I love playing around with
photography and design but still hope to do a proper course at some point, if
possible. However, I thought I’d highlight two of the design programmes I presently use
most often, as neither is particularly difficult if you give them a go and both
can enhance possibilities for indie authors.
Canva
I mainly use Canva for
creating lots of small social media posts. Pictures and photos always attract more
attention on Facebook and Twitter, while Instagram is all about the visual. Here's one I use on twitter - if I remake this one I would probably enlarge the text a little.
All you need to get started
is to sign up on the Canva page and remember your password for repeat visits.
Here you’ll find all kinds of design possibilities, from FB author page headers,
to twitter visual posts, to even designing your own e-book cover.
I sometimes take part in the
RNA twitter tweets day on a Tuesday and it certainly helps a promotion post to stand
out if you make a nice little visual caption. You can upload your own photos,
book covers and so on to use, or you can use their own backgrounds and
elements, many of which are free. Others cost only a dollar or so to use but I
haven’t needed that option yet.
Picmonkey
Picmonkey is my favourite
programme for creating book covers so far. To get started, again you need only
sign up and away you go. This is more like a photo editing programme, so you
would upload your own photo or image then crop, change and enhance it to use as
a book cover. This is one I made, as are my short story collection covers and a few others.
Picmonkey has lots of good fonts,
effects and special elements. The basic tools are free to use and you then download
your completed masterpiece to your computer. There is also a paid Royal option
which gives you more tools – I still use the basic so far and have found
it quite adequate.
Although I’ve used both these
programmes a lot, I’m still learning as I go so it’s another great way of
procrastinating while picking up new ways of creating covers and promoting
social media posts!
Hope you enjoy trying them out.
Rosemary
8 comments:
This is a very timely post, Rosemary, as I've been thinking about a cover design for my next book. It is actually with a publisher for consideration, but I think it will probably come back to me. I shall definitely give Picmonkey a whirl.
My method is simpler, even if it is cheating – I get Gary to do it.
I love using Canva, Rosemary but haven't tried Picmonkey. Must give it a try. Your designs and posts always look professional.
Thanks for sharing these, Rosemary. Always good to know what's there and whether it's worth trying out.
I'm a big fan of PicMonkey, it's great, and I've been using it for around four years. Not tried Canva, it sounds interesting...
I always wondered how do-it-yourself book covers were done. Thank you for posting this info, I'll definitely have a play with those two sites. x
All the best with it, Julia - definitely worth a try!
Well it's certainly easier, Patsy!
Thank you, Rae - you're very kind and I hope you enjoy playing around with it!
Yes, I like to know what our options are, Carol!
Glad you enjoy using Picmonkey, Maria - I'm sure you'll enjoy Canva!
Good luck with trying them out, Angela!
Thank you, Rosemary. I've never heard of either of them! I'll certainly give them a try!
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