Book Publishing Just Got Easier: These DIY Book Cover Design Templates May Level the Playing Field for Self-Publishing Authors
Portland, Oregon (PRWEB) December 30, 2013 -- Despite the spectacular achievements of a handful of indie authors, many authors choosing to self-publish face major challenges. One of the biggest is getting a quality book cover design without it looking like it was cranked out by a cover creator software. But now there may be a new solution — making your own DIY book cover in Microsoft Word.
With the rise of the Kindle, self-publishing has gone from being the last option for desperate authors to a viable entrepreneurial choice. Even mainstream authors are choosing to self-publish in order to keep more of the royalties from their books. And the stories of self-publishing authors who made millions have become a beacon of hope for indie authors eager to make a financial return on the time they invested writing and polishing their story.
With the demand in publishing-related author services, entire industries have sprouted up offering everything from editing, to formatting, to book marketing. One notoriously tricky but essential element of self-publishing success, however, is choosing the right book cover design. The large self-publishing and author service companies all offer cover design options, but they work with many different authors, don't display many samples, offer only a few rounds of revision, and the quality can't be guaranteed.
That's why many authors choose to work with a single book cover designer with a good reputation and a large portfolio of successful projects; but one-person businesses like this quickly get overwhelmed with orders and have to raise prices to limit the demand.
This was the problem facing Derek Murphy (of Creativindie Covers), a fine-artist who began making his own book covers after spending time studying classical art in Italy.
"I loved my work," says Murphy, "but I was always having to refuse new orders, and my waiting list was getting out of control. Plus, I wanted to help the authors who couldn't afford me and was usually doing a lot of work for free under the table."
Looking for a way to help authors save money and take control over their publishing, Murphy spent several months creating hundreds of customizable, easy-to-use book cover templates, using the built-in features of Microsoft Word.
Here are a few sample templates:
https://us.vocuspr.com/ViewAttachment.aspx?EID=7WFeHU6gwldw4g6sAoBNtXtcDzgQ%2fjztsriHq1SRsKs%3d
The cover designs are based on the "design principles of best-selling books" and come with bonuses to help authors create a cross-platform branded look, and make their books stand out with strong, clean design elements.
While these DIY book cover templates will not replace professional book cover design, they are a welcome alternative to other cheap book cover design options, such as book cover creating software or pre-made Photoshop covers.
Authors can get a few samples templates and free guides to making book covers in MS Word at http://www.diybookcovers.com.
Robert Seifert, creativindie, +1 (971) 270-2017, [email protected]
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