Good evening and Happy Columbus Day!
This week we are celebrating-”What you should get for your self-published dollars”
Hopefully, after this weeks series, you will be a lot wiser in how you should spend your self-publishing dollars.
Today’s topic-Book Cover Templates!
I hate templates! I hate templates! I hate templates! Okay, I feel better now! No, I don’t! I hate templates!
The other day, I had a potential client approach me with a book cover sample that a publishing company had sent her. They wanted her to choose one of the templates to use as the cover for her book. When I took a look at the samples, I was floored. It was a template of a screensaver that I have on my laptop. (which by the way I got this year) I went and showed her and needless to say she was also pretty floored. She was about to spend hundreds, even thousands do dollars on a screen saver book cover.
Screensaver Templates are the tip of the iceberg, as some of these self-publishing companies use Microsoft Word Templates. Yes, you heard me correctly-Microsoft Word Templates! There are actual companies that sell Microsoft Word Templates to both publishing companies and authors. They sell is to self-publishing companies who get them for cheap and sell them to you for a lot of money as part of their publishing package.
Most self-publishing companies have no desire to hire a graphic designer or a graphics team. Or, they give the excuse that they publish too many books to be bothered with customizing yet, they are not too busy to take an authors money. ZLS, is both smart enough and lucky enough to have graphic designers on staff, who are either self-taught or college educated, and because we are selective in our publishing, we can customize bookcovers. In addition, we hate templates!
Everyone judges a book by its cover. Whether its a book or with the way you look, you will be judged. Bad bookcovers will not get you in a bookstore 9/10 times and it will definitely not result in large sales. If you think I’m just attacking the self-publishing industry, go take a walk down the aisle of your local bookstore and tell me that oyu don’t stop when a cover catches your eye. As a writer, your book is your baby and you should treat it as such. Would you let your human baby go outside looking like any old thing?
If yes, I will pray for you. If no, it’s the same analogy with your book. Don’t let your book be published looking like any old thing. Spend money on a graphic design or with a company who designs boook covers. It will make the difference in how people see your sales. If you can spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on getting published, you can put some of that money aside and hire a graphic designer. I don’t care if you have to go down to the local college and get one of the graphic design students. That is better than paying money for a book cover template or screen saver.
Also, don’t publish with a self-publishing company that tells you that they don’t have the capabilities to take a book cover you designed yourself. They are lying! Either that or they aren’t reputable because any reputable self-publishing company has graphic design software such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark or Corel. The industry standard is Adobe, but they should have some sort of graphic design software. As long as you send in your graphic photo in either a png or jpg 300dpi and higher then you should be fine because it is the same standards they are going to send to the printer.
Don’t waste your self-publishing dollars on a self-publishing companies who will only provide you with templates. You deserve better and so does your baby. Learn the process! Learn what a good book cover should look like by walking the aisles of the bookstore. Take notes and make sure your book looks like that or similar cover. You deserve better and so does your baby.
Stay away from templates!