Budget Options For Your Self-Published Book Cover
How to design a cover yourself, quickly and easily
Years ago, I paid a graphic artist to design my self-published book covers. Most of the time I was disappointed with the result. Lost in translation is often the result of your best explanation of what you want, and the artist’s response. I felt I did not have enough control over my desired book cover.
I had been designing t-shirts online and figured designing a book cover would not be much different. I went to pixlr.com/x/ and still use it today. Pixlr X is an online image editor. Years ago, it was free. Today, you get three free downloads a day. Their cheapest plan, which gives you access to all its features, is just 75 cents a month.
Pixel size of 1800 x 2700 is the right cover size for Draft2Digital, Amazon, and Smashwords. Click ‘create new’ to start on Pixlr X, then select ‘create’. Go to ‘layout and template’ on the left side and enter 1800 x 2700 in ‘smart resize’. Unlock lock proportions and click ‘apply’ at the bottom right. You now have a blank cover of the correct size to work with.
I have always used Pixabay images because you can do a lot with them on Pixlr X. Choose ‘add element/ image’ from the left side to upload images from your file folder. The screenshot below shows a Pixabay image…
