HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN BOOK COVER FOR FREE
article written by Felica Devers copyright 2014
NO PERMISSION GIVEN TO COPY, DISTRIBUTE OR TRANSMIT THIS ARTICLE IN PART OR IT'S ENTIRETY WITHOUT PROPER ATTRIBUTION TO MYSELF, FELICA DEVERS.
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| using public domain photo from http://www.public-domain-image.com/wallpapers-public-domain-images-pictures/fluoresce-figures.jpg.html |
As a writer/ author looking into self
publishing, having a COVER for your book ranks at the top of your priority list
right under where are you going to
self-publish our now finished book.
As a writer and aspiring novelist
myself who has already taken to self publishing some of my poetry and early
chapters of a current novel I am
writing, I have found that creating my book covers myself has been cheaper,
easier and more fun than paying someone else to create one for me.
I decided to write a on how to create
your own book cover using FREE online tools available to anyone with a laptop
and wifi access because I have come across soo many writers with questions
about design and prices.
Plus when you look at the book covers of what books
are already on brick and mortar book store shelves, you will notice many covers are
pretty straightforward looking.
For
example, check out these covers of some bestselling books:
BOOK COVERS I HAVE CREATED FOR MYSELF... for FREE using either photos I own or public domain images...
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| novel currently writing... FINAL COVER |
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| original public domain photo |
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| another cover using my own personal photo...I own ALL RIGHTS incl. person in photo.... |
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| using another Pub. domain photo. playing around with color and fonts |
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| original public domain photo |
STEPS:
1. LOCATE the photo/picture
you want to use: PHOTO/PICTURE
OPTIONS
YOU OWN RIGHTS- Photo/Picture
either needs to be one where you own BOTH the rights to the image seen
and the rights as the owner of the photo/picture. For example…. You took a photo of a
plant in in your apt… you own the rights to the plant seen and since you
yourself took the photo , you are also own the owner rights. If you took
a photo of a person or thing that you DO NOT OWN the rights to….it does
NOT matter that you were the person that took the photo. For example… you go to a café and snap a
photo of a cute girl sitting in the corner….if the girl in your photo did
NOT SIGN over her rights to be shown in your photo for public display,
you can NOT use this photo even though you own the rights to the photo
itself. You also CANNOT take a photo of a piece of art, a book, another
photo or anything else created by another person and use this photo as
your cover.PUBLIC DOMAIN- Online there are beaucoup websites with oodles of PUBLIC DOMAIN photos/pictures that you can use FREE OF CHARGE as your Book Cover art. You just want to make absolutely sure that the photo you download states it is PUBLIC DOMAIN and you are free to download, copy, distribute, transmit and change the photo without requiring any permissions, attribution or fees.
FREE PUBLIC DOMAIN PICTURE SOURCES... I
trust:
MORGUE FILES http://morguefile.com/archive
PUBLIC DOMAIN ARCHIVE http://publicdomainarchive.com/
PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGES http://www.public-domain-image.com/
NOW THAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE PHOTO/PICTURE YOU WANT TO USE AS YOUR COVER, let’s proceed
2. EDITING the photo/pic and ADDING BOOK TITLE & NAME TEXT to photo/picture.
To begin editing your chosen photo/pic and adding text to the photo you will need to use a Photoshop type program.
There are many FREE options available for you
online, but I have used the 2 named below and have created cool, unique
book covers for myself, so I can attest the 2 below work fine and for
FREE.
FREE ONLINE PHOTO EDITORS
FOTOR Photo Editor http://www.fotor.com
IPICCY Photo Editor http://ipiccy.com/
The photo editors listed above allow
you to change the colors, hues and contrast/saturation of your original
photo/picture as well as cropping, resizing, and most importantly ADDING TEXT
to the photo/picture.
I suggest checking out the covers of
books you like, books in your genre and then playing around online with your
photos and the online photo editors until you create the cover of your dreams…..
it’s really not difficult and only takes a few hours…. Just between you and me,
I think I liked the different options at IPICCY better.
If you have ANY questions or
comments, please do not hesitate to contact me via the comment section on this
post or if you’d like ME to create your cover for you for cheap, contact me via
my email address: felicadlp at gmail.com.
HAPPY WRITING AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR
AWESOME NEW FREE BOOK COVER!!
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