Post Objective:

Provide tips on creating your book cover.

Since I used CreateSpace to publish my book I can speak about that experience as it relates to cover design.  Lulu also offers a cover design tool. 

You can use the design tool offered by CreateSpace to create a cover for your book or you can use their blank template to create your own design.  The details can be found at https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/

I decided to use the template and design my own cover.  I knew what I wanted for the illustration but then was faced with how, or rather who – can I get to create the artwork.  As I mentioned in the previous post in this series, I decided to use the services of Guru.com. -

The Guru.com site matches freelancers with employers.  It works like this -

• You create an account,
• create your project (describe what you are looking for),
• put it out for bid.

You can also search freelancers and check their rating and the type of work they have experience with, view examples of their work  and request they bid on your project.  You can open the bid worldwide, U.S. only or even limit it further.  You can communicate through the site and will have allotted space for sharing files or you can communicate directly by email.  You can utilize the escrow feature for payment.  I used the services of Mary Ann McAlister  to do my book cover.  She was very patient and worked very hard to produce exactly what I wanted.

Keep in mind that dimension of your cover will depend on the number of pages in your book, so if that number changes you need to retrieve a new template.

Dealing with Colors – I came across this informative post at NovelHelp that discusses color, it starts…”In this blog I’d like to expand more on the tools that you need for DIY publishing.  Specifically, creating book covers and illustrations that will print the way you want them to.  Let’s start with some computer color definitions:….”