Cover art can be a pain in the butt. Books need to look attractive, but that can cost a lot of money. If you can afford it, nothing beats professional cover art from someone like M.S. Corley or Mike Tabor. When we’re starting out, though, spending hundreds of dollars on art can be a stretch. And for prolific short story writers, it can be damn near impossible.
Enter Canva, a website for illustration creation that includes templates for ebooks. This is drag-and-drop simplicity. The reason the covers come out looking great is the typography. I see way too many covers with difficult-to-read font, fancy scripts, and just poor layout. It’s so hard to get right. Canva helps. Check out some of these covers on Pintarest.
And then check out what I was able to do in ten minutes:
Of course, a lot of books are going to look the same if you stick with the stock layouts and images. One great way to use Canva is to buy your stock art elsewhere and import it in. The price of Canva is really ridiculous. A lot of the elements are free. Many cost $1. The two covers above cost me a buck apiece.
That’s my only concern, really. If you can’t afford to hire an artists to get original work, this is better than slapping something crude together on your own. But once you can, hire someone. Not just to get cover art that’s yours and that you can be proud of, but because of the network of freelancers out there that you’ll help support.
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