Learn to Design Your Own 
Ebook Covers, Software Boxes, Banners and Mini Sites From An Expert!

Every successful author or marketer knows that a professionally designed ebook cover makes your digital product more tangible and more professional, generates curiosity to learn more, adds to your credibility, and generates more sales and subscriptions. Designing Ebook Covers takes you by the hand and walks you through the ebook cover design process one step at a time. We show you which tools to buy, where to find the best royalty free photos, how to combine colors, fonts and graphic elements, and much, much more. All New & Expanded Second Edition for 2011!

Owning The Right Tools
Does Not Make You an Expert!

When my car stops working, I open the hood and stare at the engine in quiet desperation because I haven't a clue how to fix it. Sure, I own a ton of quality tools. Heck, I even have a $300.00 red Sears Craftsman storage cabinet in my garage to keep my tools organized, but guess what? Owning the right tools doesn't make me qualified to fix my own car any more than owning a scalpel makes me capable of performing brain surgery. 

So many people believe owning the right graphics tools makes them a graphical designer, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Most folks can't draw a straight line or a round circle. Most folks don't have the time to go to school to learn design let alone get training on PhotoShop or other popular graphics tools. 

It's the same way with designing ebook covers and other web graphics. Over the past 10 years, an enormous number of software tools, PhotoShop actions and template collections have entered the market to help you create an ebook cover quickly and easily. But "quickly and easily" are a part of the problem.

PhotoShop Actions and Ebook Cover Software 
Are Great Tools, 
But They Can't Design Your Ebook Cover For You.

There isn't a graphics tool on the market that will design your cover for you. PhotoShop Actions and Ebook Cover Software can only help you to transform a 2D flat cover graphic into a 3D photorealistic ebook cover -- they don't help you to design your initial 2D cover.

Sure you can buy templates and graphics elements and royalty free photos, but knowing how to combine them into a quality ebook cover is a challenge for most people. Compare most of the ebook covers you see advertised and promoted online with real hard cover books you see on the shelves at your local book store and you'll agree they are a far cry from the real thing.

I receive a lot of email from people about their frustrations after purchasing the latest PhotoShop Actions collection. First, they complain they didn't know they needed PhotoShop. Duh. Second, they complain that PhotoShop is too hard to use. What did they expect?

I also receive a lot of email from people who purchased ebook cover generation software. They tell me they thought it would automatically create their covers for them until they realized they needed to actually design the 2D cover themselves. No software exists that does all the work for you.

I Think You'll Agree Before You Can Start 
Designing Quality Ebook Covers
You Need to Understand Design Basics.

Most people do not understand which colors work well together, or how to combine different fonts, or that every design needs a single primary graphic element to pull the rest of the layout together. 

The design process was never meant to be quick and easy, but it can be if –- and only if -– you actually know what you are doing. 

People spend years learning how to draw and paint and sculpt. Shouldn't you at least take a little time to learn design basics before you start designing your first ebook cover? The sales you save may be your own!

Well Designed Ebook Covers Boost Sales, 
but Poorly Designed Covers Hurt Them.

Nothing spells disaster faster than a poorly designed ebook cover. Look around on the Internet and you'll find bad ebook cover designs in abundance. 

We've all heard the stats that a well-designed ebook cover can improve your sales by 100%, 200%, or even 300%. I've never met the person that actually first used this stat, but every single ebook cover artist out there includes the same stat on their web site because they want you to buy their design services.

But we do know there is some truth to this claim. A well-designed product graphic is more visually appealing to the prospective buyer than a poorly designed product. 

Consider the purchasing choices you make everyday. Open up your kitchen cabinets and look at the packaging designs, look at your clothes, your furniture and your car. You bought them because they visually appealed to you.

Don't Believe Me? Take This Simple Test.

Here are three different cover designs for the same ebook. Which one is most appealing to you and why? Look at each design carefully and consider how all of the graphic elements, fonts and colors work together. I'll wait for you . . . 

OK, have you had enough time to think this over? Obviously, the first design is very plain and visually quite boring. If it were a print book in the local bookstore, you wouldn't even pick it up to look at it, right? 

The second design is too busy: it has too many colors and fonts and text – all competing for your attention. The gradient background is too dark, the author photo is pasted on top of the money image, and the money image has nothing to do with the subject matter. It's visually hard on the eyes and difficult to read. Would you buy this one either? Probably not.

I see ebook covers like examples 1 and 2 all the time on the Net. How about you?

The third cover uses good basic design principles that make the cover easier to read and more appealing to your eye. It uses a single primary color for the background, complimentary colors for the title and subtitle, and supporting photo elements. All of the components work together to achieve a well-designed cover. Now you can learn how to do the same.

Let Me Show You, Step-by-Step,
How the Design Process Actually Works.

I won't lie to you: I am not a traditionally trained graphic designer. It's taken me years to learn the basics. Notice I did not say to "master" the basics. A good designer is always learning from others.

Over time I have learned how to maximize graphical elements and royalty-free photos to create polished designs that are both pleasing to the eye and compelling to the prospective buyer.

In the project pictured above, my client envisioned a woman jogger running past a cobblestone road leading to an old farmhouse, and he wanted a small graveyard in the front of the farmhouse. That's not exactly an easy vision to render.

I searched for various photographic elements in my collection of artwork and found blue sky and clouds, an old farmhouse with trees and a front yard, various types of tombstones and a photo of a woman. With care and effort, I was able to finally realize my client's vision.

Of course, I’ve been at it for over a decade. But you don't have to wait 10 years to learn how to create effective ebook cover designs. Let me speed up the process for you. Let me take you by the hand and show you, step-by-step, how I approach the design process for my own projects as well as for my clients.

This Ebook is Not a Guide to Using PhotoShop.

There are many places you can go to learn how to use PhotoShop, GIMP or other graphic editing tools. The purpose of Designing Ebook Covers is to teach you sound design basics.

Designing Ebook Covers walks you through the design process for 22 different projects ranging from ebook covers, software boxes and newsletter graphics to header graphics, splash pages and mini sites. 

I take you through my design process, one layer at a time, carefully explaining how and why I make my design choices. I totally deconstruct my designs so you can see the decisions I make through the creative process.

Stop Wasting Time and Money.
Take Action Now.

Buying and owning ebook cover creation tools and PhotoShop Actions are only a means to an end. Pre-designed templates, clip art, font and royalty-free photo collections can be very helpful, too, but until you learn how to pull them all together you still have a design problem.

Designing Ebook Covers solves that problem for you by giving you a foundation of basic design knowledge, so you will better understand how to pull these separate design elements together into a more professional-looking and more compelling ebook cover.

Click the button below to download your copy of Designing Ebook Covers for only $27.00 right now. And yes, even if it's 2:00 am in your part of the world and I'm still sleeping, you'll be able to begin reading the ebook in minutes from now!

All my best,

Steve Schneiderman
Designing Ebook Covers

P.S.: It took me nearly 25 years to learn the basics of good design. It doesn't have to take you as long. In fact, once you read Designing Ebook Covers, you will begin to approach your own projects with a different frame of mind, enabling you to create more compelling covers faster than ever before. You may even be able to start your own graphical design business! Buy your copy now before prices go up. Click the button above to buy your copy now.

Copyright 2011 Steven Schneiderman. All rights reserved.