Kindle Ebook Covers: Buy Them Cheap, Or Make Your Own

You’re writing ebooks. You need COVERS. Kindle ebook covers are easy to buy, or you can create your own.

I usually create my own. If I’m ghostwriting ebooks for a client I always write a series of ebooks (because series sell better). I commission a designer to create a basic cover, with variations. Once I have those, it’s easy for me to revise each cover when I upload it to Amazon.

Tip: write in series. You’ll see more ebooks.

Let’s look at three easy and inexpensive ways to get Kindle ebook covers.

1. Amazon: Use Kindle Cover Creator.

The easiest way is to let Amazon help you. Amazon’s new utility, Cover Creator, does it all for you — more or less.

Amazon says:

If you don’t have a cover for your book, you can use the KDP Cover Creator to make one based on an image you provide or a selection from our gallery of stock images, customizable with a variety of different layouts and font sets.

2. Buy Pre-made Covers.

The Book Cover Designer offers hundreds of book covers which are done for you. All you need to do is add your own text. Simple. 🙂

3. Hire a designer on Fiverr.

I did a search for “ebook covers kindle” on fiverr.com, and found many people willing to create $5 covers for you.

If you’re hiring someone on Fiverr however, do READ what the person offers. On a couple of the gigs I looked at, the designer charged $5 extra for the PSD (Photoshop file), which I think should be sent to you anyway, but then $10 for a great cover INCLUDING the PSD file is more than terrific.

Tip: when you hire a designer, ALWAYS get the PSD file. You may want to create a series of books, with similar covers. Without the PSD, you can’t do that.

Another tip: ask the designer where the image came from — you need to be sure that you have the rights to use the image.

4. Do It Yourself — Easier than you’d think.

This is my preferred option. I like tinkering with Photoshop.

Here’s the basic process:

* Find an image at a stock image site like Dreamstime, or iStockPhoto (check the rights);

* Find a font. Fonts make or break your cover — here’s an excellent article which includes links to free fronts;

* Edit the cover image — add the text in an image editor. I like The GIMP for a free alternative to Photoshop;

* Tinker, tinker, tinker… and DONE. 🙂

Article update: May 31, 2014.

I wrote this article almost a year ago. Writers are always asking about ecover images, so I’ve updated it for you.

Amazon’s updated the SIZE of cover art too. Optimal size for images used to be 1563 x 2500. They’ve increased it to 2820 x 4500.

Requirements for the size of your cover art have an ideal height/width ratio of 1.6, this means:

• A minimum of 625 pixels on the shortest side and 1000 pixels on the longest side
• For best quality, your image would be 2820 pixels on the shortest side and 4500 pixels on the longest side

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Angela Booth

Angela Booth is a copywriter, author published by major publishers, and writing teacher. She offers many guides, courses and classes to help writers to enhance their skills at her online store. She also provides inspiration and motivation for writers on her writing blogs. Angela has been writing successfully since the late 1970s, and was online in the 1980s, long before the birth of the Web. Her novels and business books have been widely published.