***UPDATE*** I learned how to design book covers in PHOTOSHOP which is a higher quality design option that I'd highly recommend to other authors - if you want to see both my designs and my experience / things I learned / how I was able to do this, check out this video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TxB1ug6xn3s.html
You never want to save any digital art or photomanipulations as a JPEG/JPG, even if you don't print. JPEG/JPG files are compressed and it will cause your image to loose pixel information like certain colors or details. You ALWAYS want to save as a PNG.
Good to know! I feel like I'd still save it as a jpg if it was a very small image that didn't matter or anything I do on social media, just because they take up less space on the harddrive lol, but otherwise 100% agree that quality is better as a png!
What a refreshing presentation! Love the "imagery" in your intro. Lots of good leads, particularly the KDP template (and their 40-minute tutorial). Good luck everyone! 😊
Wow this is so helpful. I am a writer and wrote many poems for 14 books but now time to self publish. The way you described everything with pinch of patience and other ingredients is amazing. I will give you bunch of love not a pinch. Thank you so much.
This is a very helpful video. I'm starting to do self-publishing and I still have a lot of questions and this really help to point me in the right direction. Thanks.
@@BethanyAtazadeh my husband introduced me to canva about three years ago. I had spent 2 hours trying to design a flyer for a church event, only to come up with a grainy, boring, awful looking design. I asked if he thought it was okay (he's an art teacher), and he tactfully said, "Uh... it's a bit grainy. Have you ever used canva before?" Less than twenty minutes later I had a beautiful, professional looking design. Since then, I have become the go-to girl when people want a flyer designed.
Thank you so much for this! I’ve been wondering how to make a cover to announce my NaNoWriMo project. This will be perfect! I thought your whole approach to this was super cute.
"A pinch of patience." Thank you, Bethany. I used the KDP cover maker and it definitely has its frustrating limitations. It did work with the free photo I had from Unsplash that was a wrap around. Getting the words the way and color I wanted was not optimal. I went with it anyway. :-)
Haha yay! And so glad you got it to work - I agree it’s pretty limited but it’s nice to have it as an option sometimes. Excited that you got a cover made! 🙌🏻🎉
You should make a new video about this now that you've made the new covers for the Stolen Kingdom series! Those turned out absolutely beautiful and it'd be nice to see if anything has changed for your process or if you've learned some new things about making covers that you didn't know before!
Thank you so much, I'm glad you like them! I don't feel like an expert enough to do a tutorial, because using photoshop was waaaaay more complicated than canva haha, but that said, I actually did share a ton of my experience and the learning curves / things I picked up about cover design in this video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TxB1ug6xn3s.html
This is so helpful! KDP is super easy, but I had no idea how to make the cover for ingram spark. Now to figure out hardcovers... (Not that I would design my own covers, but it would be nice to change formats if needed)
So glad this was helpful! And you can use that template cover for Barnes & Noble Press as well :) I have never done a hardcover, but I believe that Ingramspark also has templates you can download from their website and I assume that it would be a very similar process of using their hardcover template and info to put a cover together! :)
So glad you liked it! And Derek Murphy has awesome resources for covers - I really enjoy his 3-D cover creator tool! And also his diybookformatting.com which I use for all my books! 🙌🏻🥰
Hi Bethany !! Absolutely love how helpful your videos are . Can you make a planner template I’d try process . Just a layout similar to how you personally organize release days marketing days etc
Great Video! I love your ingredients 🤣! I didn't know you could save different versions to look at simultaneously. I'll have to try it out. Did you just change the coloring of the picture until it looked like a fantasy image? I've been struggling to find fantasy images for my mood boards. Being able to use the Canva pictures would help a lot!
Thank you! 😆 and yeah I’ve discovered so many canva features I didn’t used to know about, love that site! I tested out all the filters and also played with the settings manually too, but it helped me to set my own covers beside it to get a feel for the coloring I wanted, so if you found some fantasy covers you liked and wanted to mimic that could help you choose the coloring! :) good luck!
BTW I don't really see anything wrong with the mock cover you have here. I think it looks rather nice. I've seen far worse covers from some of the big traditional publishing houses over the years. LOL
In this case, I was either doing ebooks only or I would use KDP's cover creator to make the spine and back - BUT I've since learned how to design book covers in photoshop, so if you're curious, here's the link to that video to learn more! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TxB1ug6xn3s.html
That's a great video suggestion! I will add it to my list, but it might not happen til next year so in the meantime, I would def recommend my videos on outlining (if you search my name + outline a bunch of them should come up, and also my videos on "save the cat writes a novel" will give you TONS of story structure videos that I've done with my critique partner, Brittany Wang!) Also, highly recommend the book Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody, that's the method I use for outlining all my novels! :)
I have a couple of questions. I already have a book cover that is 5 by 8 inches. I want to change it 8 by 9 to suit my new edition of the manuscript. I also have a template for the 6 by 9. How can I edit some words on the cover...delete and redo, and how to resize it. please explain it to me, I need to do I for the first time. Let me know how to do it in Adobe PS. thanks!
What if you cannot afford to pay a professional to help you with a book cover? I have a few books written and I am attempting to put pieces together for my book covers. I have literally no money to afford to pay someone to help me. I'm one of those struggling writers...
Bethany Atazadeh so far, I am. I’m actually doing two books: one is a children’s book about a little boy who wants to be a dirt biker when he gets bigger that is being edited, and the other was going to be a children’s book but is now a middle grade chapter book..? It’s about mermaids and humans working together to fix pollution (it’ll be a series with each book tackling a different issue in the world)
So I'm writing a book about a girl going back and time to 67 million years ago. I am really good at drawing dinosaurs, so I originally wanted to draw the dinosaurs myself. I do want to sell this, so should I still pay for a cover designer? Or could I draw the image, and then pay for a editor to edit it to make people want to actually buy it?
Don't forget to 💻 SIGN UP FOR MY AUTHOR NEWSLETTER for FREE exclusives (starting with the first HALF of The Stolen Kingdom + a step-by-step self-publishing guide and template): www.bethanyatazadeh.com/contact
#Bethany did you pay Amazon to sell your books? That is how selling books as an author at amazon really works right? Please, be honest. Cause I had no clue about that truth. In regards to that, I am at the moment not paying them and my books are stuck. They are not known in google only in the Amazon account.
Lol no, publishing on Amazon is 100% free through their company KDP (kindle direct publishing). They get their money by taking a percentage of each sale. If your book is stuck, call the help desk I pointed out to talk to someone who can help you pinpoint why. Good luck!
I do appreciate your video. However, please consider encouraging your viewers and authors that they can still be financially successful even with a self-made cover design.
