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If you’ve worked hard on your book, you may want the perfect professional book cover. However, sometimes that is a price that is way out of your budget.
When I first started out, I had to learn how to utilize Adobe Photoshop to my advantage. It wasn’t exactly perfection, but I did learn over time how to turn photos I found on the internet or those I took myself, into what I envisioned for my book cover.
For example, for Operation: Containment I used a picture I took of my son when we were traveling in the mountains. He was the inspiration for my character, after all. I superimposed that over the top of a picture I took on my front porch of the moon. It took me 5 nights to get the right picture and I still had to add in extra cloud cover. It was a lot of work. But that was the perfect book cover. It fit the mood of the book.
Even then it was a lot of work.
Now a days, there are a lot of places to go to when choosing royalty free pictures, because I don’t always have the perfect picture in my camera roll. My favorite website is Unsplash. You can do a search to find your pictures. Just note that there is a limit unless you join their plus program. I never needed the plus program because I never went over my limit and gave credit to the photographer in my book.
Pair your picture with Canva’s templates for book covers and you have an easy solution to creating a book cover for your self-published book. Canva has many different types of templates that you can use. I do recommend their pro version, only because you have access to many of their illustrations and pictures as well. Plus, you will have a wider selection of fonts.
Book covers don’t have to be difficult or something that you need to hire out. I strongly suggest giving Canva a chance. If you don’t enjoy it, you don’t have to use it, but you never know. I didn’t think I’d enjoy the creative process of it as much as I did until I started.
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