If you ever dreamed of writing a book or becoming a published author, there has never been a better time in history than now. Independent publishing has made it possible for anyone to publish a book and Amazon has made it possible for anyone to succeed.
Not only are the physical aspects of self-published books up to par with that of professional publishers, the writing and editing are often just as good or better. With affordable access to major distribution channels, self-published authors did more than level the playing field—they created one of their own.
In recent months, self-published authors have hit the New York Times bestseller list (John Locke comes to mind), have attained Amazon rankings in the top 1% (Hugh Howey, Rebecca Donovan, and Edward Hayden to name a few), and have earned six figure salaries with their electronic Kindle books, alone.
Self-publishing has overcome disproportionate odds and knocked down well over one-hundred years of fortified industry barriers. A question, nonetheless, continues to rattle around in my head. With so much self-publishing success, and so many talented diy writers, why do we still see so many amateur book cover designs? You don’t have to look far to find them. Thousands of dreadful examples surround us.
It’s not surprising when you consider how fast the industry has changed. Thanks to the many advances in print-on-demand and electronic publishing, unknown authors can now succeed in a profession previously reserved for those “discovered” by major publishing houses. Now, a single person may be the writer, marketer, and cover designer. Most of us are fortunate to have a single one of those talents; we’d never imagined needing all three.
You Can Design Your Own Book Covers
Crafting a story or chronicling an event involves detailed attention to voice, narrative and composition, not to mention grammar and sentence structure. Cover design requires an arsenal of entirely different skills, and too often, they’re skills that writers don’t have.
In my experience, most independent authors would love a professional cover design. Cost is a major hurdle for many, which leaves them no option other than to design the book cover on their own. Unfortunately, lack of adequate resources and basic design instruction has led to a lot of disappointing book covers. More than likely, most of these folks have a good cover design in them, they just need some pointers to make it look polished and professional. After all, you know a good design when you see one. Right? All you need are a few tips and tools to create one.
This website is for all of you non-designers out there who want to design your own book covers. Covers that look professional–that look just as good as the other book covers out there. If this describes you, congratulations, you’ve come to the right place.
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By Stacie Vander Pol