There’s not much you have to do with your spine. Remember, if you are publishing a novella, after formatting, your manuscript must be 100 pages or more. This is where the 5×8 trim size (the smallest size CreateSpace has to offer) comes in handy. You can also maybe bump up the font size in your manuscript if spine text is that important to you. But don’t go too big, you’re not publishing a Large Print edition.

Let’s look at the cover and template again:

You kind of want the front cover, the spine, and the back cover to blend together. We don’t have a lot of colors to work with here, so I would probably leave the spine white and use the same fonts I used on the cover and keep them black.

Draw a text box in the text box. Don’t make it bigger than you need; smaller text boxes are easier to work with.

Experiment with the font and the size. You can manually enter in the font size and work with the numbers even if the font size is not available in the drop down selection.  You can see here that my name is not centered on the spine, but I chose the biggest font size that would fit.
Move the text box so your name is centered on the spine:

The text box overlap doesn’t matter, we’ll fix that. The most important thing is that the letters are clear and big and as centered as you can make them. If your hand is shaky, or your mouse is temperamental, use your direction keys on your keyboard to move the box around.

Take off the edges by making sure the text box is selected and selecting No Outline in the Shape Outline option in the Shape Styles menu.

The white box is still visible on the cover so you need to select Shape Fill and select No Fill to make the box clear. This option is above the Shape Outline option we used to make the lines disappear.

You can see my name isn’t centered, it’s a little high, but the text box is gone. Move the text box around so you can center your name the best you can. CreateSpace won’t fix any issues you have. On my first attempt on The Corner of 1700, the bottom of the C was missing because I didn’t adjust the text box when I made the font bigger. Anyway, move the text box.

That looks pretty damn near perfect.  There’s no rule that says your name has to go on the top and the title on the bottom. Do what you want, just make sure the text is in the right direction. Take a look at traditionally published books and do you the best you can. Fiddle with the colors if you want, play with font and size.

Do the same with the title.

I use an imprint and like to put it on my spine. Insert a text box.

Use the Shape Fill to insert the picture, then use the No Shape Outline to get rid of the text box lines.

You’ll get a warning from CreateSpace if this image isn’t 300 dpi. Mine printed fine at the 79 dpi because it’s so small, but you might as well make sure it’s 300 dpi in GIMP in case you want to use it anywhere else.

So far, this is what we have. It looks pretty good, and I think the title and author name are centered and as big as I can make them. If your book is thicker, you could even put the couple’s picture at the top; I’ve seen that done before, and I’m sure you have too. But the thinner the book the less room you have. That isn’t an excuse to plump up your book for no reason. CreateSpace charges you for printing costs, which means a higher price for your book the thicker it is.

We’ll look at the back cover next. I think you’ll find the worst part about the back cover is writing the blurb!

Until next time, keep experimenting!

Book cover templates are not such a terrible option if you tried to make your own cover and either couldn’t get what was in your head onto a Word doc, or you don’t have the time or energy to figure it all out.

There are template websites out there that sell them and also lots of places to buy already-made covers. You just put your own info into the template and you’re all done–similar to the CS Cover Creator.

While I was looking around some of these sites I noticed a few things:

1. Some templates only fit certain book sizes, so make sure the cover that you think will perfectly fit your story and title will also accommodate the size of the book you were planning on. This is especially important if you’re paperbacking a novella. The smaller trim size will make more pages, creating a thicker book.
2. Some sites sell you the cover and that’s it. Make sure that you are buying a template that also includes the spine and back, otherwise, it will be your responsibility to match font and colors to create the spine and back cover. This isn’t so important if you are going digital (e-reader) only, but maybe down the road you decide to create a paperback as well, you’ll need to submit all of it.
3. Sometimes you can copy it for free. Study the picture, the background, the placement of title, where your name will go. How fancy is the back?  If you found the picture at Dreamstime could you copy it and save yourself a couple bucks? It’s worth trying to find the picture at least before you buy the template. You can do this for any book cover as well. Look up the top selling books in your genre. Make a list of the things they have in common and see what you can come up with. If anything, this will give you an idea of what you’re looking for in a template.
4. Maybe a template is cheaper. I made a pretty one on Canva, and the picture was a dollar. I found the same picture on Canstockphoto, but since I buy them singly there and don’t subscribe, it would have cost me 8 dollars. Canva is front cover only, so either way I would still have to do the spine and back cover myself. And if I use Canva, I would need to figure out the font so I could use the same on the back cover.

All I did was Google “book cover templates” and came up with a few choices.

Cover Design Studio looked nice, and they have some pretty covers. Make sure you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page of a template you like and look for Additional Information. It will tell you the trim size available, etc. In the pricing, they have a couple of options, and one is CS plus Kindle. That sucks because if you upload to CS first, they send you the file for the Kindle cover, it even says so in the file name:

There’s The Corner of 1700’s Kindle picture of the cover CS sent me for when I put my book in KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). So that website is making you pay for something you don’t need. Otherwise, you can buy the Kindle version and make the spine and back cover yourself.

Joanna Penn on her blog post listed DIY Book Covers as a resource. I didn’t check them out but that could be something to look into as well.

Otherwise, Google “Premade Book Covers” and that will give you a bigger selection of finds. But, as always, make sure you ask about the spine and back cover. They may charge you extra for those.

Hopefully, you can use them for inspiration. I found this one on Cover Design Studio:

Something about it called to me. I don’t know if was the sparkles, or what. But I liked it and wanted to replicate it. I couldn’t find the picture, but I found something . . . not similar, but something else I liked, and I made this:

It’s not exactly what Cover Design Studio made, but I like mine. Maybe you can find something that can help you put down what you like too. And I always have to add the disclaimer to make sure you can use it commercially, and in the copyright page of your book, credit the photo to the website and artist who made your picture available. You bought it, but it’s the polite thing to do. I stole this picture off Pinterest so I wouldn’t be able to use it for a real cover. Hopefully, I could find it elsewhere, but this book hasn’t been written, so it’s not terribly important.

Happy browsing!

I have to admit, I had a moment last night after my last post where I thought maybe I shouldn’t be blogging about this. Because let’s be honest, my first few attempts at doing a book cover didn’t go so well, and they didn’t prove I should be the one to tell you what to do. But I did try again this afternoon, and with a little patience, I am proud of what I came up with:

I’m actually going to keep this one around because I do think I’ll end up using it. I love how all the colors blend together. The woman looks like my female MC, the guy is cute (some of those guys in the stock photos are NOT all that cute, LOL), and it looks more like a traditionally published book cover would look. I wish maybe the path would have had some people running on it–that would have tied in the title to the story a little better, but that’s okay. I tried to look for one, had even thought through all my searches that I had found one but didn’t bookmark it. I’ll look for it some more.

Anyway, how I did it was I started with a “base” of a texture that I found off Pixabay. I searched blue dots, and found something I liked:

But I realized the colors were too bright, so in the picture tools, I made them grey and white which meshed with the people better. I still needed text boxes to put the couple, the trees, and then the title and my name. I fiddled around with the placement of all three until I was satisfied. I don’t know if a person can be 100% satisfied. It’s rather like reading your work over and over again and noting all the things that you would change.

I don’t mind posting my struggles on here because I want you to know that 1) I don’t know what I’m doing, but I still don’t have to pay someone to help me, which, maybe it shouldn’t be, but is a huge pride thing for me, and 2) NEVER publish your first attempt. I went from this:

To this:  

And the difference is incredible. I didn’t ask for any extra help, I didn’t look on any blogs for extra tips (though I strongly encourage you to do whatever you need to do to create a pleasing cover). It was just me, some stubbornness, and some impatience, or patience, however you want to look at it.

I know I said this story takes place in the fall, and it does. It goes from October until February, so using a winter theme for the cover is okay. I could easily go with an autumn theme too, but the cover you end up with can vary greatly with the photos you find and can pay for.

I’ve been doing a little digging around with templates, so now that I’m satisfied, I’ll write about those next. I promise.

Thanks for reading!

I couldn’t get it out of my head that I had a sucky cover for Running to Love. I can’t let things go, and I wanted to try again. I went through a few combinations of photos, thought more about what the book was about, and realized, again, what I realized with 1700–you can’t put your whole book on the cover.

Running to Love has certain elements: both of the characters run, hence the name. It takes place in the fall. They fall in love. They are outside a lot . . . running. Okay, you get the idea. I tried the “running” aspect of the book and it didn’t go that well, I just couldn’t find pictures that would work, or my level of expertise is such that I couldn’t make them work. So I tried the “in love” part and the “fall/autumn” part, and this is what I came up with:

It entirely misses the “running” aspect, but we’ve got the love part in there. I would need to be more careful with the photo since I just realized that woman is a brunette and my main female character is a blonde.

But this is quite an improvement over the others that I posted before. In fact, I looked up contemporary romance covers and found something similar on the covers of Bella Andre’s books, and at wits’ end, copied hers. Which, if you are running out of ideas and are going to pull your hair out at any minute, isn’t a bad idea. Especially since Bella Andre is a best-selling author, she, or her team, obviously know what they are doing. Why not learn from the best?

The only thing I could think of to do at this point, if I didn’t like this well enough, would be to maybe think of a different title. The title of the book, what the book is about, and the cover, all go together. I can’t change what the book is about, that would be silly, but I could do more to make the cover and title mesh.

Another idea I just had was to add something to the back that would depict the story was about running, say a pair of tennis shoes, or a couple running down an autumn trail. You don’t want to spend a lot of money on pictures, and on Can Stock, the photos for this cover would have cost 14 dollars. But you do have options.

Anyway, besides having to scrap the top photo because the coloring of the woman is wrong, I would maybe go with this. Perhaps I would make the bottom photo a bit smaller, make the top photo a bit bigger. Maybe make the title pop more. Play with the fonts because these are standard in Word, and maybe you want something more original.

I’m glad I can calm down now. This was bugging me because I knew I could do better. Now that I have a better feel for what I want, I’ll have better luck tinkering with it.

Okay, I’ll do cover templates another time.

Thanks for reading!

Probably I’m not going to go into too much more of the front cover. It’s all personal taste anyway and a lot of trial and and error. I couldn’t resist trying again, and this is what I came up with:

I used a gradient for the background, I searched Pixabay it and luckily came up with the colors that I needed. I softened the photo again and added the text boxes for the title and my name. I did a separate text box for Running to and Love because the Love was spaced too far below Running for it to look good. I’m not 100% sure I would use this either, in fact, I would maybe look for a different photo. But anyway, the gradient looks nice. Play around with the fonts and sizes. Maybe add a tag line.

The how-to blog post from Joanna Penn that I referenced in my last blog post uses textures as a background filler. I tried to look for something similar here, but I couldn’t come up with anything except the color. But I only used one photo instead of mashing up three or four like she does, so that didn’t help.

Here is a list of websites I use for pictures and textures:

PIxabay

Pexels

CanStockPhoto

Dreamstime

Various

Gratisography

Textures

Textures

You’ll have to double check what the terms and conditions are of the photos and textures on these sites, but I think they are okay. Dreamstime looks like it might be a bit spendy, but even if you publish one book a year, shelling out a little bit of money isn’t too much of a big deal, especially since you’re doing the design yourself.

Maybe I’ll try one more time with a different picture. Remember, if this seems like a crap idea, you can still use the CS Cover Creator. After messing around with a cover for hours and hours it might not seem like a bad idea after a while.

Oh, hey, my next blog post will be about cover templates. I’ll look into it for ya.

Until next time!

Creating a book cover can be intimidating, and if I didn’t dish out for my ISBN numbers, I might very well hire this out. Though there is some sort of satisfaction of having done the front cover and back cover and everything in between on your own. But the ultimate goal is selling books, and people WILL judge a book by its cover, no matter what people say. If you can do a great (or even semi-decent) cover on your own, do it! Practice makes perfect, and as you can see from my two covers of 1700, you learn a little something new every day.

In keeping with the theme from previous posts, I’ll make the front cover for Running to Love. This can’t be a Word tutorial, I can only show you what I do with the pictures, so if you really don’t know anything about Word, I suggest you find a different way to make your covers. I don’t know all that Word can do either, and I find a new trick every time I go in and play around.

We’ll need to start with the template: Remember the spine is dependent on the number of pages in your book. If you have added pages or edited some more and taken some away, you’ll need to calculate the spine width again.

Choosing the photo is the most important and frustrating part. There are so many choices!

I found this one:

I didn’t pay for it, so it still has the watermarks on it. I liked the colors because I can use them for font or background color to tie it all in.

One of the frustrating things is getting it to fit. See, the picture is wider than the template. I had a hard time with figuring this out, and the thing I do is crop it so that it is as wide as the text box. If you don’t, this is what happens: click on the placement menu (the rainbow thing on the right side of the picture) and choose “in front of text” to move it around.

But moving it doesn’t help much, and neither does manipulating it to fit because it distorts the image:

They are all stretchy, and this is what I did to my first cover couple. Sadness.  My son equated this with trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and it looks terrible. I use the Snipping Tool to crop it and actually make it the same shape as the template:

That looks better, but it’s boring. Maybe we don’t have the right picture, and you would have to decide if you like it enough. Liking pictures online and liking what they would look like on the cover of a book are completely different. I’m going to play around and see what happens.

I don’t like the title, I don’t think it’s using the space the way it could. But I like the color theme I have going and it could easily keep going on to the spine and the back cover. How I did it was I had to put three text boxes in the template text box. One at the top which I filled with her shirt color then I softened the edges, the middle text box for the picture, and the bottom text box for the color which I filled with his shirt color and I also softened the edges. Choose no outline for the text boxes so the boxes don’t show up.

I did something to the title font, which I do not care for, and I do not think it would print well either. I like the rest, though, so let’s play around with the title.

That really isn’t too bad. I like how the colors blend together. If the spine is thick enough, I may split the picture in two and have her on the spine and him on the back cover. You can flip the pictures so they are mirror images of themselves, so they aren’t exactly the same.

In terms of changing the photo, I used the criss-cross etching in the photo effects and I softened the edges. Both of those options show up under Picture Tools when the text box containing the photo is selected. It looks a little cheesy, I’ll give you that, but you’re not going to get the same kind of covers you’re going to find at the bookstore. CreateSpace won’t emboss the title or your name, and you can’t get the cheap cardboard feel. Which is good for quality, bad for making your book stand out as an indie.

I do need to watch out though since I used the soft edges technique for 1700 and I don’t want all my books to look the same. Joanna Penn from @thecreativepenn has some great ideas when it comes to book covers, and I’ll leave you with the link to her blog post here.

I’ll post a little more about front covers soon, and maybe have another go at the front. I wouldn’t publish Running to Love with that cover, but you’ll go through a few covers before you hit the right combination of fonts, effects, and pictures. There’s no shame in trying–it’s the only way you’ll see what you like and what you don’t.

Talk soon!

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post. I’ve been busy writing, starting a new novella series at the beginning of August and hoping to finish it this month.

I also have another reason I didn’t want to write this next blog post: I didn’t feel like I knew enough to be coaching anyone on how to make a cover. Let’s face it, the original cover to The Corner of 1700 Hamilton was a mess, and how I was ever proud of it is beyond comprehension. If you don’t remember what it looks like here:

Is it the worst cover ever? No. But it’s not the best either. I hate where my name is, I dislike the picture. And what is the goofy quote on the back?  No one said that to me. At the time I was going through Pixabay, I was adamant that I didn’t want to spend money on the picture (and going back to my blog on the subject you can probably tell), but when I started thinking I really needed to redo my cover and fix the formatting mistakes inside, I realized that I was going to have to find a picture. A good picture. Maybe a picture that costs a little money. Once I found a picture, things kind of fell into place for me. This is the cover I recently submitted to CreateSpace (that was accepted, squee!)

My name is better, the picture more accurately depicts what the book is about, the ghost’s quote is gone. I do have the proof back and I have to say the only little tiny mistake is my name on the spine is not 100% in line with the title. But it’s a small thing, compared to the train wreck above, I’m going to let it slide. Also, the imprint picture on the spine is a little more to the right, but I think that’s not a big deal either. Truthfully, 1700 is thin, and to fit anything on the spine and make it look good enough, is good enough for me.

Does this mean I feel more prepared to give advice, yes and no. I did get two warnings in my congratulations email. One was a warning saying my cover contained a picture that was less than 200 DPI, or dots per inch. CreateSpace wants them all at 300 dpi or there is a chance they will be printed blurry pixelated. I knew the one I purchased for my cover was 300 DPI, but I totally forgot about my imprint picture. It was only 79 DPI (I’ll tell you how to fix that later), but I fixed it so future books will won’t have that issue. (It did print fine, by the way; no harm done.)

The second warning I got from CS was a thing called transparency, that they would have to “flatten” the images and that could cause issues. When you add text boxes or layer pictures on top of each other, they “float”  and in design software programs, there is a way to “flatten” all the floating images to make them one image. Rather like ironing on a decal to a shirt or jeans. Two, (or three or for or five) pictures become one. I had to look this up because I didn’t want to keep getting this error message. But I don’t know how to use any design software, (the whole reason for this blog series, really) and I will never be able to do my covers that way. I should never say never, ecause I might learn a software program or get rich enough to hire a designer, but for now, I will always do my covers in Word, and I honestly do not see a problem with letting CS do the flattening for you. You can do a search on your own for other testimonies, but with the two covers I have done, I haven’t seen an issue with them doing this. Any mistakes made have been the fault of the operator, not the machine.

So yes, I do feel a little more confident that I can tell you how to do an easy cover. I’ll end this post by telling you two things I needed. 1) I bought my picture from Can Stock Photo for $8.00. You do have to be careful when even purchasing a photo to make sure you can use it for commercial use. On this website you can, I looked up their terms of service, but if this book ever made more than $500,000 dollars, I would owe them. Not likely, but it’s always good to know. The second thing I would advise you to do is download GIMP. It is a FREE software program like Photoshop, and while it does have some nice artistic effects you can play around with for a cover photo, I use it to check DPI and to change it if necessary. That IS an issue I can control, and in the next blog post, I’ll tell you how to do it.

That’s all for now, and I hope you like the new cover!

Oh, I got the proof back, here’s how it looks:

Thanks for reading, and I  hope you like the new cover as much as I do!