Wattpad Book Covers

© Introduction, rules and instructions

I decided to take advantage of the occasional bout of creativity and create some free to use book covers for the Wattpad community. I don't promise any regular posts, as I do graphic design for work and thus usually want to take a break outside of work in some other way :)

• INFO •

Graphics for this section will be principally from freely available graphics. Since I've been creating all sorts of graphics myself for a while now, I know how much it sucks when you see your work somewhere else, signed by someone else and ideally even depreciated. So for each cover, there will be a list of sources from which I drew the elements used for the cover.

I do not create covers on request.

• RULES •

1. Do not present my covers as your own
As I mentioned before, no matter how complex the graphic design of the story cover is, I still had to spend time thinking about it, creating it, preparing it in Canva, and sharing it, so it's my work. A work I do for you for free, in my spare time. So using but not stealing is the least you can do to show your gratitude.

2. Don't edit the cover art
Covers are created by someone who does graphics for a living. Yes, of course, design is a very individual thing in terms of its perception, but if you don't like the cover art as it is, please find another one and don't edit mine.

When editing the cover in Canva, you can choose a different font than the one predefined in the template. But please note that I created each cover with some intention for the feeling to have a complete background graphic and an appropriate font. So while you can change the font, and I certainly don't want to or can't prevent you from doing so, I recommend keeping the original font.

3. Let me know :)
This is an un-rule: you don't have to ask my permission to use the cover, but I'd really appreciate it if you let me know you used it.

• INSTRUCTIONS •

Wattpad itself offers the ability to choose and customize a cover for your stories through Canva.

CANVA
Canva is an online graphics tool for creating primarily online graphics such as social media posts, etc. However, over the years its features and user base have grown so much that there are even training sessions on how to produce graphics in Canva, not just online ones, but even print ones such as various brochures, etc. It doesn't have any highly advanced features, but literally anyone can make very nice creations quickly and easily nowadays :)

This tool is free in the base and any elements I use directly in Canva for story covers (primarily fonts) I always use the free ones and not premium ones to make my covers available to everyone.

www.canva.com

1. Registration
If you want to use my covers, you need to register and have an account in Canva. As I mentioned, the account is completely free. You can register here: www.canva.com.

2. Download the template
Once you have an account in Canva, all you need to do is download the template from the link that you will always find by the specific cover in comments section. The page will notify you that the template I created (Morbid_Curiosity) has been shared with you and the purple button below the image will confirm the creation of a copy of my template in your account, where you can title the cover according to your story.

3. Edit the template
After copying the template into your account, Canva will open in edit mode where you can start editing the template right away - rename the original title and author name. Just double-click on each of the texts and rewrite it. All changes are automatically saved in Canva, and you can verify that the changes have been saved by checking the cloud icon with a check in the top bar of Canva.

All your designs are saved to your account and can always be found in the Projects section on the left menu of the Canva homepage.

4. Using a cover
When creating a new story or editing a story, click on the cover image of the story and select 'Edit cover' with the turquoise 'c' icon. This will open a Canva window where you can select 'All your designs' from the left menu and select the ready-made cover you want to use. Again, you can edit the text before publishing. Finally, just click on the "Use cover" or "Update cover" button in the top right corner of the Canva window and confirm the whole story editing directly in Wattpad with the "Save" button in the top right corner.

Tadaaa!

I hope all the information is clear, but if you are still stuck, just drop me a line :)