what do i need to know to make sure my self published book is professional looking
Although you can't guess a book by its cover, publishers have long known that readers actually do. In fact, cover blueprint tin can increase a book'southward visibility by 50 percent or more than. Major publishers have sales and marketing departments that specialize in ensuring a book's title and cover design are eye-catching enough to appeal to their target audition. Whether readers are browsing a bookstore or scanning book recommendations on Amazon or Goodreads, every cover competes for attention, simply equally products on a shelf exercise.
If you're a cocky-published writer, standing out can be particularly difficult. Y'all don't have a total marketing team at your disposal, so you won't have access to the data those teams utilize. You may not, for instance, know that simple covers with subtle teasers sell ameliorate than cluttered covers without. But there is i thing yous tin can practise to give your book a chance to stand up out in an overcrowded market place: finding a great cover designer to work with. Hither's how!
Getting started
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Become your details straight
Before you can even think about your book cover, yous need to log some enquiry hours. You probable know your book better than anyone else, and so y'all'll be the all-time person to determine what the cover concept should be. A skillful designer tin can help with that, but the more information you lot can give, the better. A traditional publisher often uses a cover design questionnaire that asks the writer some important details, including the main character'south pilus and heart colour and possibly any pivotal scenes that might make a skillful cover prototype.
Research what's out in that location
Now that y'all take all of those things in mind, head over to Amazon or, better yet, take a field trip to your favorite local bookstore. Look at covers for books similar to yours and notation details that stand up out. If you lot plan an online-merely book, shop for new books to download and detect what stands out to you. What looks expert on a bookstore shelf may not be ideal for an Amazon Kindle screen.
Finding a designer
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Consider your options
Although you could try to design the book cover yourself, unless you're a professional person designer, it isn't a wise idea. Lots of graphic designers specialize in book covers, thanks to the large number of self-published authors looking for them. The best way to find the perfect designer is to search book cover designs and find a designer whose manner works with your own concept. It can also assistance to choose someone who has experience designing books in your own genre. If yous write nighttime horror novels, you might choose a different designer than someone who writes lighthearted romantic comedies.
Another option is to host a design contest on a site like 99designs, where designers will pitch you their concepts. This is a groovy style to choose the best concept out of different options and working with multiple designers to discover the i that fits your book perfectly.
Pricing
Chances are, i of your top concerns is pricing. You likely don't have a fortune to cascade into your embrace design, especially since you need to go your book out there so you tin start making money. The good news is, y'all can ordinarily find a designer for a few hundred dollars. If y'all try to push the toll down much farther, your cover may not be the quality information technology needs to exist to convince readers to come across what'south inside.
Get articulate on the terms
During your search, avoid becoming so dazzled by a designer'due south talent that you forget to settle business matters. In add-on to talent, your designer should also be responsive and reliable. In that location's null worse than having your book launch delayed while you try to track downward a cover designer who has disappeared. Ask the designer questions on how the work will be done. Will you be presented a rough sketch to get a full general idea offset or volition the designer exercise a full design, so exist open to revisions equally needed? Will there be time to get feedback from beta readers or your writing friends before finalizing the design? How open up are they to your own input throughout the process?
Working with a designer
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Provide details
Once you've hired a designer, the existent piece of work begins. Be open with the designer virtually the concept from the start. The more item you lot can provide on the front end, the more time you'll save both of y'all on later edits. If you take samples of covers yous like, experience gratuitous to transport links over and even sketch a crude outline of what y'all're hoping to see.
It tin can aid, from the kickoff, to empathise how cover design works to go a experience for what exactly your book needs. A good designer won't merely spring in and get-go working. Your designer may ask to encounter sample capacity, try to determine what you want your writer brand to exist, or ask questions like in the above-mentioned questionnaire to assistance clarify details of your book. If you lot observe you aren't seeing this, put the data together yourself and send it over. It may help to request a phone call to expedite a conversation that would span hours or days over email.
Inquire for feedback
If you're torn between two concepts or you experience like the embrace blueprint is missing something, send it over to a few trusted friends. They don't have to be writers—yous'll probable find that some of the best people to offer feedback are friends who simply love to read. Even the smallest particular tin make a volume comprehend pop, and someone who isn't directly connected to your book or its comprehend design may be the all-time person to enquire.
The correct designer will accept you covered
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Good cover design sells books, whether they're on bookstore shelves or an Amazon search folio. Past hiring a designer that has experience in designing for readers in your genre, you'll up your chances of getting a embrace that works well for your book. Once y'all commencement working, make sure y'all're closely involved in the design process and then that the terminate effect is ameliorate than you imagine.
You've written your book, at present all information technology needs is a great cover?
Our designers can create one for y'all that will jump off the shelf.
Source: https://99designs.com/blog/book-design/finding-cover-designer-self-publisher/
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