Day 26 - Cover Designing and The Jigsaw Puzzle of Digital Distributors and Social Media
Ah. The weekend. Time to relax. Gonna just put my feet up on the coffee table here and…oh crap. I still have to do the cover! Oh crap! I just looked at Draft2Digital and it looks complicated!
As for the cover design, since my manuscript is formatted (well, almost - I have one last anal-retentive read-through I want to complete) I can now start on the cover. You need to know how many pages you have before you design. I have 69 pages. LOL. Too bad I didn’t write an erotic romance. I’ll download a cover template from somewhere and get that party started. I feel pretty confident I can get it done this weekend. I know Photoshop. Let’s just put it this way, I got my first bootleg copy of Photoshop 3.0 somewhere in the late 90s and used to design websites using raw HTML code in the web 1.0 days. Yep, there were no WYSIWYG programs. In fact, applications were once called programs. Back then, we walked two miles to school in the snow with no shoes and didn’t have indoor toilets. I used to sell newspapers on a street corner and shouted, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” - I’m kidding, but it was a long time ago. It’s true I know a lot about Photoshop and I did run an online music magazine for ten years. Of course, this doesn’t make me a great book cover designer.
A Couple (Rookie) Tips for Designing Your Book Cover:
Don’t design your own cover unless you’re actually a designer. Just don’t. There are thousands of artists out there, you just have to find them. Start with UpWork, Twitter, and Fiverr. This is one place you want to spend a little cash. Look at it like an investment.
If you feel like giving it a go and don’t want (or can’t afford) to use Photoshop, try Gimp, Affinity Photo, or Canva. Canva is the path of least resistance; they make it really easy.
Post your completed cover on your social groups and get feedback. Many times, the biggest suggestions I see from the hive mind are the fonts. Knowing how to use fonts is actually a skill and an integral part of design. Font choice is just as imperative as your overall design and color scheme. I’m not going to tell you how to design your cover because I am not an expert. I do know this, however: make sure both your image and title are readable in a small thumbnail. If you don’t know the difference between a serif and sans font, hire someone.
I understand the need to DIY your cover. For me, it’s an issue of time. I would have preferred to hire someone with more experience than me, but there’s no way to get it done in a week - blame the fact that I didn’t know how many pages I had until two days ago. I can whip something out this weekend. Whether it will be good or not remains to be seen. I think it will be passable. I will post it as soon as it’s done. Your cover can make or break your book…no pressure, huh?
I’ve also realized that there is a steep learning curve with digital distributors. DDs are everyone other than Amazon/Kindle who can or will distribute your book. And there are many. To name a few: Kobo. Draft2Digital, Nook, and Apple iBooks. There are also some designated to your country so you’ll have to look them up. I’m not exactly sure how they all work and I figured I would jump and build my net on the way down. Some of them are more complicated than others. To be honest, I haven’t quite figured out what the benefits are to each one. I just know everyone says you have to use them. I’ll find out.
This weekend I will also plan out the “week before launch” week in my planner. I will schedule some social posts, work on the newsletter, and keep learning about social media. How to use social media is also a complex subject. There are so many things to consider, groups to join, plans to make. It’s a whole job onto itself - which is why companies hire social media managers. Social media is also a slow-moving train going uphill. It takes time to build momentum. What I’m doing now will be less effective for this launch, but more helpful toward the next. Use your first book as a platform for all that will follow. Interesting, huh? By the time the second one comes around, everything will be in place and things will be a lot easier.
Today I’m really tired. Must just be the end of the long week. I kinda feel like napping all day instead of doing all the things I need to do. I must remind myself that self-care is important - just as important as (if not more) than marketing and social media.