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Writing Fast And Tips For Successful Self-Publishing With Russell Blake

December 14, 2015 by Joanna Penn 16 Comments

https://media.blubrry.com/thecreativepenn/p/s3.amazonaws.com/CreativePennPodcasts/Podcast_RussellBlake.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:25 — 51.6MB)

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I'm thrilled to have one of the uber-indies on the show today! Russell Blake is one of the most prolific and successful indie authors and in this show he shares his thoughts on writing fast, maintaining a prolific schedule and staying healthy, plus what it takes to stand out in a crowded market.

writing fastIn the intro, I mention that Flipkart has closed its doors in India and their audience has been transferred to Kobo [Techcrunch], Amazon has launched a new Kindle Fire Reader's edition plus a Fire for the Chinese market.

If you want to write non-fiction, check out the step by step process at How to Write A Non-Fiction Book.

I also mention reading ‘Stages of a Fiction Writer' by Dean Wesley Smith, plus my new weekly creativity updates at JFPenn.com/now.

This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets kobo writing lifethrough the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.

russellblakeRussell Blake is the NY Times & USA Today bestselling author of over forty books and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, and The Chicago Tribune. He has also co-written two books with Clive Cussler and is regarded as one of the most prolific and successful indie fiction authors.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

  • Russell's writing habits including daily word count, outlining process and using a walking desk.
  • ramseys goldWriting genre fiction vs. literary fiction and whether indie authors can make a living writing literary fiction.
  • Knowing the genre you write in and aiming to write in the top 10% of that genre.
  • The pros and cons of working alongside a well-known writer like Clive Cussler.
  • Russell's experience in Kindle Worlds, both as a writer in another author's world, and as a world creator with his Jet series.
  • Recommendations for how to improve your odds of success as an indie author, including giving readers what they want, and embracing both the content creation and business sides of this life.
  • Plans and predictions for 2016.

You can find Russell's books on all the online stores and his website is RussellBlake.com.

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Pros And Cons Of Being An Indie Author

May 22, 2015 by Joanna Penn 30 Comments

pros and cons of being an indie authorI spent last weekend at CrimeFest in Bristol alongside lots of amazing crime authors, both traditionally published and indie authors. It was a fantastic time and I met some super people …

I found myself in a number of conversations with authors who wanted to know what their publishing options were in a fast-changing market.

indie authors crimefest 2015

The Indie Author panel at CrimeFest 2015: Celina Grace, Nick Stephenson, JJ Marsh, J.F.Penn, Chris Longmuir

We also had an indie author panel on the Sunday morning, which was packed full despite the morning-after-the-gala-dinner-graveyard slot.

In my intro, I pointed out that between us, we had sold over 500,000 books in five different languages in 66 countries, we are prize-winning and award-winning as well as New York Times and USA Today bestselling.

Oh yes, and contrary to what most seem to believe, we have print and audiobooks as well as ebooks … and all achieved without a publisher. Several of us even make pretty good money from selling books …

We were then asked to outline the negatives of going indie, since we were clearly all so positive about it!

So today, here are my pros and cons of being an indie author. I'd love to hear yours, or any questions, in the comments below.

Definition: Self-publishing vs being an indie author

The term self-publishing implies doing everything yourself and doing it more as a hobby. There's certainly nothing wrong with this and it's wonderful to create books in the world for the love of creation.

Me and my Dad 🙂 The creative Penns!

I self-publish photobooks for my own pleasure, I helped my 9 year old niece self-publish her first book and I helped my Dad self-publish for his 65th birthday.

But I use the term independent author, or indie author, for myself. I work with top freelance professionals to create a quality product and this is a business for me, not just a hobby. I left my job in 2011 to become a full-time author-entrepreneur and I make my living with my writing.

The following pros and cons are based on my kind of direct publishing without using any of the services companies which I'll mention at the end.

The pros of being an indie author

  • Total creative control over content and design. Many authors who were in traditional publishing and are now in self-publishing talk about how painful it was to have a cover or title they hated, or to make editorial choices they didn't agree with but that were insisted upon. As an indie, you can work with freelancers of your choice and you can choose the ultimate look and feel of your product. Now, that can be a pro or a con depending on how the book ends up but as
    polly courtney

    Gritty issues novelist Polly Courtney split from her publisher after they branded her as chick-lit

    an indie, you can also change it, as I have done recently by re-titling and re-covering my first 3 books. You just upload another file which is brilliant. The start-up mentality that mistakes are how we learn and “failure” is just a step along the way makes this easier for indies. But this reinvention practice is common in the publishing industry and older books are revamped all the time.

  • Empowerment. At CrimeFest this weekend, I met a prizewinning author who was quite shocked to discover that I'm not a militant indie. I have a wonderful agent and I have a German book deal, and yes, I will absolutely work with traditional publishers – for deals that will be good for both parties.

    I am, however, militant about empowering authors and creatives.

    After talking to a number of other authors this last weekend, I was shocked at how insecure they were and how beaten down by the negativity of the publishing process. They really didn't see themselves as being able to make a decision alone or take action to improve their lot, despite the fact that THEY are the creatives, the storytellers, the brilliant ones.

Compare that to indies, who in general are a happy bunch, as reported by researcher Alison Baverstock. It's not surprising when you consider the research on ‘locus of control.' The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported that the number one contributor to happiness is autonomy, “the feeling that your life – its activities and habits – are under your control.”

After signing a contract, traditionally published authors have pretty much zero control – over pricing, timing of publication, marketing, sometimes over the cover, the title and even the words itself. Plenty of authors are told to change their stories to fit what an editor wants. Compare that to the empowerment of the indie author who can learn new skills, work with professionals, make mistakes and learn from them, earn money directly and interact with customers. Yes, it's hard work but it's certainly empowering as hell. The positive energy involved in being an indie can propel you much further, much faster than waiting in line for your turn.

Stop asking permission. You don't need it. Stop waiting to be chosen. Choose yourself.

  • Faster time to market. You still have to spend the same amount of time writing and editing. But once you're ready to publish, you upload your files to Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Draft2Digital, Smashwords and any other stores. Your ebook chooseyourselfis usually for sale within 4 – 72 hours. You're paid 60 days after the end of the month of sale. If you're doing print on demand, you can get that up within 24 hours if you approve the formatting online. Or, you can order a copy and it might take a couple of weeks, but essentially, it's incredibly quick to get your book up for sale. This certainly suits my personality as once I'm done with a book, I want it out there and selling! I don't want to sit on it for several years while it shuttles around publishers.
  • Higher royalties. If you price your book between $2.99 and $9.99 (on Amazon), you can get 70% royalty. Traditional royalty rates usually fit in the 7-25% bracket, averaging 10%. It’s clear that you need to sell far fewer books in order to make the same amount of money with self-publishing. But it's not a get rich quick scheme. That's really important. You can't guarantee that you're going to make any sales or as many sales as you would've done with a traditional publisher. That is more to do with genre, investment in marketing and sometimes, just pure luck. An author can't build a business on luck – but they can learn about marketing and authors have to do this regardless of how they publish these days.
  • Sell by any means in any global market, as you retain the rights. My books have now sold in 66 countries and they are for sale in 190 countries. I love to look at my Kobo Writing Life map to see which new countries I've sold to in kobo mapthe last month. I particularly enjoy selling in countries like Burkina Faso or Namibia in sub-Saharan Africa because I went to school in Malawi (no books sold there yet though!)

Yes, these sales are a trickle right now, but in the next few years, cell phone penetration will increase and internet access will become globally pervasive. Of course the sales will tick up – 2 years ago, I was only selling books in US, UK, Australia, Canada and now every month another little blue dot appears. This is for books in English by the way – we're so lucky that English is the most international language.

Pretty much every traditionally published author I spoke to at CrimeFest had sold World English rights for all formats and had barely sold outside the usual country markets because their books aren't even for sale in most places in the world. Most had also sold audiobook rights but the books had not been produced. If you're in this situation, revisit your contract. What do you have the rights for? You can self-publish in countries where you haven't sold the rights, so why not get on with it!

  • Niche books can reach an audience. Publishing houses have an expectation of a certain number of sales, so if you're writing a niche book on a particular type of organic tomato, then you might find the market is too small for a major publisher. But the market size may well be enough for you to satisfy your own definition of success with smaller sales and lower income. You can also price as you like, as chances are that your book will appeal to a very particular reader who might pay higher prices.
  • Use it to get into the game. These days, if you self-publish and do well, agents and publishers will come to you. You top indiesdon't have to beg and plead for attention. The power balance is reversed and the empowered indie can get much better deals than a first time author with no evidence of sales. Just look at the deals Hugh Howey, Bella Andre, Jasinda Wilder, Meredith Wild and AG Riddle have done in the last year for both print books as well as movie/TV deals. So if you want a traditional deal, skip the slush pile and serve your apprenticeship as an indie.

The cons of being an indie author

So there's the positive side but what about the negative?

  • You need to do it all yourself or find suitable professionals to help. As with any new skill, it's a steep learning curve. You still obviously have to do the writing and marketing, but you also have to do the publishing. You have to find an editor (list here) and a cover designer (list here) and work with them, decide on the title, get your work formatted into e-book, print and any other format you want, and you need to find suitable professionals. This isn't such a big deal allianceas we all share with each other online and you can join The Alliance of Independent Authors which vets companies.

But you do have to decide on your definition of success and understand that you need to run all aspects of the business if you want to go the pro indie route. For many people, this is a negative because they just don't have the time to do everything or they don't enjoy doing it. I'm lucky because I love being an entrepreneur. I love all aspects of what I do – from idea generation to creating words on the page, to the technical side of things and everything in between. After many years, I've found the perfect work for me 🙂 If you can manage a project or you could learn to, then you'll likely enjoy it too. But this life certainly not for everyone.

  • There's no prestige, kudos or validation by the industry. The stigma lessens every day, but if your definition of success is bound up with what other authors, agents and publishers think of you, then indie might not be best for you. Does the publisher name matter? My answer to this is usually: Think of your favorite book. Who's the author? Who published the book? 99% of readers won't be able to tell you the publisher of the book, but they can certainly tell you the author's name. The other question I get is: How do I know my book is good enough? The answer is: pay a professional editor and work on the book as you would have done with a traditional deal. Then publish it and let the readers decide. “Good” is in the eye of the beholder, as 50 Shades of Grey taught as all.
  • You need a budget upfront if you want a professional result. These days, you're likely to spend on professional editing before submitting to an agent anyway, or at least be spending on books and courses for writers. Everyone spends money on their hobby so whether you're knitting or writing or mountain biking, most people are happy to spend money they never get back on something they love. However, if like me, you are intending to make a living from this, then yes, you need to invest money in creating assets for the business with the intention of getting it back in multiple streams of income. Either way, you will need a budget upfront if you want to be a pro indie. You can do it for free, but I would recommend paying pro editors and pro cover designers or bartering for services. It's much cheaper to hire them separately rather than go with full service companies.
  • It's difficult to get print distribution in bookstores. It's certainly not impossible and if you care about print distribution then look at the options with Ingram Spark. Also check out the Opening Up to Indie Authors campaign (or check out this interview with Debbie Young on the topic). But you're much more likely to get bookstore distribution opening up to indie authorswith a traditional publisher as that's essentially their business model and has been for a long time. They are experts at printing and distributing physical product. My personal choice is to use Print on Demand through Createspace, so my print books are available on pretty much all online bookstores. In March 2015, The Bookseller reported that online print sales overtook in-store print sales anyway, so doing a POD version means your book is still likely to be discovered by print book buyers.
  • Most literary prizes don't accept indie books and most literary critics for mainstream media. So if your definition of success is literary acclaim, you're probably better off going the traditional route. Again, the Opening Up to Indie Authors campaign is looking to address this over time.

The hybrid model: It's not an either/or choice anymore

The industry has changed and many authors now take a hybrid approach to publishing. They will make the decision by book and by particular rights, using the indie model for some things and taking traditional deals for others. This empowers the author to make decisions and choose the best possible route for their book.

For example, Hugh Howey sold his print rights for Wool and did a number of foreign rights deals. Jasinda Wilder sold several new books to traditional publishers while continuing to self-publish another series. AG Riddle sold his film rights and kept his World English ebook rights as an indie. I have a German language deal with a traditional publisher and a literary agent who is handling other sales.

The important thing is that you, the creator, are empowered to choose per project how you would like to progress.

Other publishing options

I've used the two extreme ends of the publishing spectrum as examples but these days, there are many more options for publishing optionsauthors. This downloadable chart by Jane Friedman gives a wider view of the options available.

There are new companies springing up every day – some of which are offering a good deal and some that are just sharks who may well take your money and run. Many of the biggest “author services” companies are run by Author Solutions, which is owned by Penguin Random House, so it is author beware. Do your due diligence and get testimonials from authors who are happy to recommend the service before you sign anything.

So how do you evaluate these options?

My basic rule is: How does the company make their money?

Traditional publishers should pay you an advance against royalties, so you get the money first and then they make money as your books sell.

Going completely DIY, as I do, means that you can publish for free with Amazon KDP, Kobo Writing Life, iBooks, Draft2Digital and Smashwords. These companies are FREE (yes, $0) to publish with and then they take a % of the royalty.

Again, they only make money when you make money. If you self-publish you will need to pay for editing and cover design upfront. But these prices shouldn't break the bank and you should use professionals that other authors have recommended.

help button

If you want to use services that charge for other things, then please check the following resources:

  • Preditors and Editors – a watchdog site for authors with listings of which publishers are recommended and which are scams
  • Writer Beware – Lots more about scams against authors and companies to watch out for
  • Choosing a self-publishing service [book] – by the Alliance of Independent Authors, available on all online bookstores. Written by authors and for authors so you get unbiased advice. Also check out the Self Publishing Advice blog which includes watchdog articles.

Need more help with going indie?

Author Blueprint 3D COverCheck out the following resources:

  • My own Author 2.0 Blueprint – how I personally write, self-publish and market my books. There's also an email series with videos and more resources if you sign up.
  • Let's Get Digital: How to self-publish and why you should – David Gaughran. And more book recommendations here.
  • The Alliance of Independent Authors – a brilliant organization for authors who want to professionally self-publish. Members get ebooks and other resources on self-publishing, plus we have a lively Facebook group and monthly Q&A where I answer questions alongside Orna Ross, the founder of the Alliance.

OK, that turned into a much bigger post than I expected! I hope it was useful for you. Please do leave your own pros and cons of indie below, or ask any questions. Thanks!

How To Be Successful In Self-Publishing

October 17, 2014 by Joanna Penn 26 Comments

OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn

How to be successful in self-publishingLast week, I spoke at the Frankfurt Book Fair on the Kobo booth and talked about what it takes to be successful in self-publishing to a small group of indie authors. Thanks to Camille Mofidi from Kobo Writing Life Europe for inviting me and also getting me a star on the walk of fame – see the picture at the bottom of the post!

kobo booth at Frankfurt

With Camille Mofidi at the Kobo booth at Frankfurt Book Fair

Here are my slides from the event and a list of notes with more links is included below.

It is 95% relevant to all authors, with a little bit of German specific info throughout.

How to be successful in self-publishing from Joanna Penn

Here's my top tips:

  • Where I am now, and where I was 6 years ago. The fact that it takes time to achieve anything and being an author is just like any career. You need to invest in learning and development over time. For example, here's my 3 years as a full-time author-entrepreneur lessons learned.
  • Define what you mean by success, as that will shape your career as an author
  • joanna penn with AG Riddle

    Thriller author J.F.Penn with AG Riddle, uber-bestselling author of The Atlantis Gene

    Write more books that people want, and most authors have at least 5 books before they start making any decent money

  • Use a great book cover that attracts readers in your genre
  • Use keywords and appropriate metadata so your book is optimized for the various sites
  • Own your own hub and your own email list, so no one can destroy your platform, your brand and your career
  • Getting book reviews and identifying book bloggers in your niche
  • Using promotional tools like BookBub and others
  • Experiment with pricing and length
  • Exploit all your rights – think ebook, print and audio as well as countries and languages
  • Joanna Penn walk of fame frankfurt

    On the walk of fame thanks to Kobo Writing Life

    Consider the global market and selling in multiple countries

  • Attract and connect with your readers
  • Use content marketing
  • Characteristics of successful self-publishers

What do you think? Does this sum up what you consider is necessary to be successful self-publishing?

Please do leave a comment below and join the conversation.

How To Make Your Own Free Book Cover In MS Word

October 20, 2013 by Creative Guest 241 Comments

OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn

Caring about fantastic book cover design is one of those non-negotiables for all authors.

ms wordDerek Murphy of Creativindie Covers is a brilliant designer and has designed a number of my own book covers.

But although I personally believe in paying professionals, I'm also aware that some people want to have a go themselves, or need to because of budget restraints.

This post is for the avid DIY-ers! (If you'd rather hire a professional, click here for a list of book cover designers.)

book cover design

Most indie publishing experts will warn you against making your own book cover, with good reason: the cover design is too crucial an element to self-publishing success to take lightly.

Making your book a bestseller is hard enough without an ugly cover sabotaging your efforts.

However there are many reasons why you may be tempted to give it a shot anyway:

  • You want to play with cover ideas so you know what you want before hiring a designer
  • You want more control over your cover design
  • You’re launching a small project, a short ebook or guide, and you don’t want to invest too much
  • You’re writing a series and don’t want to pay full price for each cover design

So I’d like to share with you something I’ve been working on for a few months: the secrets of designing a bestselling book cover in Microsoft Word, and then I’ll give you some easy-to-use Word templates so you can get started quickly.

This will be a ‘crash course’ in the minimal skills you need to create a winning cover in MS Word

You’ll learn how to use Word to blend images, add layers and transparency, use font effects and space letters (kerning), strip background, and the general principles of cover design.

These instructions are for MS Word 2010, so they won’t work for everyone, but if you have an older or newer version of Word, the process will be similar. This is a long post, so you should bookmark it. You can also download a PDF version of these instructions and the source files of the cover we’re building so you can follow along; click here to get those.
Ready? Let’s begin.

Finding and choosing the right pictures

The quality of your book cover will mostly depend on what pictures or art you use, and how well they fit together, so in this section I’m going to teach you what kind of art works the best, where you can find royalty free images, and where you can get cheap Photoshop work done (if you need it).

The RULES for picking photos:
1) Simple is better
2) Needs to cause immediate emotional reaction
3) Not too busy or too many colors
4) Don’t use a GREAT picture: use the overlooked one
5) Blend and match colors

You can use a color wheel to find complimentary colors (opposites/across from each other). Blockbuster movie posters usually use orange and teal (a lot of my book covers do also).

Free Book Cover Templates

 

Green and purple can work also.
Unfortunately, Christmas ruined red and green, but red still goes well with black or white.

Too many colors can be distracting, so try to go for one or two main colors (if the whole background is blue, you could use yellow text to stand out
)

What kind of images should you choose?

First find a dramatic background or scene; it can be a building, landscape
 think “place.” Where does your novel happen? What’s the setting? See if you can find something that refers to this. That will be your background.

Then find something for the foreground – faces or bodies can work well here.

Models from stock photography sites are good, but the better the model, the more chance someone else will use them for their covers. You can avoid showing their face by just showing some of their body or posture.

You could also post something on Craigslist and see if you can hire someone local to pose for an hour or two. I’m sure you have a friend with a camera
 describe what type of model you’re looking for and have them send samples. I would pay $50~$100 for a couple hours photoshoot, with the rights to use a picture on the cover.

Take the pictures against a white, or black background (depending on whether your cover’s background will be mostly light or dark.)

If that sounds like too much work, find a model on a stock photography site, but keep in mind: the better the photo, the more likely other people are already using it on their book covers. That’s why you don’t want to find a beautiful, breathtaking photo that’s just perfect. You can
 but there may be another book with a cover that looks almost exactly the same.

Instead, try to find something a little plainer, mix the model and background together yourself, or choose to focus on a unique angle (I often cut off the top half of a model’s face and show just the mouth and chin). You could also put some unique objects, symbols or elements in the foreground. Something that also works well is to place the models large on top, and add a scene/landscape on the bottom half of the cover.

Make a list of your character’s physical descriptions, and any other relevant places, scenes, rooms, objects or symbols, and start searching.

Where to find stock photography

“Stock photography” means images you can buy the rights to and use in your book cover. More expensive sites will ask you for more details like how many copies you plan to print, but there are a lot of cheap options.

I use these sites, where photos usually cost less than $10 to download (although you should buy the more expensive “Extended License” if you are using it for your book cover). Each site has different rules and fees. For now, just download samples of everything you like so you can play around with them. Once you’re sure what you want, you can go back and buy them.

What size do I need?

I make book covers at 6”X9”, which is 1800×2700 pixels. That’s already a good size for print, and for Kindle and other ebook sites. If you want a taller, narrower book cover, use 5”x8” – that will produce the 1.6 ratio recommended by Amazon (which most publishers ignore, because the covers are too tall and look strange on most devices).

On most stock photography sites, a medium or large size will work, just check the pixel ratio. Keep in mind, if you choose two horizontal photos, they don’t need to be as long as the full cover.

Here are the sites I use most often:

  • 123rf.com
  • Bigstockphotos.com
  • Depositphotos.com
  • Photodune.net
  • Shutterstock.com

There are others though – even some free options, like Stock Exchange photos.
They reel you in, showing you nice photos from iStock, which usually cost between $20 and $80.

Other options

The disadvantage to stock photography, as I’ve mentioned, is you’ll see it on other covers, so here are some ways to find something unique.

1) Find a professional photo from a photographer’s website.
Photographers often charge at least $1500 to use a photo as a book cover; however, many are open to a special deal or agreement. Something I’ve negotiated in the past, is paying around $250 now, but an additional $1000 or so if the book sells more than 10,000 copies. This is pretty fair to you both – if you do sell so well, the photographer deserves to get paid his normal wage.

2) Find something on Etsy.com
Etsy is a site for craftspeople and artists, but they often have some very pleasing photography of their wares. There’s also some unique paintings and art. Most artists won’t mind if you use their photos, especially if you buy the relevant product they’re selling. Just make sure to ask.

3) Find something on Flickr.com
A lot of Flickr users post photos in the Creative Commons area, which means you can use their photo as long as you put attribution (on the back cover, and on the title page). No harm searching this area. The photos may not look great at first, but you can adjust them in Word.
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons

4) Look on DeviantArt for photography
DeviantArt is a community for artists and graphic designers. They have a resources section of stock photography, that you can use as long as you attribute the source (different artists have different rules of use, and can be quite cautious how their work is used, so you should read their rules and maybe send them a message).
The stock photography on Deviant is usually very raw – it’s for graphic designers to use in their designs.
If you see a photo that could work, maybe see about finding someone to make it awesome for you (read 5 and 6).
http://www.deviantart.com/resources/stockart

5) Hire an artist from DeviantArt
Browse DeviantArt for the subjects on your list and you may find some beautiful art and photography. Especially for a children’s book or fantasy novel, if you need a really specific scene, you may need to hire an artist. A lot of artists on DeviantArt are young or just starting out (or in other countries where the minimum wage is much lower). I would offer $100 to use some art on a book cover, or $250 for them to draw something custom for you. Some artists will work for less, some will demand more – but I think those are good starting offers.
http://www.deviantart.com/resources/stockart

6) Pay someone on Fivver.som to make it awesome
I’m going to teach you how to style and blend photos in MS Word, but if you need something prettier, or are getting frustrated trying to do it yourself, search on Fivver.com for a Photoshop expert. Many providers will strip out background, combine images, or add a dramatic style for $5. It’ll save some time and probably look better. Especially for YA, fantasy, science fiction, thriller
 anything that needs to be “edgy” or a little more exciting, could probably use a touch-up.
http://www.fiverr.com

7) Find an old painting
Thinking of using a historical painting? Almost all old paintings should be free to use if they’re older than 70 years. Check out this site, it has tons of high resolution painting and art pictures:
http://www.wga.hu/index.html

Got your pictures? Let’s start!

I’m going to walk you through making a book cover in MS Word from scratch.

Step One
Open up MS Word.
Go to “File>>New>>” and then hit “Create” on the right side.

You should have a blank document.
You’ll want to adjust the size to 6”x9”, so go to “Page Layout” and hit “Size.” Scroll down to “More Paper Sizes” and type in 6” and then 9” in the relevant input boxes.

Free Book Cover Templates

We also don’t need the margins so big, so click again on “Page Layout”, select “Margins” and then set them to “Narrow” or .5” all around.

Step Two
Now we’re going to add our pictures.
I’ll take my scenery or background picture and drag/drop it into my template. I could also use “insert>>picture” and then select the image I want to use.

When the picture gets dropped in, it will automatically stretch to the margins, but you can’t move it where you want. Double click on the picture, go up to “Wrap Text” and choose “Behind Text.”

This will let you scale, resize and move the picture around. I’m going to move it down to fill up the bottom of my book cover.

Quick Tip: if you need to get a better handle on things, you can either zoom in or zoom out under “View” and then “Zoom.”

Now I’m going to take another picture, drag and drop it in, select “Behind Text,” and put it in the top half. The picture is too big, so I lose half of it under the other one (we’ll fix that later).

Now that I have two layers, I’ll want to click on “Page Layout” and open up the “Selection Pane.”
This will show all my layers, and make it easier to keep track of them. If I want to hide one for a while, I can click on that “eye” button, and show it again when I’m ready. Sometimes it can get tricky to select the right layer when I have a bunch of them. If it’s hard to select the image you want, try double-clicking right on the border of the picture, rather than the middle.

Free Book Cover Templates

Just for fun, double click on the picture of the couple again, and hit the “Remove Background” button on the top left. It doesn’t work so well with this picture, because the background is too similar to the portraits in color, so we’d have to use “Mark areas to keep” and “Mark areas to remove” until we got it right. Then we could add something else behind it, like a nice starry night sky


Free Book Cover Templates

 

But we won’t do that right now.
The simplest way to finish up this cover would be to add a flat banner across the middle.

Quick Tip: if you need to go back and remove some changes, hit the backwards curving blue area on the very top left, next to the save disk icon.

Free Book Cover Templates

Step Three
To insert a banner, go up to “insert,” click on “shapes,” and then select the rectangle.

Now we can drag out a rectangle. It’s OK if it’s not perfect, you can resize it and move it around. I’m going to double click on the rectangle to select it, go up to “Shape Outline” and hit “No Outline.”

I’ll do that again, go up to “Shape Fill” this time, and select the color black.

Free Book Cover Templates
Free Book Cover Templates

Step Four
Now I can add some text.
I go back to “Insert” and hit “Text Box,” and choose “Draw Text Box” from near the bottom of the choices.

Free Book Cover Templates

At first my text box has a solid white background. So I’ll double click on it, go up to “Shape Fill” and choose “No Fill.” The box also has a border I want to get rid of, so I double click on it again, go up to “Shape Outline” and pick “No Outline.”

But now if I type my title, I can’t see the black text
 so I’ll highlight the text and go up to the “A” symbol to change the color. For now I’ll just pick white, then make the text a little bigger.

Free Book Cover Templates

 

Rules for using fonts:
Using the right font for your book’s genre is important.

You can’t go wrong with some fonts. Here are some of my favorites:
Lato, open sans, liberation sans, English gothic, bebas neue, Optimus princeps, trajan pro, garamond, pandama, Shonar Bangla… here are some things to keep in mind:

  1. Don’t use anything that comes with Windows – your basic fonts like Comic Sans, Times New Roman, or Mistral.
  2. Try to use two fonts, something “cool” for the title, and something clean and simple for the author name (although if you want to create an author brand, you could reverse this, and make something memorable for the author name.)
  3. Three fonts is OK if two are pretty simple (for example, to use in the tagline or review)
  4. Don’t use more than one super creative, unusual font.
  5. Search around. There are thousands of fonts. Find a great one. Understand that you may have to pay for it.

MS Word’s maximum font size is 72pt, but you can just type in a new number.

I’ve set mine to 120pt. I’m going to use a font called “Accidental Presidency.” It’s a narrow, bold, sans-serif font, similar to English Gothic or Bebas Neue.

But I want to space out the letters a bit, so we need to learn the very important skill of spacing letters.

I need to go up to the Home tab, and underneath the “Font” section I click on that tiny little diagonal arrow.

Free Book Cover Templates

That’ll bring up a new “Font” window. Click on the “Advanced” tab to see the “Spacing” option.

You can set the text at “Expanded, Normal or Condensed.”

I choose Expanded, and set it at 1pt. That’s not as spaced as I want, so I do it again and choose “by: 3.5pt.”

Free Book Cover Templates

I want to center my text, so I drag the walls of my text box to the edges of my cover, then click the center text icon. If it seems like the text isn’t lining up right, go up to the Paragraph section, hit the tiny diagonal arrow, and make sure the Indentation is set at zero.

Now I want to add an author name under the title.

But if I hit Enter/Return, the next line is too far down. I could try to fix the line height, by hitting the Paragraph options and setting the line-height to 0.8”, but too much and it will start cutting the top off the text. So the better option is to select my title text box, by clicking once on the border of the box, right click and choose “Copy Here” (or use the ctrl+”C” shortcut).

Now you have a duplicate text layer. Make the font size smaller, and increase the spacing. I set the size at 36pts, and the spacing to Expanded by 10pts. Accidental Presidency looks a little too bold, so I changed the font to Vodafone Rg.

Finally, I want my title text to “Pop” a bit more. If I click the little “A” symbol with the blue glow, I’ll get some special text features. If one of these styles doesn’t work, I can customize the Outline, Shadow, Reflection or Glow.

Free Book Cover Templates

The “Reflections” is interesting, but only if I go to “More Reflection Options” and change the transparency a little.

Free Book Cover Templates

But it’s not quite what I want. So instead, I’ll highlight the text and go up to the “A” with the white bar underneath to select the Font Color options.

Besides changing the color, I can also select a Gradient option. With a light border and subtle reflection, the cover looks pretty good.

Free Book Cover Templates

Free Book Cover Templates

Step Five
But I think I can make it better. Try selecting that black rectangle shape behind the text.
First I’m going to search online for a “black, textured background”. I want something “grungy” so I picked this brick wall.

Free Book Cover Templates

If I click on the border of my black rectangle, I can go up to Shape Fill, choose “Picture” and upload my brick wall background.

Quick Tip: if you’re having trouble selecting the black rectangle from behind the two text layers, use the “Selection Pane” which should still be on the right hand side of your workspace. You can select the layer there, or hide the two text layers for now.

Free Book Cover Templates

That looks OK. But now the straight lines of the rectangle box are starting to bother me.

Let’s get rid of them.
Select the background rectangle again by clicking once on the border, but this time right click and choose the last option, “Format Shape.”

This opens a new window, and we can now access the “Glow and Soft Edges tab.”
You want to make the soft edges big enough so the image transitions smoothly into the other pictures.

Free Book Cover Templates

Free Book Cover Templates

It still doesn’t look smooth, so I’ll try adjusting the colors.

I selected the background Paris shot, and used the “Corrections” and “Colors” tabs on top to change the picture to a dark brown that matches the bricks better.

Free Book Cover Templates

Step Six
That doesn’t look bad at all.
But let's see if we can add an element of danger by blending in another picture of this bad guy.

Free Book Cover Templates

First we need to make some space, so we’ve got to select the picture of the couple, grab one of the corners, and pull it down to scale the size.

You may need to move it over first so the corners are visible.
Then, since this is a dark cover, let’s get rid of that white background.

Go up to “Page Layout” and click on “Page Color.”

Free Book Cover Templates

Quick Tip: If you wanted to fill the page with a gradient, you would hit “Page Color” and then “Fill Effects.” Gradients are handy for non-fiction.

I click on “More Colors” and try to match that dark brown of the Paris sky as closely as possible.

Free Book Cover Templates

Now I can drag in the bad guy picture, “Wrap Text”/”Behind Text” to move him around, and “right click/format picture” to soften the edges.

I also used “Corrections” and “Color” to make him fit in with the background color better.

I added soft edges to the couple picture as well, but unfortunately these two images don’t fit so well together. I may be over-reaching.

I changed the color of the couple picture, to blend them together better, but now the cover is monochrome and a little boring. I could add red text


Free Book Cover Templates

But I think the colors were stronger before.

So I hit the “revert” back arrow about 200 times


Quick Tip: Save frequently! And if you like something, save it, and then save again as a new file before making big changes or trying something else.

Free Book Cover Templates

This time I use the “Remove Background” button (once you click on the picture, it will be on the top left, under “File”). It does a good job of stripping everything out.

I want to put him really small, on the bottom half of the cover.
And this is where I hit one of the big limitations in MS Word.

For some reason, “Shapes” have to be in front of “Picture Layers.” What this means is I can’t bring my bad guy in front of that brick layer.

Free Book Cover Templates

Luckily, there’s a work-around this time.

I started that layer as a shape, and I used “Fill” with the brick picture.

The cool thing about shapes is I can change the Transparency. You can use Transparency to put an image right over another one.

Free Book Cover Templates

Normal pictures though, don’t have that transparency option, only shapes do. And shapes have to be in front of pictures.

But, since I don’t need transparency right now on the brick layer, I can just delete it, insert the brick picture directly, by itself, and set the edges to soft.

Now that it’s a picture, I can put it behind the bad guy.
I like him so much, I’m going to make the author name a little more condensed so that I can fit him in better.

And
. Tadaa! For a cover made in MS Word in under an hour
 it’s pretty good.

Free Book Cover Templates

The fonts aren’t ideal
 I’d try to find something a little edgier/rougher for the title and cleaner for the author name.

Quick Tip: A white outline on text with a gradient will make a ‘gleaming edges’ look, like in this sample. It’s good for strong, clean fonts, but not good for rough or messy fonts with uneven edges. An outline will also make the text a little bit fatter and not quite as clean and sharp, so it should be used carefully.

If you didn’t get it earlier, link to the source files and template used in this tutorial.

DIY Book Cover Templates

With the methods you’ve just learned, you can make a pretty great cover by yourself in MS Word. But there’s also a lot of potential to fail. When you’re starting out learning a new skill, it’s good to have limitations, structure, guidelines, a roadmap. That’s why I’ve been working on over 100 DI Y book cover templates based on best-selling book covers, which are a lot faster and easier than making your own cover from scratch. You can just about point and click your way through customizing one of my templates in 5 minutes.

Free Book Cover Templates

If you’d like to find out more about that and download some free templates to play with, check out DIYbookcovers.com.

If you'd rather work with a professional book cover designer, you'll find a list here.

Please leave any questions or comments below!

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Most of the information on this site is free for you to read, watch or listen to, but The Creative Penn is also a business and my livelihood. So please expect hyperlinks to be affiliate links in many cases, when I receive a small percentage of sales if you wish to purchase. I only recommend tools, books and services that I either use or people I know personally. Integrity and authenticity continue to be of the highest importance to me. Read the privacy policy here. Read the Cookie policy here. I hope you find the site useful! Thanks - Joanna

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