How to Design a Book Cover in Canva (Beginner Cover Design Tutorial) // If you're self-publishing your first book and you're on a tight budget, then you may have considered designing your book cover yourself. In today's video, we're diving into the DIY route to design a book cover for free on Canva. This tutorial will be completely beginner-friendly and I'll also go into the pros and cons of using something like Canva to design a book cover.
Check out my book cover design courses:
Generate cover wrap templates for KDP:
How to Design a Paperback Wrap Book Cover for Amazon KDP in Photoshop:
Learn more about designing book covers by checking out my YouTube playlist:
IN THIS VIDEO:
0:00 – Intro
1:57 – Pros of Canva
3:26 – Cons of Canva
5:28 – Canva cover design tutorial
10:27 – Layers in Canva
11:44 – Creating a cover from scratch
18:00 – AI-generated photos in Canva
20:30 – Creating a cover wrap in Canva
22:33 – Creating guides in Canva
23:35 – Designing the cover wrap
→Book Cover Design Courses:
→Book Formatting Course (print & ebook formatting):
→Writing Stickers:
→Newsletter:
→Hiking YouTube Channel:
PLANNERS – – – – – – – – – –
→My Writing Planner:
→My Novel Outline Planner:
→My Book Launch Planner:
NON-FICTION BOOKS – – – – – – – – – –
→How Your Book Sells Itself:
→Grow Your Author Platform:
→Book Sales That Multiply:
→Secrets to Selling Books on Social Media:
→Plan a Profitable Book Launch:
FICTION BOOKS – – – – – – – – – –
→Meet Me at the Summit:
→Let the Rubble Fall:
→The Trail to You & Me:
→Essence:
→I am Mercy:
→She's Not Here:
→Mr. Moon's Big Move:
FIND ME ONLINE- – – – – – – – – –
Social Media: @mandilynnwrites
→Stone Ridge Stickers:
→The Book Launch Planner:
MY FAVORITE TOOLS- – – – – – – – – –
→Find KDP keywords and categories, PublisherRocket:
→eBook Formatting, Kotobee Author:
→Social media graphics, Canva:
→Music in videos, Epidemic Sound:
→Email software, ConvertKit:
Mandi Lynn published her first novel when she was seventeen. The author of multiple books, Mandi spends her days continuing to write and creating YouTube videos to help other writers achieve their dreams of seeing their books published. Mandi is the owner of Stone Ridge Books, a company that works to help authors bring their books to life through cover design and digital book marketing. She is also the creator of The Book Launch Planner, a planner designed to help authors publish and market their books. When she’s not creating, you can find Mandi exploring her backyard or getting lost in the woods.
#kdp #selfpublishing #bookcoverdesign
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Link :
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DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links. By purchasing a linked product or service, Mandi Lynn will receive a small commission at no additional fee to you.
I use canva pro for making covers and love it. You can change font to make it not flat. Tons of tutorials out there to do some amazing things. Plus Canva keeps getting better with newer editing tools being added all the time. Love it. You can delete background with pictures and video and erase out parts of a picture. So many things you can do!❤
Also you can just use transparent to work cover.. so you don’t have to do lines or square.
@@DeenaThomsonAuthor how big a difference is there between pro and free? im a writer but i have to teach myself some design skills. my policy is usually: if its free its for me!
So I hope u can answer me. I made covers both on and outside of canva. I’ve yet to just build a cover on the existing template though. I can not get the covers to fit the template. When I stretch my cover design over the template parts, usually the top, disappear.doesnt matter if it’s a PDF or png. help?
@bob51502001 did you create a template from Amazon based on your page count and size of book? If you custom your size on canva you can arrange your cover accordingly. I would have to see exactly what you are doing to see where you are going wrong but it sounds like you don’t have thr size custom to size and page number of your book the cover is for
@thomasmcgauley1330 I would say a huge difference. Mostly because of the editing tools and also the library of elements photos and videos. There are many different fonts and so much more. I pay yearly and it is cheaper than when I paid monthly. I had free though for yrs
I admit I have the pro version of canva rather than the free version, but I enjoy it for making covers and it can do a lot. Sometimes you’ve got to be inventive to get exactly what you want, however, the results once you find the solution can be great. I suppose it depends on your genre and what your looking for in a cover, but its been great for me.
Thanks for writing this. She literally spent the first 5 minutes downplaying Canva, talking about how “it isn’t really that good”.
I love using canva, and have used it for most of my book, the only difficult is when you want your text to look metal or pop out, then you have to place around with the effects. It fun to create the cover for the book that you want. Thanks for showing this.
All is well. Dollar general, family dollar, dollar tree…. are our jam. It allows us to get our favorite snacks for movie nights and anything else the children desire to get with the money they earned. This message isn’t for everyone! It’s simply to encourage and give hope to the Mother that may need it! God is good, keep going!!!❤
I just found you and, WOW, I’m impressed! I love how you jump right into the subject, rather than all the promo some other creators do. You are a ‘no nonsense’ instructor, which I def appreciate. Thanks for all the info and tips!
Hi Mandi! Finally I published my first book in Amazon and other EReading apps, titled:Archangel world at war. Though it was not edited yet, I still publish it. Watching your vlogs helped me a lot to make it happen. I would like to say “Thank you” for imparting your knowledge and talent to newbies like me. : )
What do you mean by “not edited yet”?
Did you make any sell yet?
Link to the book?
Thank you for this video! I successfully designed my first book cover with Canva using your advice.
Love to hear it!
This was super-helpful to make a quick sample for my novel. Doing it made me appreciate how hard it can be and I decided to choose a designer (of course!) to make the final one. Thanks Mandi, more power to you.
Thank you mandi. I successfully designed my first book cover.
Thanks, again, Mandi! You hit the ball out of the park! I self-published my FIRST book using Canva and I absolutely LOVE it. “From Weeping To Joy” – found on Amazon and The Book Patch. I’m working on my second book and was looking for more content about CANVA and here you are!
I’m really loving it! I have successfully made my first novel’s cover page! Thank You Mrs. Mandi!
thank you so much for this – you seriously saved my life today. I was in panic mode trying to make my cover. lol! Thanks again!
thank you Mandi, really appreciate your effort in making these videos for free, i am planning to launch my book and i was so confused like- how to make cover or what the hell is isbn, your videos helped me a lot! because of you my i am 1 step away from my dream!
I’ve watched several tutorials on cover design and this is by far the best yet, thank you, thank you!!!
Thank you so much, your video is only one I found which showed doing the spine and description of book cover and specific actions when done.
There’s a risk for Amazon to block any book that is published using Canva due to the copyright license agreement. Even the elements that are free to use will be claimed by Canva, and can lead to a copyright issue. This would be important information to include.
THANK YOU!!! I have been working on a book cover for my friend who’s writing his book and we both have big struggles with this for almost a week and half now because the sizes are always off whenever he uploads the file. This is a big lifesaver, I use Canva Pro for years now and it’s amazing. Thank you so much!
I always get stuck at the step to start the custom size book wrap in Canva, so I often come back here before the 22 minute mark! Super helpful.
I can’t thank you enough, from have’nt used canva before, I created an eye catching book poster for a design unit in my Engg major. You are a saviour💖
I was about to download my cover and your vid came up on my feed. A blessing! I don’t recall other videos talking about guides.