Category Archives: Self Publish

How to Create an attractive Book Cover

Posted on by

(A picture says a thousand words.) We have all heard this before. Research and hard work make a great book cover. A book cover is one element that usually catches the most attention of the readers and an attractive book cover makes the 1st impression. Without reading the entire book, you are able to get the concept of the story, by looking at the book cover design.

Inspiration- Get inspired! Look at other book covers in book stores or online. Ponder the main character of the story. Ponder how you want your cover to look. Find a Graphic Designer to help design the cover. Together create or talk about the cover. Develop 10 or more cover design ideas. In the end choose two (2) that you think are stunning, and will get readers reading. Finally choose the one you think is the winner. You must get their attention. You may browse book covers with or without a similar theme. Point being to find and agree on a book cover design that is pleasing and attractive. It should represent the story.

Challenge- Designing a book cover can be very challenging. Trying to summarize the content of a book on one page is not an easy task! Looking at other book covers is OK. You are not stealing ideas. You are brainstorming to create yours. You can overcome the challenge of creating a beautiful book cover. In the end you will be pleased. And remember sometimes the most simple design will suffice.

Title- Keep titles short and sweet. A title that is easy to remember is very important. Less is more when titling. Usually using a few words works best, because people are usually scanning and will get bored or lost in a long title. The DaVinci Code is a good example of a short title. Everyone’s heard of DaVinci. Be descriptive to convey the content. It isn’t necessary to state ‘The DaVinci Code that Solved the Most Infamous Murder in Paris.’ This is too long. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This title is short and to the point. Create a title that definitely fits your book and describes in a few words your story or message. KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid, is an old design principle to stick by because it works. Find what works for you and your book.

More on writing Book Titles next.

Self Publish >> or read Self Publishing >>

How to Create an Outline for my Book

Posted on by

You can’t write a good story without establishing the outline. This helps you, as the writer, to understand the big picture. An outline is a roadmap for your book project. An outline helps you on your writing journey. For example, when I read the book ‘Favorite Beaches in Florida,’ the overall topic is “best beaches to visit in the state of Florida” and the target reader is people wanting to visit Florida for vacation.

►►►Establish your Outline!

This vacation topic is narrow enough to be a great book and it has a defined audience that would be interested in reading the information. That’s important when you are creating your outline. If you begin brainstorming and it looks like your book is going to be 5,000 pages, you probably have a problem with your overall topic. Rethink your topic.

Once you have a workable book topic selected, you can brainstorm a few general areas that might be covered in the book. In the case of the vacation book, broad topics include subjects like beaches with the best sand, beaches with the best activities, and beaches with the best restaurants. After you’ve brainstormed a multitude of topics, you can start grouping them into sections. Underneath these big “section” topics, you can start devising more narrow topics, to form your section or chapter headings.

An outline can be as detailed as you want it to be. Create subheads for each chapter, and sub topics for the subheads. (You may do this for the subheads or keep the story flowing in the chapters, and remembering to unify each chapter, to define your story.) You may choose to have a great level of detail – for your subheads and sub topics. In some situations it may make sense. Remember your outline will assist you in completing your masterpiece.

Writing Tips >> Self Publishing >>