Writing Juicy Fiction: Transformative Writing Tips

Covers Made Easy

Yes, I wrote this on Christmas Day because I had a small break after opening presents.

This article will teach you how to make covers, even if you lack any talent in graphics.

I have read a lot of outdated books about making Wattpad covers.

Covers with no text that used to be preferred are no longer popular unless it's fanfiction. Even then, I would add a title. Readers will remember a cover with a title more.

Make sure your covers don't have, (the ripped off of Google Images esthetic.) Never grab photos from Google Images. It's against Wattpad's rules, and these covers usually suffer from quality loss and rarely even match the book.

And if you don't want to make a cover, you can always find a Wattpad graphic shop. These can be free, but they have rules to follow, such as not changing their cover after you order it.

The cover Conform or Suffer was a paid commission. Readers who read Conform or Suffer all the way through understand why I had the cover commissioned and what it represents. Okay, it might also be because I would like the book to have a graphic novel edition.

I joined a graphic Shop for the cover of my short story, Just Another Red-Headed Chosen One. I followed the payments, which included following the artist on several platforms.

Do not use Tumbler, for your images without permission from the original poster, even its fanfiction. You might have to pay for the use of the art or photo. Tumbler is not a source for free art.

Be careful with Pinterest. It's often not the original photo, and when it is, you still need permission. My friends and my art were stolen off of Pinterest and the business person who did it lost all their products off Amazon. If they used a public domain photo site or paid a small amount for rights, they wouldn't have run into an issue.

Book Covers Made Easy; Free Book Covers:

You can still make book covers if you don't know how to use Photoshop or Gimp and haven't won a design in a Wattpad graphic shop.

For covers, go to the site Canva and use their free tools and assets. It has an app if you are only using your phone. Canva is what Wattpad recommends. They also have a pro version and paid assets. I used Canva Pro and art programs to make Ruthie is Falling Backwards.

Some of my covers I made with free Canva, but this is more likely you'll see covers similar to yours, which isn't always a bad thing. Readers like specific styles of covers.

I'm always redoing the covers I design because I am learning skills, but trends also change. Traditional publishers change their book covers occasionally, but if your cover is popular on Wattpad or a graphic shop cover, keep it.

Costs:

You can buy a camera and take your own photos if you want to create fully original covers.

You can buy photo programs for relatively cheap, but check with user agreements. Some do not allow for commercial use.

Avoid:

Avoid photo covers that are too busy.

Avoid covers with text, so fancy most readers can't tell what the title is.

Paid Book Covers:

Another way to make covers is to pay to get covers, this will cost around $10 for basic and $35 for premium, but they do have sales. I never used this service, but it's popular and inexpensive.

They use stock images, and you do not have the right to the original photo, so another cover might use something similar.

Paying a professional artist usually ranges from $27 for an artist just starting to $1800, or even more if the artist is famous. I have paid $75 for original covers, but many pay $500.

Premades come in a wide range of prices, but the average is $50 to $500 unless you are going fancy. Be careful, some lie about rights. Premades are when the artist made a bunch of covers, and you pay to place your title on it, and the rights to use it.