DESIGN YOUR OWN BOOK COVERS

IT'S EASIER THAN YOU THINK!

I'm having a lot of fun with Paint.Net, which is a FREE graphics programme I have used to design the covers on all my books.

I'm not a professional designer (although I do paint as well as write) and I'm not a geek (I was in my thirties when I had my first introduction to a computer, and I've learned the hard way, on my own and by trial and error, so if I can do it, so can you!

I use images from various sources, sometimes my own drawings or paintings, sometimes photographs (but beware using someone else's work without payment or permission). Sometimes I use the whole image, sometimes I crop to a smaller detail from it. Then I can play about with it, change size, pixels, colour, use special effects, whatever I fancy.

I can delete, switch or colour-change backgrounds, merge images, add text (for title, author, etc) - and Paint.Net has a whole range of other tricks I haven't even investigated yet.

I rather enjoy selecting fonts, and Paint.Net has a huge range, mostly matching Microsoft's own list. I particularly like AR Carter, which has crazy dots surrounding the letters and which I used on my MYSTERY OF CRAVEN MANOR cover - not suitable for an adult romance, but great for that particular children's novel!

On my latest (adult) novel I've used Andy. The book isn't finished yet but I couldn't resist designing the cover as an impetus to forge ahead!

What I like best about Paint.Net is their layering system. This is not unique to Paint.Net - other graphics software programmes have it - but it does make things easier for the designer.

You start off by sizing your 'canvas'. After that, you add a layer for each process: one for background, another for your image, another for a line of text, and so on. Each layer is ticked, but if you make a mistake or want to redesign one layer, all you need to do is to untick all the other layers, delete the incorrect one, add another layer with your new input. Simple!

Here are some of my book covers, together with the one I've just completed for my next book ME, DINGO AND SIBELIUS. Hope you like them.

IN PRAISE OF PAINT.NET

I've been having a lot of fun over the past week or two redesigning some of my covers (I've always created my own - some using photographs, others using my own sketches or detail cropped from some of my own paintings). 

It's useful  being able to combine my two main interests, writing and painting, but you don't necessarily need artistic talent to produce a cover that hits the eye and tells part of the story.

And with Paint.net it's easy to experiment, as it uses a system of 'layers' - each section that you add (photograph, text, special effects, colour changes, etc) is on a separate layer - just remember to untick the layers you're not playing around with!

I taught myself the hard way, by trying and failing, but now that I know how to do it (Isn't it always the case?) I've come across a very good tutorial that you can download as a PDF and print out (37 pages). From Lancaster University it's called 'IMAGE MANIPULATION WITH PAINT.NET'.

The even better news is that Paint.net is FREE!