How I Make Book Covers

This week we found out we were rejected by Asimov's.

My aunt said she'd buy a copy of our story if we published it. She's very sweet. My co-author said he wasn't opposed to the idea of making it into an ebook and using that later as a freebie when we market our longer works.

I began to work on some book covers. I came up with 2 of them and needed some opinions. You can help until August 14th if you have a Wordpress account.

Vote here.
https://hawkandyoung.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/help-us-choose-a-cover/

Making book covers is easy with Canva. Sign up. Check it out. It's free. You choose a template that works for you, then you can edit the text and font, as well as change the background images. Download the images to your computer in whatever form you choose. I download them all, just because of the different file formats required for different self-publishing sites.

You may use images released for commercial use. Pixabay has a decent selection. Download the images and use them for whatever you wish. I use them for book covers and for making memes for Spoonfuls of Sugar.

I know that's a big link dump, but that's how I'm feeling, full of helpful information. I hope I can help you, too.

Thoughts on Book Covers

I was followed on Twitter by a book cover designer. I looked him up on his website. This guy does awesome work. He boasts of a 2 day turn-around, and his fans attest to it. He has to have a team working with him. There's no other way. Plus, his fee for the service of making a book cover for both a physical copy and an ebook cover is steep. It must include paying employees. $747 dollars is too much for this mi-western farm girl with a family to raise!

However, your book's cover is essential. It IS worth it to spend money on a good cover. Wherever this guy lives must have a high cost of living, much higher than the midwest, to justify getting paid that much.  I know it's about quality, and some of you might think it's perfectly fine to pay more than a month's rent or mortgage payment on a book cover illustrator. I would rather find cheaper ways to do it. (I'm currently attempting a cover change at Canva.com. It's free.)

Some of you might argue about VALUE and Return on Investment, or ROI. Yes, having a sharp cover helps it sell. Value to me is getting the most for my investment at the forefront. The outcome is uncertain. I guess I'm not a risk taker. Probably why I'm not rich.

In thinking about making that money back, one can only dream. Even if your goal was to pre-sell a book before launch and then launch it, you'd have to have already invested in a cover to show your potential buyers. I'm not that confident in my work at present, nor in my current fan base, to be able to make that money.

Maybe that's my goal; to be 747 dollars confident in my work and in my fans that I could count on selling for that much value. :)