Course curriculum

  • 1

    Book Covers XL

    • Introduction

    • Example of a bad cover

    • When to look for a cover designer
  • 2

    Creating your cover concept

    • Brainstorming

    • No artistic talents needed

    • Choosing a typeface

    • Choosing between designs

    • Create a cover using Canva
  • 3

    Photographs on the cover

    • Photographs on the cover

    • Showing 'before-and-after' on the cover

    • A 'bad' cover idea
  • 4

    Outsourcing the cover design

    • Job brief example

    • Use the template

    • Don't use bold, italics, underline formatting

    • Cover's main image

    • 'Covers I like and don't like' document

    • Barcodes

    • The title page

    • Indicate the number of pages

    • Cover designs from contest sites
  • 5

    The spine

    • Spines of a 24-page vs 100-page book

    • Spine calculator

    • No subtitle in the spine

    • Spine width

    • Adjusting the spine

    • Update your cover design
  • 6

    Cover errors

    • Marking with a red pen

    • Misspelled words

    • 'Quit!' cover

    • Employee Investigations book

    • The Naked Marketer by Pete Bruckshaw

    • This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

    • Time or Too Late by gretta vosper

    • Going Solo book cover case study

    • Cover adjustments

    • Check the spine

    • Fuzzy cover image
  • 7

    Publisher logo

    • Publisher logos
  • 8

    Create covers using Canva

    • Using Canva

    • Creating a 3D cover

    • Canva colour palettes
  • 9

    Technical side

    • Costs of ebook and print cover designs

    • Book cover dimensions

    • 3D book covers for landing page

    • Books need 100 pages for a spine

    • Book covers with 'bleed'

    • Headline leading

    • Reverse image search: TinEye

    • Adding 'Bestseller' to the cover

    • Testimonial on the back cover
  • 10

    Other packaging/cover design stories

    • Fun School

    • Vegetarian Society UK magazine