How to Make a Good Book Cover on Wattpad

Choosing the Picture

Hello my dear Wattpadians, this is LoveAthenaa talking to you directly! This chapter or portion is about choosing the picture for your book cover. But first, let me backtrack to why you all are here. 

You guys are here because you feel like your covers are not good, am I correct? No worries! The fact that you bothered to look up a book about how to make a good book cover here on Wattpad shows that you have the determination to pursue your dream, that is, making a good book cover. Therefore, nothing is impossible!  

So let's get cracking! 

First step is choosing the picture. Now this may be sort of ironic, but a lot of people have a very irrelevant picture for their cover. For example, you have a romance story and you automatically put a rose in there, just because romantic stories almost always have a rose. (Who knows, maybe the story plot is that the girl is allergic to roses. Just wait until you have fellow Wattpadians who are in love with your story start picking apart your cover.) That is NOT how you should do it. When you are choosing a picture, you have to think through your story plot. Every good author wants their story to be bulletproof, with no cracks in between.  

Let's move on! 

A way to get a good, relevant cover is to think about the genre. 

"2) a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content"  

-Merriam Webster http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre

Is it a thriller, action, adventure, or romance? This decision can greatly factor your cover. (A/N Throughout this guide, I will use different examples to help. For now it will be this one.) Let us say that it is a romance. Now, you have to think about what the title or the story says. Let us give this story a name. 

Okay, so the story's name is Heart of Locks, and it is about a girl who refuses to fall in love, her heart is all locked up from past experiences. (Totally cliché, but I personally like cliché! It became overused for a reason, right? Psst. It's because everybody liked it.) She is all blocked up from past experiences, and is unwilling to love. There is an idea right there! Look up pictures of a heart locket, or maybe a stone that looks like a heart.  

A good way to make a cover (or a title) is to think of it as a pun. It is clever and innovative, and when the reader finally gets to the part where the item (or scene) is introduced, then they can say, "Oh, so that's why it was on the cover!" 

Another important thing is where you get your pictures. There are many places where you can get pictures. For me, I use places like Flickr, Creative Commons, and more. For several kinds of pictures, you have to ask for permission to use them, otherwise the owner can sue you for copyright laws. 

Sites like Creative Commons are public domain, meaning that anyone can use it, for free, too. This is the safest bet. If you want to use pictures from Google Images, Tumblr, Pinterest, or others, privately message the owner to ask if you can use it. 

There is very little chance that you will be prosecuted. This is really up to your own discretion. These laws have been interpreted and reinterpreted, and different people come to different conclusions. Worst comes to worst-- the owner contacts you and asks you to take it down.

Moving on... 

Suppose in this Heart of Locks, the girl, let us say her name is Anastasia, gets a different flower every single day from the guy who likes her. (She is also allergic to roses, so avoid that.) On the cover, you can get a picture with a bunch of different flowers spread out on this white surface.  

Also, color scheme in pictures is very important. Normally, shadows and harmonized color variation is a good way to go. You want there to be a very significant color in the picture that corresponds to the story. Let us say that Anastasia's favorite color is violet. The words could be violet, or the locket, the background, or the flowers. (We will talk about the words later on in another chapter.) 

Back to the picture. The picture for the cover can contain things like (for the Heart of Locks in case you are now lost xD) 

heart locket 

flowers 

broken heart slowly being mended by a flashing light 

a girl crying 

stone heart 

guy picking up flowers 

two hearts woven together by an infinity sign (for those who don't know what an infinity sign is it looks like this 8) 

a bunch of keys (you know, for the locket) 

a guy holding a key (cause he is the one opening her heart) 

~~~~~So, there are a bunch of ideas right off the top of my head. Feel free to take this story guideline, also. But please give credit and/or dedicate! Also, the list above is not necessarily something that you use. I just want you to see how many ideas you can pull from one general idea. 

Final note: Your picture cover does not necessarily have to be of a person or a thing. It can be a symbol, like the infinity sign. Or, like the cover for Divergent, maybe a very important symbol in the story. Or it can just be words and comic symbols, like the Fault in Our Stars. Just draw it, take a picture of it, and add some contrast!  

-LoveAthenaa 

P.S If you do not want to make a cover, go to my book called Requests, and locate the chapter called Covers. I DO make covers, but the procedure for everything will be in that chapter. If you don't follow the procedure, I can't help you. 

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