How to Create Your Own Ebook

Create Your Own Ebook Without Ever Writing One Word!

Chapter 1 -- How to select a great topic
Chapter 2 -- Where to find great writers
Chapter 3 -- How to choose the best writer for your project
Chapter 4 -- Where to find an artist to develop great cover art
Chapter 5 -- How to sell your book on the web
Chapter 6 -- Where to find good, online ebook information

Chapter 4

--Where to find artists to develop great cover art

"Wait! Why would an ebook need cover art?"

Do not for a moment think that an ebook does not require a cover. If you're going to sell your ebook to the public, go the extra half mile and get some great cover art for it. Of course your ebook is full of all your best, Grade A meat. It discusses a sought-after topic, was prepared by a solid ghostwriter, and was edited and approved by you yourself. Customers should be able to read about you on the Internet, click on a text link, and buy your book. Write it and they will come. Right?

Wrong. Even online, people continue to judge books by their covers. Look at it like this. Would you buy a book from Barnes and Noble if it were just a stack of papers stapled together? Heck no you wouldn't. For $15.95, you want something with an official binding and cover.

What would bookstores be like if every shelf held only stacks of paper held together with binder clips, large staples, rubber bands or manila folders? Even if Edgar Allen Poe wrote the pages (assuming you hadn't heard of him), and his handwritten pages were sitting there, hardly a soul would be enticed to buy.

No matter how good a book is, it must be nicely packaged. The value of a paper book is exponentially increased by the addition of nothing more than a glue binding and nice cover. Likewise, and ebook's sale-ability and appeal is exponentially increased when it is packaged with an appropriate cover.

In order to sell well, a book sitting on a retail shelf will actually have to have more than just any old cover. It will need to have a spine as well. And the pages cannot be attached with notebook rings (usually). The cover should appear to be professionally designed. In other words, a red cover from Kinko's will not make buyer's pull out their credit cards and rack up purchases. Brick and mortar booksellers know how to sell books. They do it with eye-catching displays and covers with color, catchy text, and shiny spines.

And if they really want to grab your attention with a book, they may make a special display, offer a bonus, have the author available to sign copies, or set a particular book on a particular shelf where it will be more visible to passers by.

As we all know, it's tough to sell a book! Sometimes even good covers get passed by, because other covers are more enticing! So, hear me when I tell you, don't even think of trying to market an ebook without cover art!
Consumers want to see a picture of what they're getting. And that picture has to look good. It has to make them say, "Wow, that looks like an incredible book!" You have only a second or two to grab their attention. You must do it with a picture. And the picture must be as good as it can possibly be!

If you are thinking of offering your ebook as a free gift for visiting your web site, subscribing to your newsletter, or as a bonus for purchase of something else, then the artwork is less important. But still, there is no excuse. If a book is worth the effort of writing and marketing to consumers, then it is worth getting great cover art to package it with.

The artwork serves two purposes:

1. It gives Internet surfers an immediate image of your book when they're glancing at a web page. People only spend a few seconds scanning on the web, so your picture can make or break a sale when there's hardly time to read the rest of your sales pitch.
2. It puts a nice graphic at the beginning of your book. Although ebooks don't need complete covers like traditional books do, people like the idea that ebooks are just like paper books. The cover art makes your ebook appear more official and published like a traditional book, and that makes the ebook more appealing to readers. It will grab their attention when they first open the file to read.

Here's an example of basic cover art you could use with your ebook.

This simple example graphic is about the right size to place onto a web page where you will be selling or giving away the ebook. You may place a larger version of on the first page of the file that readers will open when they purchase your ebook. Your ebook cover will look more like a paper book, and therefore more appealing if your cover art also contains the title along the spine, and aesthetically pleasing designs, drawings, or photographs on the cover.

I've just put this simple picture here to give you a quick example of how it looks compared to text. You've been reading a bunch of words up until this point. Do you see how your vision is pulled toward the picture of the book? Even this bare bones cover grabs your attention doesn't it?
How to get a cover

There are a couple ways to get great cover art for your ebook. The first is to create it yourself. This is the most time-consuming of the options.

Hardest - do it yourself

To make your own cover, use your favorite drawing, painting or graphics software. Draw a rectangle. Add a book spine and pages to give your rectangle three dimensions to look like a closed or partially open book. Fill your drawing with interesting colors or patterns. Add your title and author byline to the front and spine. Embellish and revise ad nauseum.

If you're wondering which graphics program to use, there are many to choose from. Some standard office programs provide the ability to create graphics, including MS Word. More flexible, but more complicated graphics software you could use just as well includes Macromedia Fireworks, CorelDraw, or Adobe Photoshop. Professional cover art designers and graphics artists tend to use the pure, flexible, more complex, programs for their work.

Developing your cover from scratch is do-able, and even you could do it if you were so inclined. But I don't recommend the do-it-yourself approach. This is because, if you're short on software skills, artistic talent, or time or if you would rather focus your energies elsewhere, then there are more efficient ways to get cover art.

A couple shortcuts

Shortcuts to the build-it-from-scratch approach include using templates or using ebook cover art software.

Templates are available for purchase on the Internet, and some sites even offer free basic templates if you will link back to their site. Buying or borrowing templates will still require you to add your own text and additional graphic elements, so you'll still be investing some time, just a little less time than drawing each line of the picture from absolute zero.
I've listed some web sites where you can get free templates in the online resources chapter. Again, most free template sites will ask for a link displayed in your ebook.

Although I don't have any reason to advocate purchasing cover art templates, I've also included a couple websites that sell ebook cover templates, just FYI. Purchased templates should not require a link back, and if they do, then definitely don't buy those.

You can also buy specialty ebook cover software from a number of web sites. I don't recommend this either. The software generally is a glorified set of templates, but gives you more choices and more freedom to change this and that. You will still do the work of designing your own cover. I've included web addresses where you can check out a couple of these packages in the online resources listed at the end of this ebook, FYI.
If you do design your ebook cover art using free or purchased templates, or free or purchased software, you own the copyrights to the finished artwork and to anything else you design with the templates or programs.

My recommendation - hire an ebook cover designer

I suggest that you hire a designer to prepare your cover art. There are numerous reasons. When you hire a designer to create your ebook cover art, you will get the following benefits:

1. You get full copyright and exclusive ownership of the finished artwork.
2. Professionals with professional skills can turn around your project quickly. Sometimes in a matter of days.
3. You avoid struggling with software to create your own artwork.
4. Designers are familiar with what types of colors, fonts, and overall designs are better for marketability.
5. An artist can likely also help you create matching graphics for your web page menus, headers, etc.

Artists who design ebook covers generally charge from $50 to $500. If your investment of, say, $100 results in an additional 100 ebook sales, wouldn't that be a good investment? YES! This is why I recommend professionally designed ebook cover art. The cost is completely offset with improved marketability and increased sales.

How to find an ebook cover art designer

Just like searching for a ghostwriter, you could ask and call around in your community's art organizations to find artists that you could pay to design an ebook cover for you.

Another way to do it is to conduct an Internet search. If you type in key words "ebook cover art" you'll get pages and pages of results. Ebook cover artists are literally standing by to get your project on the world wide web. Some individuals specialize in ebook cover art, and some companies provide a gamut of graphics or e-selling services.

The reality is, going to individual web sites and researching each one can take some time. So, I would invite you to try one of my low-B.S. approaches to finding an ebook cover art designer.

Here's what you do: Look at web sites where ebooks are being sold. Most well-marketed ebooks have cover art shown on a web page where the ebook(s) can be purchased. Decide for yourself which of the ebook covers most capture your attention and would therefore be good for your project.
Once you've found one or two really great ebook covers, contact the webmasters and ask who did the designs. You'd be surprised how many people will share their information with you. Introduce yourself pleasantly. You won't find out much by being gruff or unfriendly. Be honest and open, and if you want to start off on the right foot, it may help you get in the door if you initiate the conversation by complimenting the webmaster's work. When you're using your best manners, if one webmaster won't divulge his cover art designer, then another webmaster definitely will.

How to choose a designer

A good designer works with you and for you.

Whether by Google or by referral, once you navigate to an ebook cover designer's web page, read through her terms to see what her fee is, how well she works with people, and any examples of her work. Contact her to get additional information. And regardless of any testimonials on her web page, ask for references of real people whom you can contact yourself.

Look for things like:

· Does the artist get a lot of repeat business?
· Has the artist been responsive to your questions?
· Have you seen some excellent examples that you really like?
· Does the artist guarantee your satisfaction before he gets full payment?
· Will turnaround be a few days? (It really shouldn't take more than a week at any rate.)
· Will he or she revise the artwork after you've seen the first draft? Is this revision included in the quoted cost?
· Do you feel yourself wanting to buy the ebooks shown on the designer's web page that this designer "covered"? In other words, do his or her pictures entice you to make an immediate purchase?
· Will the artist also be able to create additional items like web page headers, banners, or related items?

The work to weed out designers and to find a few that you like will pay for itself in the long run when you want to create ebook after ebook. It's good to have someone who designs great covers, whom you can trust and rely on, who works quickly and effectively, and who charges reasonable rates.

Tip: Find out the web services fees when you're asking about ebook cover art fees. It's an added perk if your ebook cover artist also provides web page design services. You may wish to have your marketing web page and ebook cover design match. A good artist can generate titles, banners, buttons, and other related web page items.

What makes a great ebook cover?

When you hire a designer, you're giving up the reins on your cover art to some extent. You can definitely use your gut instinct (which is usually right anyway) to determine when a cover is just right for your ebook. If your gut doesn't speak to you, you can also make sure your cover art is good by asking yourself and answering some questions.

Does the artwork stand out proudly on your web page? You don't want it to blend in with the background or be barely noticeable. Whether it's by color, texture, shape, exclamation points, or professional looking artwork, your designer needs to know how to add enough pizzazz to your cover art to get you noticed. This doesn't mean that you need microscopic detail or complicated figures or drawings. Sometimes simplicity does the job quite well. Artists know that. Look for the "stand out" factor on his designs.

Is the title prominent on the cover? You don't want too many words on the cover. Stick with the title, a byline, and short words. You may be able to effectively include a short bulleted list, but not much more. When you quickly scroll through web pages, you should be able to remember from a quick glance what the title was on your ebook cover. If the title isn't lodged in your memory after a passing glance at the picture, then the artwork needs a face lift.

Does the cover use four colors or less? Although rainbows are pretty, they don't stand out as much as solid colors. You can actually get by with three colors. In most cases, you'll need at least one more color besides just black and white. Just like web pages can look unprofessional with too many animated graphics and background textures (moon craters, wood grain, tiles with photographs on them, whatever), likewise, your cover does not require all these frills. Don't be sold on an artist or his work because he can make your ebook cover look like a tie-dyed T-shirt. Unless of course your book is about tie-dying! Occasionally lots of colors or textures are called for, but usually not.

Can you read each letter of text on the cover? You do not want a font that is difficult to discern. Interestingly, the simple fonts that we use every day when we communicate by email, are some of the best for ebook cover art. There's a reason fonts like Arial and Times are so popular. People find them easy to read. Don't make your potential buyers work to hard to figure out which letter is which on your cover. In general, stay away from curly cues, unusual handwriting fonts, and heavily detailed lettering.

Does your cover have a large amount of red, blue, or yellow? These have been determined by psychologists to be appealing colors for consumers. In fact any two of these colors in combination with black and white would probably work. Steer away from brown, green, gray, and muted or faded colors unless there is some really good reason to use those colors. For example if your book is called "How to build a log cabin," your project may be well-served by browns and greens. But maybe not! Try red, blue, yellow, black and white first to see! By the same token, money ebooks do not have to be green, and ebooks for brides do not have to be white.

Does your cover look like a three-dimensional object? You are trying to convey an actual book, so you definitely want the art in 3-D. Make sure your ebook art has a spine and the appearance of some internal pages. Don't settle for a rectangular representation of only the front cover of a book. A flat rectangle could work for the first page inside your book, but not for a picture on a web site that is supposed to attract a buyer. Even though your readers will obviously have enough computer wherewithal to have found your ebook in the first place, in their hearts, they will still be attracted to online artwork that reminds them of actual paper books. It's just a fact of life, so accept it, and make sure your ebook cover art looks like a book.

Chapter 5