How to Put Your Ebook Together
At this point, you have a nicely formatted, well-written document on your computer (hopefully, in Microsoft Word format).
Now it’s time to make it look like an ebook.
Before you get started, you may wish to decide where your publication goals lie. Do you want to post this for sale on your website? Do you want to go through a self-publishing service? The example below can be used if you are posting this on your own site. Other self-publishing outfits will have their own specifications about how they wish for your manuscript to be submitted, including their preferred file format. So make sure you have decided what route you wish to go.
How to Create an Attractive Ebook Cover
The cover you use for your ebook is important.
The phrase A picture is worth a thousand words comes to mind. The potential buyer used to choose books in a bookstore based on book covers. The ebook reader is no different. People still look at covers, and select ones that catch their eye to give a further look. When your book is an ebook, the cover may be even more important, because it is easier on the computer for a reader to bypass your ebook for so many other competing titles.
To design your own cover, you are going to have to have some skills. You’ll need a graphic art program, such as Photoshop or Illustrator.
I can’t teach you those programs in this ebook, but I can tell you some elements of a good cover.
Text: Try to make the title clear and eye-catching. Don’t use lots of different fonts on the cover. Try to stick with one, two at most.
Design: Obviously, your cover art should somehow fit with the story. It might illustrate a specific scene in your book, for instance. Consider putting a person, such as your main character, on the cover.
Where can you find images of people?
You can find them (and use them, for a fee) on sites like:
iStockPhoto
Free Digital Photos.net
Laughingbird People Pack – I use Laughingbird’s program, The Logo Creator, for all kinds of graphic needs. It can also be used in creating a cover image. Along with using human images available in their People Pack, you might be able to come up with a stellar ebook cover.
Getting the Cover Done for You
Perhaps you don’t know how to use any graphics program, and you don’t want to learn. That’s okay. Get one for you for cheap.
How?
Remember Fiverr? The site I mentioned to get your ebook edited? www.fiverr.com.
This is also a great place to get your cover developed. You could also go to a service like
www.freelancer.com
www.elance.com
www.odesk.com
www.99designs.com
If you search Google (or your favorite search engine) for “ebook cover design” you should be able to come up with many results.
You could also try to design it yourself through an online designer such as
EbookCoverCreator
My Ecover Maker
You could also learn to create covers by using a program such as Design Ebook Cover or searching YouTube for the many tutorials on the subject.
You might want to create two images. One is the actual design, which can be one-dimensional, to put on your Word or other document. The other is a “3-D” book cover. This will be the book image made into a product that looks like a 3-dimensional book.
It’s not essential to do so. In the case of this ebook, I simply used the same 3-dimensional image on its cover that was used on the sales page.
In either case, make sure you offer a 3-dimensional cover on the sales page where your ebook will actually be for sale. Why is it important to do this? People like to buy digital products online. However, the product has more perceived value (making people more likely to buy it) if it has the appearance of an actual physical product.
You want your cover page to be the very first page. So when you have designed the cover you want, it goes on page 1 of your Microsoft Word or other document.
Activity
Decide whether to outsource your ecover, or learn to design it yourself.
Read below about additional elements you may wish to add to your ebook, as well as the note about self-publishing services, before you actually design your ebook cover.