How to Make a Book Cover Even if You Lack Artistic Abilities!

How to make a book cover is a common question here at Write and Publish Fiction. It can be a very tedious process if you are planning on self-publishing your fiction. Unfortunately, hiring someone to design a book cover for you can be very expensive or you simply can't afford the photo editing software or lack the artistic mind to create killer book cover graphics yourself.

This has been a very big hurdle personally with my books, but with a little time and effort, you can create a great book cover that properly compliments your book.

You have an artistic ability as a writer, but it is mostly with words. So, your goal is to create a decent book cover that doesn't cost much to produce and looks good enough to sell your book, but still using your built-in abilities as a writer.

Your main focus will be on your book's title. When you think of how to make a book cover, what do you see on every book cover out there? The title of a book is on the cover, and so is a by-line. That is a great place to start.

When considering how to make a book cover, the title of a book gives a basic description of what your book is about in either one word or phrase. It should captivate your reader; make them want to read it; make them want to know more of what your book is all about. Learn more about choosing the right title for your book if you are having trouble with your title.

Once you have an awesome title for your book, open up your word processing program and type it out along with your by-line. Play around with different fonts and font sizes. Don't use plain fonts unless it is appropriate for your type of book. Try to use a font that fits the era of your story. Just remember to make it a legible font and make the by-line smaller than the title as to not distract from it.

The title on your book to attract the reader. If you have a very popular name and people will buy your books because you wrote it, then it would be appropriate to make your by-line the same size as your title.

Another consideration with how to make a book cover is to think of a color that corresponds with your book's theme. A book's theme is the main picture people get when they read the book. Examples of themes are love equals red and death equals black. The theme should have a corresponding color. The theme color you choose will be the background color for your cover.

If you feel bold, if there is a particular scene in your book that has a corresponding picture (a barroom, a mountain, a river...), you can use that for your cover instead of just a plain color. Pictures tend to give the reader an image of a scene within your book so when they read it, they can get a better picture in their mind of what's going on. You should use original pictures (ones that you took or have permission to use) as to not infringe on other people's photo copyrights.

After you have a title, font, and background, pick a complimentary color for the title and by-line font. This color, when looking at the cover, should stick out so people can read it easily.

Continuing on with how to make a book cover, make sure your book cover is one page, no more, no less, and ensure it is the same size as your book. If you do have a photo editing program, you can do all of these processes in those programs, but if you did it in a word processor, you will have to modify the margins of the cover page only.

All word processing programs have margins. It may look funny on your book if you have color for your cover, then have it surrounded by a white border. A way you can minimize this is to narrow the borders of the cover page to as small as they can go using the page set up option. You can also place a boarder around your pages using the Format Borders and Shading function.

Work with it to see how it works with your cover. If it looks good, you are done.

Your book cover doesn't have to be perfect the first time. That's what revisions are for. Don't let your cover hold you back from getting your book into print. Go with what you have to get your book into the printing presses, then modify it as necessary.

You may still have some questions about how to make a book cover. That's okay! It's difficult to fully grasp the idea for the first time, especially if you haven't worked with this type of art design. I am on a tight schedule but can help you with how to make a book cover that works for your fiction.