E-book Revolution Episode 2: Great E-Book Cover Design with Kit Foster

We've all heard the old gambit "don't judge a book by its cover". But really, it's like telling someone not to think of pink elephants. Because like it or not that is exactly what readers are forced to do every day on sites such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobel or the iBook store. Whether a reader searches an authors name, a title or a genre, the first thing to pop up is a thumbnail and a title.

Whether you’re trying to impress a reviewer, the media or your audience, your cover is your best sales agent. It has to be all cheesy grins, slicked-backhair, flashy suits and a sultry voice. Because if you don’t compel your audience, whatever their literary status, with your ‘good looks’ you get shuffled to the bottom of the pile and the next week you’re eating stew out of a boot with a stiff shoe lace. Sometimes a front cover is your only chance to impress,and if it’s not eye catching, if it’s not intriguing, if it’s not bright and jumping out of the page, a reader won’t even go far enough to read those golden paragraphs you crafted for your synopsis. Their roving eye will pass you over as just another graphic. If you want to make money, you don’t want to blend in with the digital slush pile.

No one knows e-book cover design better then Kit Foster. Kit draws on a wealth of experience gained working with a range of clients - from international publishing houses to self-published authors.  To date, Kit has designed the covers for over 100 published works for publishers worldwide, including Pearson Education, Edinburgh University Press and Attica Books. Kit was also the fabulous cover designer for my comedic Facebook novels The Grand Adventures of Madeline Cain: Photographer Extraordinaire and Jake's Page. You can find Kit at www.kitfosterdesign.com.

Publishing has enough headaches - the cover needn't be one of them. In this podcast we discuss:

• Why it is important to get an e-book cover right
• How Kit built up a portfolio and started his own cover design business
• What elements are need to create a good cover
• The difference between print cover and e-book cover design
• Three things you need to give your cover designer so they can produce the best cover for you
• A break down of the process Kit and I went through to create the e-book covers for my two Facebook novels (and how we avoided infringing Facebook trademarks)
• The importance of adding your own ideas to your designer's
• The best way to get started designing your own e-book cover
• Some fantastic websites where you can find free graphics softwear, low cost stock photos and good fonts (No, Word is not your font friend)
• The mistakes writers make with covers that SCREAM self-published

Hope you enjoy the show! And remember, I love hearing from Listeners and readers so please drop me a line at ebookrevolution (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Download this episode (right click and save)

Emily's non-fiction book E-Book Revolution: The Ultimate Guide to E-book success is now available at http://emilycraven.bkclb.co. If you enjoy her tongue in cheek style you may also enjoy her comedy novel set in Facebook, The Grand Adventures of Madeline Cain: Photographer Extraordinaire also available from http://emilycraven.bkclb.co