Designing a Cover
Judging Your Book by the Cover
We all know the saying, and, unfortunately 90% of people do it. If you want your book to sell well, you need something to catch a reader's eye. Even if they buy your kindle book, most likely they have dozens of other books on their kindle, too. You need your book to stand out so they will read it and hopefully review and recommend it to their friends.
Size and Specs
All kindle covers need to have the following specifications:
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6 x 9 inches
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300 dpi (Dots per inch)
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Max 2500 pixils on the longest side
What should your cover look like?
For non-fiction, covers vary dramatically depending on content. You will need to research books in a similar genre. Visit Amazon.com. Look up books in your genre by doing the following:
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Type in 'Kindle' in the Amazon search engine.
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Click on 'non-fiction' on the left hand side of the screen
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choose a sub-category that matches your book in the same area
Each genre will have a dominant style for the bestselling books. Model your cover after their style - relevant to the content inside.
Where do I get a Cover Made?
For your kindle edition there are no requirements like there are when you go to the print version. If you know someone and have some idea of what you want, you can certainly try to put together a JPG.
*** An unprofessional cover will reflect that the book is substandard! ***
If you would like help with your cover, we have some economical recommendations. You will get a professional looking cover with artwork that is not under a copyright, and not used by any one else.
What to send a cover artist?
Your cover needs to:
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say something about what's inside
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catch the attention of a reader
I suggest sending a one page synopsis to the artist, detailing what your book is about. Even if you know what you want, it never hurts to get an artist opinion. As authors, we want to tell a story with the cover - a good graphic artist knows how to capture attention with specifically placed images.
Cover designers:
Jeff Sharpton
Designed "Why Doesn't God Speak to Me?" and "Rape: America's Dirty Little Secret"