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The move to e-books has brought with it a new challenge for those who do book cover design, amateur and professional. The first challenge, of course, if you’ve been designing book covers for any time, is to understand exactly what an e-book cover really is. Unlike print books, which we can pick up and examine,… Continue reading 3 Secrets for ebooks

People are going to judge your ebook by its cover. The cover is the first impression and first chance you have to hook a reader. It has to be visually appealing, include lettering that’s easy to read and entice users to download (and read) your book. The perfect ebook cover stands out from all the… Continue reading perfect ebook cover

Here are some of the important questions you need to ask to your client before getting started. What kind of book cover do you need?Double-check that your client is looking for an eBook cover and not a printed book cover. What is your eBook’s genre?Like it or not, readers will judge an eBook by its… Continue reading beautiful eBook cover design

A couple of years ago, Martin Lake’s book sales were dismal. As a self-published author, he was selling just 15 books per month. Sound familiar? Well, Martin didn’t just accept those sales and move on. He changed his book cover design for the first book in his three-part series…and his sales of all three books… Continue reading Covers & Sales

Print book cover design and ebook cover design have subtle differences. An ebook has only the front, while the print cover consists of three elements. They include the front, the back, and the spine. No spine and no back When you choose ebook design, you don’t have to think about typography on the spine. Moreover,… Continue reading spineless ebooks

Endorsements, call-outs, and subtitles are now in ebook metadata. This is because: Most text is unreadable on cover images on ebookseller websites. The text inside images is not searchable. An ideal ebook cover will differ from its print counterpart. What not to do Take a look at the email sent to 7 million book lovers. The… Continue reading ebook cover: shape, size, key elements

PDF download links need “editorialization.” This is good web etiquette. Dropping users into a download without warning or cuing is bad UX. It can lock up their browser. Very irritating. PDFs can easily be reduced with a freeware PDF optimizer to a tenth that file size. This is bandwidth politeness most developers don’t do for… Continue reading polite PDFs

“Definition” bubbles should be “Flush left, ragged right with a hanging bullet” –and not centered. Centered text is most appropriate on invitations and wedding announcements. Centered justification is hard to read and I should explain why. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justification_%28typesetting%29 The link above is pretty good. But left off one detail: In English-speaking countries and countries using Latin… Continue reading text justification

The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials – all of which should integrate your logo – communicate your brand. – REFERENCE: https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/branding Barf! Megabarf! Your brand is not your logo. Branding is about positioning strategy. The shortcut to buyers motive. What you name your product is always more… Continue reading ego logos

I’ve been an advocate of author Marty Neumeier’s thinking – but his day in the sun has probably past, I think. You can read about him here. And one of his books I’m going to quote from at slideshare. As with all author’s, I do NOT agree with everything he says. But I’m still a… Continue reading subconscious cuing