I've been making mock book covers for over 20 years. (And no, I will not be sharing my early attempts with you.)
I enjoy making book covers as a creative endeavor and having the covers helps me to foucs and stay motivated to work on my fiction projects.
Here's the three-step process I currently use.
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While some might find this strange, I normally start a book cover in PowerPoint. I choose a background for the mood/tone I want to set.
I create the text in PowerPoint and play around with fonts until I find one I like.
I also use PowerPoint to create my writing workshop PDFs.
Since these covers are for my own private use, I like finding a platform that has an image AI-generation tool.
I can generate many images in a short time, revising the prompt I'm using as needed.
I save the generated image to my laptop and than can use it in PowerPoint.
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I'm currently using Canva to generate images and to create presentations, which I use for my writing workshops.
Once I import the AI-generated image into PowerPoint and check out what formatting and special features I might try with the background I've chosen, I can further play with the image.
After I have the image placed, I can move the book title and author text where it makes sense.
I normally save my work as a PowerPoint file, an image file, and/or as a PDF, depending on how it will be used.
Cover for a short story in the tradition of Charles Dickens. One year after the original story.
Cover for a novel in which the protagonist tries to solve several related murders and discovers her music partner is a vampire.
Cover for a novel in which Logan is forced to leave the only home she's ever known in search of an artifact to save her people.
Magical cover with an angel theme for a fantasy book. What if Angelina has angel DNA?
A darker version of the Teen Angel story. What if angels aren't what humans believe them to be?
Found in an alley as a three-year-old, raised to be a thief, Doyle seeks answers to who he is with his only clue: a necklace found on a dead woman who might have been his mother.
I welcome questions so you can create visually stunning book covers to keep you focused and motivated as you work on your fiction.
Or anything else writing-related.