I may have a problem. I really, really enjoyed designing my book cover. And at some point, I started making fake book covers because I could.
Here’s my fake book:
Someday, I may have to write this book because I have the book cover design. I have a title and tagline. That’s sometimes the hardest part. (I don’t recommend writing books this way, but I’m tempted. Very tempted.)
I love using Canva for design ideas. It’s very simple to get started, and you have so many templates to start from.
First, select what you are designing: an ebook cover. Then pick your layout. Pick a new background photo. Change the Title. Add your author name. Put in your tagline. Boom. It’s a book cover.
Okay, so maybe it doesn’t happen that quickly.
For my first book, I spent a long time experimenting before I came up with this final design. How did I go about it?
Final design for Book 1 Fairy Doctor Falls in Love
Program used to design: Inkscape
Font: Playfair and AlternateGothic2 BT
Image source: Shutterstock
Version number 12
Step 0: Marketing 101
In one of his videos from AtoZ Self Publishing Advice, Ian Rob Wright suggests that “cover art should ask questions and not give answers”.
I love this. Basically, you show don’t tell, but from a slightly different perspective, from a marketing one.
Who are your readers?
Whose attention are you trying to capture?
Before you start designing, please consider your book and who is going to buy it. What is your genre? What is the mood? Fun? Dark? Does the book have a mascot? Animals? Is there symbolism you can use? A bell? A song? Music? What is your story about?
Knowing the answers to these will help you in your designing and research.
Step 1: Ideas and Study
Book cover design is fascinating. I love looking at older covers and seeing how covers have changed. But that’s a subject for another time.
Know your Genre. Do your Research
I researched book on Amazon. I went to my local bookstore and browsed. Romance books tend to feature the man or the woman on the cover in a provocative pose. The urban fantasy and paranormal books are similar, but with a fantasy element, like wolves with red eyes. That’s how you know it’s a werewolf book, or a vampire book. However, these books are on the darker side of the genre. Stories like the Fairy Doctor book are comedic and have a lighter tone. There are jokes and silly things happen all the time.
These kinds of books have bright colors, bright illustrations, usually of the female main character in a stylized artwork. I searched for illustrations, but never found anything I liked. I couldn’t get myself to draw anything. Instead, I found a model with bright colors. Perfect!
Where to find artwork or images?
Where can you find free images online? I have a post all about that. Or you can search for artwork at a royalty-free stock photo site like Shutterstock, iStockphoto, etc. It is also a good idea to use Google’s reverse image search so you can know if your artwork was used for another book or project.
Since I was making my book into a trilogy, I wanted to have the same style for all three books. Either the same model, or something to tie them all together. Theoretically, I could have put my main character, Lillia for Book 1, then picked the love interest, Marquez, for Book 2, and my villain, the Baron, for Book 3. But instead, I found that Shutterstock allows you to view photographs with the same model. The one I picked has the perfect option for Book 2 and a couple of other options for Book 3.
Once you have your artwork or photograph, you can begin designing.
Step 2: Design and
Typography is an Art form
Design and typography are intriguingly connected. It’s so complicated to talk about font families and font types and font faces, and the lingo gets very technical. I won’t go into that because it makes my head spin, but I can appreciate a good font when I see one.
For the font, I wanted something playful and fun. I also wanted to drop a fairy into the title. At first, I picked a handwriting font, like a Doctor’s scribble.
Logo 1
Logo 1.5
I did something similar with Logo 2, just a different font, and the same kind of fairy as the first logo.
Is it a fairy, or is it a bird?
Which do you see?
Early drafts
Before I found my model, I tried to use some landscape photos I took when I visited Singapore. I experimented with a day setting, a night setting, and then a stylized poster. None of these worked, and for a while, my favorite was one that had a black background with neon green text.
I tried experimenting with big, oversized text and a background image.
The problem with all these early drafts is that I created them before I did my research. None of them fit my book’s genre or expressed the mood of the story.
Once I found my artwork, I was able to finish the book cover design with a big, bold title and a picture of Lillia.
Side Note: Canva vs Inkscape
I started using Inkscape for the first few covers.
Inkscape is a free, open-source software that allows you to design logos and basic layouts. It’s similar to Adobe Illustrator. There’s a bit of a learning curve, like with any software.
Canva is your next best bet. It’s simple and intuitive, especially if you’re not a designer. I used it more to brainstorm or look at layouts and design ideas. I didn’t use it for my final layout because I wanted access to my original files, especially for the print layout!
Final Step: After you design it. Show it off.
After I made version 12, I knew I needed some opinions, or an extra set of eyes to know if I was headed in the right direction.
I got opinions from my sisters. One suggested keeping the font in black because that stood out the most. The other told me I shouldn’t feather the white shadow behind my title, but just leave a white outline. They’re very smart girls, my sisters, and I trust their eye for design.
Eventually, I had to tell myself. It’s done. You got your book cover design. Stop fiddling with it and get back to editing your book so you can sell it.
Next up, the print cover. What am I going to do about my backside and the spine? Oh, I’m a little excited.
Update 2025: I kept the same model for all three Fairy Doctor books, while the prequel ended up with a different design. Do I still make book covers for books I haven’t written? Yes. I still do this! I have an archive of older stories that I am going to make book covers for. I’ve also experimented with AI generation on covers, but these either involve lots of photoshopping to fix the errors, or they’re usually placeholders until I get around to designing/painting the real ones.