DIY Book Covers: 5 Tips, 6 Tricks, 7 No-Nos

Sometimes an author is simply not in a financial place to hire a cover artist, and sometimes you just want to play. Below, you’ll find a few suggestions, a few tricks of the trade, and a few common mistakes that will help you in your journey to a Do It Yourself book cover.

Tips:
Where do you find stock photography? It’s not as simple as doing a Google search! Sites like Fotolia.com, Dreamstime.com and Shutterstock.com are my favorites for stock photography. Buy their standard license and try to buy large sizes in case you want to zoom in (one can always tell if a photo has been enlarged too much). Looking for a perfect romance stock? See RomanceNovelCovers.com, HotDamnStock.com or IllustratedRomance.com.
Remember that a book cover is in portrait orientation. If your book cover features a person, try to find a photo that has space around the person’s whole head or body and zoom in or crop as needed – don’t show “dirty laundry” by showing us where the photo edge is.

Read the entire article in the September issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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