Back in the 1980's, page layout and design software like
PageMaker and Quark became widely available, and everyone believed "Hey,
if I just owned the software, then that makes me a designer." But that
couldn't be further from the truth, and the resulting designs they created
were amateurish, ugly and ineffective.
In the 1990's as HTML editors like FrontPage and Dreamweaver
became available, everyone thought, "Gee, this is even easier than page
design. Now I am a web page designer, too." Well, as many people have
learned, anyone can build a web page, but very few have the skills and talent
to design a web page that is compelling and sells.
It's the same way with ebook covers. Over the past 10 years,
an enormous number of software tools, PhotoShop actions and template
collections have entered the market to help you create an ebook cover quickly
and easily. But "quickly and easily" are also part of the problem.
To that end, I've published Designing
Ebook Covers to help you learn more about the design process.
Here are three different cover designs for the same ebook.
Which one is most appealing to you and why? Look at each design carefully and
consider how all of the graphic elements, fonts and colors work -- or don't
work -- together.
Obviously, the first design is very plain and visually quite
boring. If it were a print book in the local book store, you wouldn't even
pick it up to look at it, right?
The second design has too much visual activity: too many
colors and fonts and text are competing for your attention. The gradient
background is too dark, the author photo is pasted on top of the money image,
and the money image has nothing to do with the subject matter. It's visually
hard on the eyes and difficult to read. Would you buy this one either?
Probably not.
The third cover uses good basic design principles that make
the cover easier to read and more appealing to your eye. It uses a single
primary color for the background, complimentary colors for the title and
subtitle, and minimal graphic elements like the shades of darker red at the
top and bottom to frame the cover and the black circle and bar element to draw
your eye to the author's photo and name. All of the components work together
to achieve a well-designed cover. You can do the same.
This is not an ebook about PhotoShop; it's about the
design process. In Designing
Ebook Covers you will follow along, step-by-step, as I create ebook
covers, header graphics and web sites for myself and for my clients. You'll
have a chance to get inside my head and gain a better understanding about how
to pull royalty-free photos, clipart, fonts and templates together to create
designs that can help sell your products.
Designing
Ebook Covers is available for only $47.00 and contains 91 pages and
over 65 screen shots. To learn more, please click here.
Designing Ebook Covers
