Very basic BOOK COVER GUIDE

Here we go!

Sometimes, other people cannot picture what YOU have in mind when wanting a nice book cover. So why not make one yourself?

This is the easiest, and less creative way to do it. But how much details can I put in before it gets too advanced? See. You can also try and unfold from the basics I give, and be creative on your own. :-)

Step 1. Find the picture!

It can be an portrait full of emotion, a landscape, or something from the nature. I go with the latter, and use this (beautiful!) picture I took earlier this summer, when I was out hiking.

Remember! Make sure that the picture you are using is not copyrighted! If you use a picture, and it is, the worst scenario is full of lots of trouble you don't want to be in! It is better to use one that is of your own. Or not copyrighted. This is the warning. (Thanks to @CjayS42 for mentioning!)

It looks nice how it is, the light and everything just fits, but I’m still going to have to adjust it, one – to learn YOU how to do it, and two – to make it more “curious”.

Unlike many other tutorials I will be using a free program – picasa (note: My picasa is in Norwegian, so you are going to have to go by pictures!). If your computer lacks it, then just google it, and download it. It is completely free, and it works just fine for basic editing. Here, look; these are the effects you can apply when using picasa.

Try downloading it here: http://picasa.google.com/#utm_medium=embed&utm_source=pwalogin

You have, among others, blur with focus, B/W, glow, and B/W with focus.

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Step 2

Now, as your picture is up on picasa, the fun part begin. I always click the button called, something like “Feeling lucky” or something. It automatically adjust so it looks the best – according to the program. As it didn’t do much difference in my pic, I’m not going to show you the picture.

The next thing I do is to add Auto Contrast – still, no noticeable changes. Then I go on the manual adjustments, which are supposed to look a little something like this;

I adjust until I find a adjustment I like, by dragging the little squares on the lines to the right. The last one adjust the warmth/cold of the color, and as you can see, I chose to have a warmer color. The picture on the left is the original, the picture on the right is the adjusted (this [showing the difference] isn’t, as far as I know, a feature in picasa, just something I did in paint, to show the difference!)

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Step 3

Now to the even better part; the effects! As I showed in a previous picture, there are many options and fun effects to chose from. I’m going to have some fun, and play with the photo. (OBS! I’m using a very large photo, 3000 pixels. If you use a large one, remember that it might take a while for the effects to load!)

I used the effect called “Sepia” to add sepia colors. The summery picture now looks more like a fall photo.

Have fun, and don’t worry about doing something you’re not happy with; you always have the regret button under the little option box on the left side. It should be called something a la “regret adjustment”

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Step 4

Cropping! You have to crop it in order to make it look like a book cover. Find the cropping tool, it looks like this (the one on the top left)

Crop the image. There are many pre-installed options. Drag the square so it resembles a book cover. You might want to try this one out a bit.

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Step 5

Now the last part; add the title and name.

My book is called… uhmm… Falling. Get it – fall + ing. Original I know.

Add the title, click the little “A” and write directly on the picture.

Export it. Down on the tools you find under the “working space” there’s a little “file” it should say “export” – do it.

Voila – you now have a pretty cool book cover!

Wall of fame!

PART TWO http://www.wattpad.com/forums/discussion/73891/BASIC+BOOK+COVER+GUIDE%2C+part+2+-+%22layers%22 http://www.wattpad.com/forums/discussion/73891/BASIC+BOOK+COVER+GUIDE%2C+part+2+-+%22layers%22 http://www.wattpad.com/forums/discussion/73891/BASIC+BOOK+COVER+GUIDE%2C+part+2+-+%22layers%22

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You are a life saver! I think wattpaders are going to dig this post big time.It's exactly what we needed.I've been dying to make covers or atleast practice for making some incase I need one for future but I didn't know any good site except photoshop and I still haven't gotten the hold of it.I'll give this a try for sure. Thanks for sharing this.I've been seeing posts about people takign cover requests but you're right.It doesn't offer the same satisfaction we get when we make our own.

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Ma'am, you win one free internet for such an epic win.

Thanks a lot!

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Thanks for posting this. I'm sure that all of us writers will like this!

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@CarolinaV

Hang on, i've found a flaw. One word.

Copyright.

While you took that picture yourself, others may use some from the internet, whichcould hold copyright, and thus be illegal if used incorrectly. You should probably mention that.

But great guide!

-Calum

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@CjayS42

Oh, shoot. I will! Thank you so much for mentioning!

And thank you for liking it, people! :-)

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Bumpin' this up!

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im kinda tech illiterate but what is the program ur using?

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nevermind got it and thx u rock!

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so u know when u say copyright do u mean pictures of google images or somthin like that

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@BETTYC Google images isn't a streeming site; it's just a collection of links to different pictures. But yes; mostly pictures you find when you google are pictures that are under copyright. I recomend you try finding picturesites with free stock, or even better; take the pictures yourself.

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thanks u that really helped a lot your a good adviser @CarolinaV

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This is Great. Thanks for the doing this guide in laymans terms! I love simplicity!!!

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@NightVision Haha, no problemo. I'm not a proffesional myself, but I use a little more advanced program to make my book covers. Still, I thought that some people might want to do it themselves, althought it's just basics.

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You are amazing!! Thanks so much for sharing!! =D

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Thanks!

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Thanks SSSOO much!!

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M'lady I thank you immensely for this post. I just made my first book cover using this guide and it came out awesome :D And I made a second one using a combo of this guide and using Paint.NET (the poor man's photoshop lol) for combining two images. Once again, thank you so much haha XD

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Okay, so I got Picasa and I've got my cover ready, but how do I get it on my story?

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Wow, this is interesting. Thank you for posting this.

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O_O"

WOW. SO TECHNICAL.

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