Optimizing Your Kindle Cover
After you’ve chosen your topic and book title, it’s time to consider your Kindle cover. Some Kindle authors even choose to have their cover created, or create it themselves, before the book is even written.
It can actually be really motivating to have your cover sitting there, ready as you’re writing. It makes the work appear finished in your mind – or at least makes it inevitable that it will be finished. You’ll be a lot more likely to follow through with Kindle publishing. Believe me, you will sometimes need this extra motivation when you’re in the early stages and success is just a dream.
Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to create great covers for Kindle books. It can be especially difficult to create one that looks professional and will capture the eye of your potential readers. Many people try to create their own covers and don’t really have an eye for design.
Hiring Someone to Create Your Kindle Covers
That’s why many Kindle authors choose to hire others to create their covers for them. There are people these days that solely focus on creating Kindle covers for clients and they’ve gotten very good at it—they know how to optimize your cover for success. Many of them are very reasonably priced, too.
When you outsource the design of your cover, you do have to consider who holds the rights to the graphics used for the cover. It’s probably best for you to purchase the rights from a stock photo site and then pass those photos on to your graphic designer to be used. This protects you and ensures you hold the correct licenses to use the photo for your cover.
There are many graphic designers on Fiverr.com who will do your cover for you. Many of them do a great job, but you should pay attention to their ratings before you hire them. It’s not that $5 is so much to lose, it’s that you don’t want to lose your momentum.
$5 for a cover is definitely not too pricey and it’s something everyone can afford. But, especially as you become more successful, you may want to use more specialized and renowned cover artists. This can cost hundreds of dollars but can be worth it, especially since you can sometimes see an instant boost in sales by changing your cover to something better.
In fact, there’s a tip right there. If everything seems in place with your Kindle book but you’re not making sales, try changing the cover—it just might help. Some people have seen dramatic increases in sales with a simple cover change.
Designing Your Kindle Covers Yourself
What if you still want to create your covers yourself? It’s easier than you might think, but you’ll still need to practice. Some graphic designers sell Kindle book cover templates that you can use with something like Photoshop or Gimp (the free, harder to use open-source version of something like Photoshop). This makes it easier on you and is kind of a halfway point between hiring someone to do your cover and doing it yourself.
There are also certain tools out there, such as KDRenegade or E-cover Designer software that makes it really easy to design even if you don’t have design skills. Specialized software allows you to design from scratch or includes cover templates (sometimes for an upgraded price) that you can use as a starting point. The covers end up looking really nice, and don’t cost you hundreds of dollars per cover.
It’s worth mentioning that Kindle and CreateSpace have cover designers included in their publisher interfaces these days, and that might be something you want to try out. Just note that these are not as flexible or as full-featured as some of the other options. Still, they are totally free so it might be worth trying out.
What It Means To Have a Good Cover
So, what does it mean to have a good cover? There is no simple definition. I will recommend that you really brand your author name or pen name on your cover. It should be very clear that you are the author. I also recommend that you ensure your cover looks good even as a thumbnail.
You have to remember how people on Amazon buy books. They are often just scrolling through the options until a cover or title captures their attention. You can make use of both with a great cover. The thumbnails should be easily readable and eye-catching even though it’s a much smaller graphic than the full size one you submit to Amazon.
Browse through the covers that are in your genre on Amazon. Take notes on common elements of the best-selling books in that genre. You can really get some great ideas and inspiration for what you want your own cover to look like.
Often, certain cover styles are popular because it’s simply what works within the genre. Every genre is different, so there are no cookie-cutter answers I can give you as to what constitutes a good cover. The thing is that, even if you’re not a designer yourself, you can easily see which covers are good and which covers are bad on Amazon.
Simply focus on making sure that your cover is easily readable, eye catching, and appealing to those in your niche, and you should do just fine. It can be helpful to have a few people on deck who will give you their honest opinion of your cover effort so you know if you’re on the right track.
But, caution, don’t make it a popularity contest or think that if you ask 5 or more people for an opinion about your cover, that you’ll end up with a unanimous endorsement of it. In the end, it’s your decision, so keep an open mind but be willing to go with your gut feeling.
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