Six
Steps To Designing a Successful eBook Cover
By © James Corless
A well-designed cover is vital for the
success of your ebook! Good ebook covers sell better and justify higher
prices.
Realize that buyers WILL judge your book
by its cover - because they have to! Apart from the sales copy on your
web page, the cover of your ebook is the only thing they've got to go on
when deciding whether or not to buy.
Research shows that most buyers will visit
your ebook sales page three or four times before clicking the 'buy' button
and the design of your ebook cover is a significant factor in their decision.
If they're wavering, a good-looking ebook cover will tip the balance in
your favor!
That's why you need the best possible design
for your ebook - you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression!
So just how do you go about creating an
effective ebook cover?
There are six design elements involved.
These are - your title, your choice of fonts, the illustration you use,
the way you use color, the quality of your cover image and the size of
your file.
Yes, there's a lot going on! Now let's
look at the elements one by one.
1: The Title:
Your ebook title needs to be short and
punchy. Short because you don't have much space to display it in, and punchy
so it delivers your USP (unique selling proposition). The more words there
are, the smaller the text will be and the harder it will be to read. You
have to 'write tight'!
Two-part titles make good use of limited
space as you can make your main point in two or three words and then expand
on your USP in the second part. For example:
"Designing Great Covers : How To Make YOUR
eBook Stand Out From The Crowd!"
2: Choice of fonts
Ebook covers are small so you need to use
fonts that are compact and easy to read. 'Sans serif' fonts like Impact,
Helvetica and Arial make good use of space. Serif fonts are not so readable
in smaller sizes. Mixing two different fonts can be effective but beware
of using more - it gets confusing.
Some graphics programs like PhotoShop allow
you to alter the proportions of your fonts as well as the spacing between
letters so you can compress or expand your text to get the most readable
effect.
3: The Illustration
An ebook cover that's just plain text can
be pretty boring. An image will liven up your design and also reinforce
your USP. Whether you use a photo or some other graphic, the image you
use needs to key into the theme of your ebook and help to get your message
across.
Use on-line image banks you can subscribe
to for frequent use, or buy rights to individual images - good if you only
need one or two. You can also buy libraries of royalty-free images on CDs.
Don't be tempted to use an image you find
on the Internet! They are all covered by international copyright laws and
using one without permission is illegal!
4: Color
Color is another useful tool in the design
of your ebook cover. Colors have their own energies - red is forceful,
blue is conservative, green is calming, yellow is exciting, and so on.
Pick one main color that ties in with the
theme of your ebook and use other colors sparingly. Like fonts, using too
many can obscure your message.
5: Image quality
Your cover image must be razor sharp and
crystal clear to sell your ebook! Too many of the ebook images you see
on the Internet are fuzzy and flat.
One way to get good image quality is to
design at a larger scale that the final image size. it's easier to work
on and reducing the design to the required size will enhance its clarity.
Use sharpening filters with caution! It's
easy to degrade your image by over sharpening so make it the last thing
you do before optimization.
6: Image optimization
Although not part of the actual design
process, the final important step is to optimize your image for the web.
This reduces the number of colors and give
a smaller file size so your cover image downloads quickly in your customer's
browser. Again, optimize carefully so as to have the least effect on the
quality of your cover image.
Most image programs have optimization features
or there are web sites that offer on-line image optimization services.
So there you have the six stages of designing
a great ebook cover!
1: Choose a good, short title that conveys
your USP.
2: Use one or two fonts in legible styles
and sizes
3: Choose an image that reinforces and
illustrates your message
4: Use a small range of colors that convey
your message
5: Make your cover image clear and crisp
by working larger then reducing, and sharpen with care.
6: Optimize your image so it's small enough
to download quickly without sacrificing too much quality.
Master these six aspects of design and
you'll be well on your way to producing successful ebook covers. People
WILL judge your ebook by its cover so design it well. Remember, the better
the cover, the bigger the sales!
# # # # #
James Corless designs ebook graphics -
anything to do with ebooks: covers, contents, ezine covers, CD covers,
banners, sales buttons and web site graphics. See his design portfolio
at http://www.ebook-designer.com/
"Do the things
that you've always dreamed of doing NOW.
Don't postpone
them. My dad loved to be in the outdoors,
but he was always
so busy as a school principal that he didn't give himself that pleasure
very often. He was going to do all his fishing and
hiking when he
retired, but he never lived that long.
He died of cancer
at 63. It was pretty wrenching to not only see him suffer so badly
but also to realize
that he had been cheated out of his dream."
-- Fred Matheny, 53, writer, former
English teacher
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