A cover is the first thing that someone sees when browsing for a book. The words "don't judge a book by the cover" don't apply for the most part. Cover design is an industry for a reason and it's a very competitive one. The cover of your book can help give a preview of the contents, sharing a small story of its own, and the cover is often the thing standing between your readers and their decision to pick the book up or move on to the next one.
On Wattpad especially, it's important to display what's important, and leave out what is not. When scrolling, only a minimized version of your cover is seen, so make sure that it's easy to see.
1. What is your story about?
Keep in mind what kind of story you are writing before you go ahead and make the cover. The background of the cover for your horror book shouldn't be a field full of daisies.
The picture, colors, text, and everything else about it are all insights as to what the book contains.
2. Quality
If you're using a photo, do not use one that is grainy and unfocused. Take the time to search for a perfect background image. Reverse google search is very helpful if you find a perfect picture but need a better quality image of it. *refer to "Reverse Image Search" chapter*
3. Program
I use a free program to create my covers called Canva. It is easy to use, especially with practice. It even has an option to choose "Wattpad Book Cover" as a design size which is very useful. (Personally, I believe if you can afford the pro version, then that is the best option)
Another good option is Adobe Spark Post, which is a free app that has a small, but great selection of fonts and many options for design.
4. Font
The font is extremely important. I always suggest that people use black or white, and try to keep it to a minimum of two fonts per cover, one for the title and one for the author's name, with some exceptions. Font shouldn't be chosen on a whim, and I suggest going through as many as you can bear before you find the perfect one.
A horror book shouldn't have a cursive font type for the title, and a romance novel shouldn't have a scary, dripping, Goosebumps style font without good reason.
5. Complexity
I suggest at first, go for a basic cover. This includes:
-title (centred or balanced in regards to the photo)
-author's name
Many people over-do their covers, adding effects, collages, coloured fonts, quotes, etc. And it can look like you gave scissors, glue, and magazines to a toddler. Keep it simple, basics can be beautiful.
good example:
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bad example:
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6. Save As
Be sure to save your background photo as a PNG and not a JPEG if possible. PNG's are much larger and higher quality.
