How to Design a Book Cover (For free)

Written By Emmeli Markegård

So you’ve written a great story, and now you're ready to share it with the world. In this blog post I’ll guide you through the process of designing a professional-looking book cover, even if you have no prior design experience.

What is a great book cover?

A cover is a tool to attract and grab the attention of your ideal reader.

It should have the book title, the author name, as well as genre cues to tell the reader at a glance what they can expect from your book. The goal is to appeal to your target audience AKA your ideal reader. Take the time to figure out who that reader is, as this gives you a better return on your marketing efforts.

Having a cover that is pleasing to the eye is essential, but by itself not enough. A pretty cover is the wrong cover if it attracts the wrong target audience. This is why a good cover is instantly recognizable as, say, a fantasy or a thriller, and why covers within each genre can end up looking very similar. A reader that sees a familiar cover thinks “This looks like something I’d enjoy.”

A great cover then, walks a tightrope between standing out amongst their competitors and feeling familiar to its potential readers.

Illustration by the author

“A cover is a tool to attract and grab the attention of your ideal reader.”

Should you buy a cover or make your own?

Deciding on whether to DIY it, hire an artist or buy a premade cover can be tough for self publishing authors.

Almost all best-selling authors end up hiring professional book cover artists for their covers. A professional artist will take the time to get familiar with your story, and can create something truly unique and eye-catching. They know market trends and how to appeal to different audiences. However, hiring a pro artist will cost anywhere from 500$-2000$ and can feel like a big expense to many new authors who are not yet earning on their books.

For those looking for professionally made covers on a budget or tight timeline, consider buying a premade cover. Premades can range in price from as little as 50$ all the way up to 350$ and can easily be found online.

If budget is your number one consideration, DIY-ing it is of course the cheapest option. But only if you’re using all free resources. As soon as you pay for a Canva subscription, a font and some pictures, you would already have passed the price threshold of the cheaper premade covers. However, using free resources can cheapen the look of your cover and you risk blending in with other authors doing the same.

Preparing to Design Your Book Cover

Ever heard the phrase “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”? This applies to design as well! Here is how you can set yourself up for success from the start.

Research, research, research

Look at bestselling books in your genre to identify common design elements. Keep a list of these elements. Have you seen swords and roses a bajillion times? A lot of black silhouettes against washed out gray landscapes? Write that down.

Pay attention to the fonts used, are you seeing any that pop up repeatedly? What about how they’re paired with other fonts? The color schemes, the effects that are used or common compositions? This might sound a bit technical, but it’s worth looking into if you’re serious about learning how to do your own covers.

Create a mood board

Gather covers and images from platforms like Pinterest, Behance, or designers websites, and put together your own inspiration board to reference while designing. This can help you create a cohesive look, and avoid getting “stylistically distracted.”

Find your size requirements

Who are you publishing with? Amazon? Lulu? IngramSpark? Each of these services have different size-options for their books as well as requirements for how to deliver the cover file. 

To simplify the process you can find templates for whatever service you are using.

Ingramspark Templates

Amazon Ebook

The ideal ebook size for Amazon is 2,560 pixels in height x 1,600 pixels in width, with an ideal ratio of 1.6:1, a DPI of 72 and an RGB color profile.

You can read more on amazons guidelines here.

Amazon Paperback

Amazon wants your cover as a single PDF file that includes the back cover, spine, and front cover as one image.

Amazon has guidelines on the size of the wrap, margins as well as barcode requirements. Read them here.

Sketch it out

If you can, get your ideas out of your head and on to paper in the quickest possible way. As you’re putting down your ideas and exploring different themes, more might come to you.

Tools and Resources for Designing Book Covers

Free

  • Canva (You can find book cover templates for Amazon KPD and Ingram Spark)

  • GIMP

  • Amazon Cover Creator

Paid

Free stock images and clipart 

These are free to use, but remember to attribute the photographers of the photos you use in your edition notice.

Paid stock images and clipart

Free fonts

NB! “Free for personal use” does not apply to books for sale. Filter to find fonts with completely free licenses or pay for a commercial license.

If you use and pay for Adobe already, you can look for additional fonts at adobe fonts.

Designing your book cover

Know your size: Amazon Ebook ideal format is 1:1,6, common book formats for fiction are found in a range between 5.5” x 8.5” to 8.5” x 11” with 6” x9” being a common go-to size for paperback and hardcover fiction. You could for example use 6”x9” at 300ppi (1800 x 2700px) in Canva to start designing your front cover.

Selecting graphics: Choose high-quality graphics with good resolution. The best composition in the world won’t save mismatched or low-resolution clipart. Aim to keep a consistent theme throughout the cover.

Fonts: When doing research make notes on what kind of fonts are used the most within your genre. You can use a font finder to identify the font with a screenshot. Keep genre expectations in mind when choosing your fonts. For example, you wouldn’t use Comic Sans for a spy thriller, or Arial for an adventure fantasy.

Hierarchy: Most of us are not Stephen King or Nicholas Sparks, so order of size should almost always be Title biggest, then author name, then taglines, subtitles or quotes.

Subtitles, Taglines, and Quotes: Can be efficient, but use them sparingly. Use a smaller font than your title and author name. 

Clipart and Icons: Use sparingly to avoid clutter, and make sure they stylistically fit together.

Spine and back: Keep the theme and colors consistent on the spine and back. To ensure consistency, don’t introduce new colors or fonts to the spine or back that is not used on the front cover.

Test with Thumbnails: Scale your cover down to a tiny thumbnail. Is your title still readable? Is the image still easy to discern? If no, make changes accordingly.

Get Feedback: Ask your peers what they think of your cover. You can ask for feedback in writing subreddits, in facebook writing groups or from your peers. Ask for honest feedback and internet strangers will be happy to give it to you. Though I’ll add it’s not for the faint of heart.

Common pitfalls that scream “homemade”

People love homemade jam. Homemade book covers? Not so much. Here are some key mistakes to avoid.

Overcomplicating the Design: Keep it simple! If you’re asking yourself, is this too much? It probably is.

Ignoring Genre Conventions: If you’re trying to break the mold with your imagery, fonts AND colors your cover might stand out from the competition, but you also alienate your readers. If your story is a fantasy your cover should look like a fantasy cover.

Poor Font Choices: Fonts can make or break a cover's appeal. Some fonts are generally considered overused or dated.

Some NO-NO-NO fonts include: Comic sans, Arial, Papyrus, Scriptina, Courier, Times New Roman, Curlz and Trojan.

Poor color choices: Stick to a few colors. Have one main color, and one to two accent colors. When reviewing your design, ask yourself, is the text here readable? Contrast is key. Having red text on a bright pink background is rarely ever a good idea.

Finalizing and Exporting Your Cover

You’ll need different versions of your cover for different purposes. 

You’re going to want a high resolution JPEG version for social media and ebook uploads, and a high quality PDF with specific settings for print.

If you’re working in software like Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator remember to outline your text and flatten all transparencies.

If you’re working directly with a print company, ask them about their file requirements. Some have templates you can use. 

If you’re doing KDP, you can use Amazon’s own templates while designing. Here is more information on their requirements: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201953020


HOT TIP! - Save Multiple Versions: Your files will go through a lot of changes. Save multiple versions as you design so you can restore previous versions. Thank me later!

How to hire an artist

Creating a good cover is hard, and almost all serious authors end up hiring professionals to create their covers. A good cover artist can help you stand out in the sea of self published authors by making visuals your readers can connect with. So how do you find the right artist?

Look at covers you love in your genre, and find the artist that made the cover. It’ll say in the edition notice or on the back who did the cover. Often you can contact them directly to ask about their prices and availability.

Or you can search up artists websites and portfolios just like this one! Hi 👋 this is my website and I am a book cover artist and illustrator. I’d love to hear about your story, and create the visuals your book deserves.

You can see my illustration portfolio here or learn more by clicking the button below.

Emmeli Markegård