1. Stock.xchng: Contains over 200,000 royalty free photos, plus tutorials to learn how to spiff them up.
2. Flickr: Some people offer their photos for public use. Be sure to check their usage terms first.
3. Buzznet: Like Flickr, some of the photos stored on this site may have restrictions.
4. PD Photo.org: This is a public domain site, although some of the photos have restrictions. It doesn’t have as many photos as the sites above, but the site is easy to navigate and use.
5. Openphoto.net: There’s plenty of photos to browse, but be aware that some are low quality. Also, Creative Commons licenses apply to some of the photos.
6. Ourmedia.org: A good resource for photos, audio and videos. The site is difficult to navigate, and some of the material may have some restrictions.
7. Google Images: You can spend hours surfing through the images. Many of the images indexed weren’t done so with the permission of the author. So be careful.
8. Free Stock Photos: Has clear English regarding the conditions for the usage of their photos. The photo collection is rather small.
9. Image After: Offers a large collection of photos and textures for personal or commercial use.
10. Morgue File: Another site that offers free photos and textures. Very easy to navigate.
I’m still in the testing phase of the 1ClickCovers ecover software and have to say that I’m very impressed with the results so far. The web-based and PDF tutorials make it very easy for a novice to learn how to create professional ebook covers with this script. It took me a little over an hour to create my ecover, but I blame my rusty skills with Photoshop.
Another concern I had was the compatibility with my Mac. 1ClickCovers works on both Macs and PCs.
My aim with this design was consistency, artistic pep, and readability for the ebook version of this anthology. The red rectangle you see at the bottom of the screenshot is the image of the writer’s blog. I made the image stand out by applying a drop shadow. Then I converted it into a button, which takes the reader to the blog.
I chose 14-point Arial for the body text for a couple of reasons. I wanted the readers to read the posts without getting eyestrain. And, there were some formatting issues that a larger font corrected.
Overall, I’m happy with the way the design turned out. Even better, the writers who submitted their posts liked it. I still haven’t figured out the problem with the full-justification, which led me to Google in order to find a solution.
I found this article, which may help you produce professional results using Word. Originally published in 2004, the software versions are obsolete. But Aaron Shepard gives timeless suggestions on how to set up your document before you type the first word of your book.
Yes, You Can Use Microsoft Word to Set Type That Looks Professional
This is an anthology I edited and compiled at the beginning of this year. The concept for the cover came while I was helping my son work on a collage project. I thought it would be a great way to promote these writer’s blogs.
The tricky part was figuring out where I was going to put the title and how I was going to make it stand out against all of that color. This is what I came up with.
Open Type fonts are the best because they are cross-compatible with PCs and Macs. The internal coding (called unicode) allows a typeface file to have over 65,000 characters, a big improvement over the older typefaces that are limited to 256.
The second best are PostScript or Type 1 fonts. These are good for offset printing, especially with PDF files.
Good Fonts for Headlines
Helvetica Bold, Gill Sans Bold, Eras Bold, Univers Black, Franklin Gothic Demi
Fonts for Body Copy
Garamond, Caslon, Goudy, Stone Print, and New Century Schoolbook
How Much Do These Fonts Cost?
You can get the Adobe Garamond (which contains 21 styles) family for $21.00 (each style) at MyFonts.com. Be sure to check out their specials. I found a couple that I’m considering for a cover design. Below is a short list of sites where you can check out some good fonts.
Adobe.com
Bitstream
Fontsite.com: Also offers books and articles on typography.
ITCFonts.com
First, free fonts are often poorly made. If you decide to use free fonts for your text, your printer will not be able to print your book because of the technical errors contained in these fonts.
Second, most of the fonts that come from shareware sites are pirated copies of commercial fonts. The names are often changed to protect the thieves. If you get caught using these for anything you publish (books, ebooks, websites, etc.), you may face serious legal action.
Fonts and Copyright Issues
Fonts are considered intellectual property, which means that you must pay for the license in order to use them. The first link talks about issues with the corporate world, but it also applies to individuals. It’s a good idea to read up on the legal issues writers face before publishing your book. I’ve included links to two good books to help you get started.
Understanding Font Licensing and Copyright Issues
Every Writer’s Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law
I just found this huge resource site on design that lists blogs, illustrators, designers, typography, etc. The only thing they didn’t have (and what I would have liked) was a resource for printers. Check it out at DesignEducation.ca.
I apologize for the lateness of my posting. I’ve been embroiled in the final edit of an anthology. In the near future, I’ll post its cover and explain the concept behind its design. For now, I’ll leave you with some tutorials that I found.
Three-Part Series
Design in a Bind
Book Design, Part II
The Last Word on Book Design
Designing a professional Ebook cover is just as important as designing a traditional book. Internet Marketers have this down pat, but I’ve seen other writers in other genres fall miserably short. It’s not their fault because most of the cheap ebook compiling software is that . . . cheap.
When I wrote my first ebook, I scoured the Internet for software that produced the same results as the virtual covers I saw on every Internet Marketer’s site. I downloaded a free trial of Virtual Cover Creator. Although it was easy to use, I wasn’t happy with the less than professional results.
I found that it was geared more for the business genres and not for the writing or fiction genres. Also, I felt too limited as to how I could manipulate the graphics (that fit the closest to the design message I wanted to gain) and text.
That was last year. Today, I wanted to see how much this industry had improved. Not by a whole lot, I’m afraid. However, I did see something that caught my eye.
1ClickCovers offers Photoshop scripts that can take your book cover and turn it into a 3D object. It also comes with tutorials on ebook cover design, templates, fonts, color swatches, and more. Max Rylski also provided a link to his portfolio, which included an ebook in the fiction genre.
I’ve just sent him an email to see if the scripts are compatible with Macs. If they are, then I will try this program out and post a review.
The cover art is rather pretty and peaceful looking, isn’t it? At first glance, I thought this was a literary novel, or perhaps a romance set in the grassy dunes of a beach somewhere. Check out the Amazon Book Description this book. You’ll find that the publisher really screwed up on this one.
This is a horror/suspense novel, and a good one, I might add. But if I had found this in the bookstore instead of online, where the synopsis is very close to the book cover image, I would have mistaken it for a literary piece.
Surprisingly, the author’s book received four positive reviews. He might have received a lot more if the cover art had relayed the correct message. This was one of the biggest complaints authors had when using the POD route to publish their books when the industry was brand new.
Here is an example of book cover art that was done correctly. The picture on the cover speaks to me of beauty and isolation. This is a literary work about a deceased older couple, whose murdered remains are undiscovered for several days in the dunes of a beach.
This cover fits because because of the locale of the story. As a result, Being Dead received a whopping 106 reviews.
The cover art of your book is the first thing your prospective readers see, whether they see it on Amazon.com or their local brick-and-mortar store. It must convey the right message by giving a clue as to what your story is about. Get this wrong, and you will lose readers that may have otherwise enjoyed your book.
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