Is Your Book Cover Good? Three Simple Tests You Need Before You Self-Publish // Before you finalize your book cover and start showing it off, there are three simple tests that you can do to make sure your book cover will stand out from the crowd. Today we will be looking at book covers from a design perspective to make sure that a reader's first impression of your book will be a good one!
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IN THIS VIDEO:
Intro – 0:00
1:51 – thumbnail view
2:38 – black and white
3:49 – genre test
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→Book Formatting Course (print & ebook formatting):
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NON-FICTION BOOKS – – – – – – – – – –
→How Your Book Sells Itself:
→Grow Your Author Platform:
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→Secrets to Selling Books on Social Media:
→Plan a Profitable Book Launch:
FICTION BOOKS – – – – – – – – – –
→Meet Me at the Summit:
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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.
#bookcover #selfpublishing #bookcoverdesign
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.
Want to learn more about book cover design? Make sure to check out my courses here: https://bit.ly/3UbV64f
I only do non-fiction. Contemporary romcom designs are ugly. have a look at 1960s styles. I think you could make them come back, standing out yet blending in.
I always see fantasy covers and how to make sure you are using what sells but what I never see is Asian fantasy covers talked about and what elements to use to make sure they are cohesive with the market. Could you maybe do a small video on those? I write Asian fantasy and fiction so it has been hard to find what works.
Thank you Mandi! I just had my cover designed but hadn’t given a final approval yet. This was SO helpful, and made me feel good about signing off!
I’m so glad!
I can’t remember who it was, but a Youtuber suggested that when you compare your cover you should take into account whether your book is in Kindle Unlimited or has a wide distribution as sometimes the design can be quite different within the genre depending on this. They showed examples in fantasy and it was starkly different between KU and non-KU bookcovers.
Great tips! I especially like the Pinterest tip!
I really struggle with pinning down what the general feel for the dark adult fantasy genre is (not romantasy). It’s made cover design challenging.
Really lean into creating a Pinterest board of covers in your genre. And it should be as specific as possible. So rather than dark adult fantasy genre, get even more specific to see a pattern.
Thank you for sharing these tips!
I’m going to do that Pinterest tip. That so smart. 🎉🎉thank you.
Hello Mandi! A fantatsic useful channel! Question: do you have a video on how and when to properly credit images licenced from Adobe Stock images? Per my understanding, a book is considered an “editorial” and they require any images (even if a user edited them?) used in print/publishing to be credited. Have you had any experience with that? Please make a video if you haven’t yet. Thank you!
Hi :), can you change a book cover after a couple of years, without changing the ISBN?
Yes! New ISBNs are typically when you want to change the interior of the book.
This was sooo helpful! Thank you!!
Thank you! Amazing tips 😄
Would it be a bad idea to try to create a book cover using ai?
I personally think it’s an ethical issue and must be disclosed to readers
I delved into a little esoteric offerings for my book cover, lots of precise spirals that look unmeasured and an old 60s pop art figure on the front. Simple down to simpler after about 7 or so designs. Wanted something different on the shelves that might stick out in the mind, something only a little mysterious or sinister even. Hope it does well, time will tell.
Hi Mandi! I made my cover in Canva and then put it through Adobe Acrobat. After I flattened it as a pdf in Acrobat, there are weird white lines that form only after flattened. I gone every which way to delete smooth lines and it doesn’t work. Do you know how to get rid of those? A guy from the chat in KDP said they were definitely a problem but no one knows how to fix it. thank you <3