I love the cover for “Reawakened Flames.” I love looking at it and knowing that it’s the cover for my book.
Getting a book cover designed was more difficult than I thought it would be. I wanted a beautiful fantasy cover like others I had seen. But there was an issue. I looked up a few designers, and the first prices that I saw were somewhere between five hundred to one thousand dollars. I was on a tight budget, and this was way out of my range. So, I thought I could do it myself using Kindle Direct Publishing’s (KDP) cover creator.
This turned out to be a huge mistake for me, and was very frustrating. I’m not a graphic designer, so I didn’t know what I was doing. I struggled to find a template that I liked, and when I did, the same one wasn’t available for the eBook. I couldn’t find a picture that I liked, so I just settled for one with fire. This is the front cover for the first version of the book.
The back of the cover turned out better and reminded me of phoenix feathers. That was really the only good point.
And this is the eBook version. I wasn’t happy at all that I had two different covers for the same book, but I didn’t know what else to do.
As I have said in Writing Journey Part 2, I forgot about the series title, which was Rise at the time. I tried to put it on the cover, but it wasn’t coming out correctly. The cover creator was displaying it as Rise: Reawakened Flames, and I couldn’t figure out how to separate the series title and the book title. I gave up, and that’s how I ended up forgetting to put it inside the book. I had no files for the cover that I could use on other publishing platforms. I was stuck on Amazon. There was also no way to put the number on the book.
Yes, I had created a cover for free, but it just wasn’t that good. When you put it next to other books, you can easily guess which one is the self-published one and when a professionally done cover blends in with traditionally published books.
When I redid my book, the cover had to be fixed. This time, I looked up more designers. This list was very helpful: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/bookcoverdesign/
I found out that there were actually book cover designers for more affordable prices, and that’s how I found my designer, MiblArt. I didn’t quite know what to expect when I first began the process. I didn’t even know what I wanted for the cover. I had a vague idea, but I wasn’t sure of anything besides wanting a wraparound cover. I gave them a general theme and some basic ideas. They came back with a cover that was so beautiful and perfect, I almost cried.
There were just a few edits that had to be made, and otherwise, it was perfect. The whole process was smooth and surprisingly quick. For those who are new to self-publishing, I highly recommend hiring professionals to create your covers, especially if you don’t have the skills to make your own. It’s worth every penny. Actually, you’ll save money by doing it right the first time. I can’t wait to see more covers be brought to life for future books.
Also, when you count your page numbers to give to a designer, Amazon KDP adds pages for a barcode and where the book was printed. If your book ends on page 137, your final count is 138, although sometimes it adds a whole new page, so it could be 140. If the book ends on page 138, the final count is 140. It will always end on an even number. It would be a good idea to get a test proof before telling the designer the final page count, especially to make sure your formatting is going to work. When the book is printed, there might be a few unexpected blank pages added in some copies, but you can’t control that.