One of the hardest things about designing your own ecovers is finding a starting point. Where do you get the inspiration for your design? This is a question many new authors face when the time comes to get that cover ready. In this article we will discuss where to find inspiration for your ecovers.
An easy way to collect inspirational ideas to start a new board over at Pinterest. You can call it Inspirations or Designs I Love, something like that. Then simply pin book designs, images and more to this board as you find them. Then when you need a little inspiration take a look at your board.
In addition to collecting images don’t forget to collect things like color samples, fonts that you like and even titles and headlines. These can all be inspirational at some point in time.
Looking for ideas on photo sites as well as on all the bookstores can be really helpful as well. When you look in the bookstores look for books that are in the same genre as yours. You can then see if they all have a similar theme or style to them. If so you may want to incorporate these things into your designs, after all they are being used for a reason, they probably work!
Other sources of inspiration include visiting your local library and looking at the books and the magazine section as well. Magazines are great places to find inspirational headlines, after all these magazines have to sell repeatedly each month. Since the editors have great ways of coming up with headlines that grab the reader’s attention.
If you enjoy drawing why not try sketching out your designs on paper? While you may not be sure of where to start just starting putting down the image that first comes to mind when you think of your book. Remember you want your ecover to reflect the content of the book. As the author you know exactly what your book is about and what picture this conjures up in your mind. Get that image onto paper!
Maybe art isn’t your thing then not to worry. Try using a free software that helps you design your ecovers. The nice thing about this type of program is that you can create unlimited designs at no extra cost. Your final design may be totally different to your first creation, but you can file these for later use. They may come in handy for your next book!
Remember too that professional designers often come up with several proofs before the final version is settled upon. So think like a designer, take your time, and create an ecover that you are proud of.
