the cover design process myself. I am curious about your placement of text.

GIMP tutorials that helped me learn how to do my own covers. Share yours!

I see that in your cover art which I really enjoyed BTW your name is at the top and in most of them it is in a bigger font than your book title. Was this a conscious decision and if so, why? Thanks much for the great info! My name is just in the same place as it is in my traditionally published books. Good luck with the cover design! I thought you might want to see my cover idea, that I developed using some of the tips you provided above. Feedback is most appreciated! I happen to use Visio for my layouts. Many ebook publishing sites or standards want a cover that is at least a certain size, so show your rulers and use them.

Thanks,Bruce, I am a great believer in using what works for you. Visio never even occurred to me I must confess! I read somewhere else about using Powerpoint to create covers. I suspect your post can serve as a general guide when I try it. My original plan was to go with the presentation software in OpenOffice but I just could not get it to work for me. I found I also just could not get to grips with Keynote but I see no reason why it should not work.

Good luck with the covers: It is far and away the easiest way I know of doing this. This link should tell you a bit more: Hey bud, this really helped me. It helped me make a better book cover for my e-book. I use those Adobe programs to get what I usually need, but this gives me more options for artistic, design, and composition advantage. Thanks for the extra option to broaden my horizons. The original art that you used for the cover, that is what I have to really reach for the next time I design a cover for my stories.

Overall, very cool William! Honestly, I never would have realized to use PowerPoint. Seriously cool and genuine. I still intend to but the pressure is off for now: You know, my approach to ebook cover design is quite different.

You should write that blog post. I suspect it depends which version of Office you are using, David. It looks a bit weird because its a different colour but it is there. It took me a long time to find it too. I fear my MS Office is too outdated. Thanks for your help. And again, thank you VERY much for this guide! On the following menu page, you then have complete control over the glow color, size, transparency, etc. Remember, too, that you can combine various text effects such as glow, shadow, etc.

The shadow function is rather effective, allowing you to control the shadow direction, size, color, transparency, and blur.

I use PPT quite extensively to produce weekly announcements for my church, but admit that, although I frequently use these functions, I had not thought until now about using it to create an ebook cover. I just need to find the time: I have just uploaded a short story which is currently live and free on KDP. You really started something. I bought Keynote, started playing around with it, and after I got a good grasp of the basics, turned out a pretty decent cover for a short story.

Just published it on Smashwords: Within the Silence, http: Glad to hear it worked out for you, mate. I could never quite make Keynote do what I want myself. It does require several work-arounds, like creating portrait orientation inside landscape orientation. By playing with transparency ie.

All were purchasable stock images. There are all sorts of other tricks you can do by changing the shading and saturation, using background images that are built into the program, and playing with fonts and wordart. Thanks Bill, apologies for taking so long to approve the comment. I was at the Black Library Live convention. Excellent tip about transparency. I will give that a try myself at some point! I used PPT to rework my book cover for the kindle version. Thanks for taking the time to share all you learned! Thanks you for tell everyone on how to make an affordable covers.

I am a newbie at self-pub.

And to tell you the true some of the sites I have been too can to pricey. I wanted to make my own cover after I came across several books using the same pictures, I think the worst cover is where someone pieced together body parts! Like I said, that was when I decided to make my own. I have less understanding than a second grader when it comes to this stuff, but as an author, I need to learn cover designs, at least the basics.

I also highly recommend this site: He also runs a monthly contest for covers, and publishes a lot of them, with comments, in a blog post. William, do you have a suggestion on who to use to publish my e-book? I know nothing about formatting or anything but typing the manuscript, I hate to admit…Any help or suggestions?? There are plenty of people out there who will take your money. I have no idea which of them are any good.

I found that learning to format an e-book took me about an afternoon. If you can use a word-processor you can format an e-book. Hi William, With your help, I think I can actually do this. I have gone back and forth trying to figure out whether to pay bookbaby to do it or if I could actually do it myself. There is an image and print size from very small all the way up to huge. What do you suggest? Thanks every so much for this very detailed and much appreciated tutorial! Thanks in advance for your prompt and helpful reply. Thanks Renee— you need something at least by for an e-book cover.

It will vary with the shape of the picture you purchase. In most cases there will be an option to purchase something this size or in the ballpark. You will be able to downscale it when you export the picture. It should in no circumstances be smaller than by Thank you for sharing your idea on covers. I have to admit that yours is a very affordable way. As I play around with it more, I will be replacing some of the covers. If you should come up with other affordable ways, please share them. Hi William- Thank you for this!!! I will definitely be down loading your books as the best way I can think of saying thanks!

Most of my covers had a slight blur to them, noticeable on amazon. This details how to change your registry settings not as complicated as it looks or sounds in order to save those jpegs at dpi!!: The difference is resolution is pronounced, though I have yet to go through the whole process of getting one of the new images up on amazon. I am always a bit nervous about editing the registry in Windows but that does seem pretty clear and straightforward. None unfortunately Keith, I am no expert on PowerPoint I have almost no experience with it.

Once again thank you so much for the idea.

Creating a DIY book cover with GIMP

I have been making covers like a mad woman. My friends are amazed, one even thought I paid someone to make them! I want to thank you so much for this post. I have been trying to figure out how to make ebook covers look professional for so long. King, I love you for posting this. I have been searching relentlessly on this topic, and was preparing myself to just pay someone else to create my Ebook cover. I have a question: I wish I could recommend a font but I am about as far from being a competent graphic designer as it is possible to get.

I did my eBook in Microsoft Word and now I need a cover for my thumbnail and was ready to rip my hair out until I found this! Now I just have to figure out how to format the rest properly before I finally publish it. But this is a HUGE help! Indie fantasy titan David Dalglish has a guide to quick and dirty formatting here— http: Money is tight, but for the sake of writing I have just purchased Microsoft Office and was completely unfamiliar with Power Point and the strength that lies within that program.

I was debating and wondering how in the world could I purchase an honest to goodness cover design program, but it was there all the time. So I Google searched and your extremely concise summation came up. I am now in the process of improving my book covers as we speak according to your dissertation.

I thank you profusely and wish you the best of luck in your endeavors and the happiest of holidays. And when I came upon Williams helpful hints, I jumped on it. Let me tell you, I have people asking me who do my covers. I enjoy doing it so much, sometimes I find myself making the cover before the book is even written or finished, lol. This was a fantastic post— I have read and bookmarked. Not just that—but I have created a book cover I am so happy with! From, Yet another very un-tech savvy person!

William, your advice was fantastic! I used your step-by-step instructions to give my eBook a much nicer cover than the plain grey one I was using. Heck, people probably thought it was porn…probably would sell better. Keep up the good work. This has been very helpful! I keep trying to upload the cover, but it always says it must be at least px.

What site are you attempting to upload it on and what error are you getting? Though, now, I know how and what a cover should look like, now, I only need an article on how to chose a name and the proper picture. I am a creative person, but no experience with that part of it. Thanks for your help and encouragement. I have just created an e-book cover in 30 minutes! It is really just what we wanted. This was very usefull.

Make a Kindle eBook Cover in GIMP 2.8

That makes that the cover is useless to send to sites like Smashwords. How can you avoid the resizing of the image? If you are using a Mac, you can follow the instructions given in the tutorial above. William, thank you very much for this information. My 35 years plus in the insurance claims profession has left me with many interesting stories, or at least I think they are.

Just dropped by to tell you and everyone just how helpful you have been. You have inspired me to greater things. My covers now are much better and I have even had people ask me to do some for them. Please go to my site at http: Thank you so much! I am a young aspiring author and I am hoping to become a self published author within the year and I want to make a snazzy book cover. This will help me so much! Hi William, Great demo.

I was wondering if you know how to get the cover to display on the file name in the ebook library. When I import my ebook into my kindle library, it just have a default image. Thanks for such a helpful post. Thank you, Amanda— glad to be of help. Nice to hear your husband enjoyed my Warhammer books. I am still writing them to the present day. Thanks so much for this, William. Best of luck in all you do.

The requirements change from time to time so I recommend reading the guidelines at your distributor of choice to see what they are currently using. Hi, I was happy to be reminded of the fact that part of my Microsoft Word Package could help me make my ebook cover! I nearly paid more money for another program. It defaults back to lower numbers as though that configuration is impossible.

Hope my question makes sense! I managed to figure it out. I basically googled how many inches was X pixels and it is 4 inches by 6 inches. After I figured that out, I changed the settings from cm to inches in preferences. Thanks for this site though! Many thanks for a great post. I have finished my book but was finding the cover page part a real stumbling block! Your example uses a x image, is this ok to use with Amazon or have their requirements changed? The photo I would like to use is available as x or x pixels and I am confused as to which to buy.

Any advice you are able to give would be very much appreciated.

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