Indie Publishing Secrets Revealed-Secret #7-Getting a Cover

Secret #7 Getting A Cover For Your Book

I hope you've had fun researching e-publishing. Now, let's get a cover for your book.

Go to Createspace.com and set up an account if you haven't already.

Now, follow the easy steps to Add a New Title. (Don't get an ISBN at this point. Just skip it) It doesn't need to be real. Just play around with everything. After a bit of snooping, go ahead and check out Cover Creator.

You have three choices:

1. Import a picture or drawing of your own into the creator using a template they provide (Easy and your own)  *just remember, if you don't format your own cover, you can only get a high-resolution thumbnail from Createspace of the front cover...perfect for ebooks.

I used my own picture and imported it into the template I had chosen in Cover-Creator. 

2. Use the pictures they provide for the templates (easiest, but not your own) Again, you will only get a high-rez. pic. of the front cover.

3. Format your own picture following their directions (difficult, but you have all the control) You'll have the whole cover to use as you please.

Before you decide which of the three to do, go ahead and look at all the templates.

Upload a picture and see how Cover Creator makes it into a book cover. Don't worry, nothing is permanent. You can change it a thousand times if you want.

Try different templates and different pictures/drawings and fill in the back copy. You can even upload your picture to go on the back cover if you want

Play around. Get familiar with how this works.

Just a side note.

If you already know what picture/drawing you want for your cover, you will need to somehow super-impose the price of your book on the back, right above the area where the barcode will go.

I used photoshop to do this. You can use whatever photo-altering program you want to use. 

Do this BEFORE you order your proof. Many bookstores will not carry your book without the price printed on it and Createspace does not do that and they don't tell you to do it.

Have fun playing around with Cover-Creator and keep editing.

Happy creating!