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Making a Book Cover
Okay, I recently got a new printer and I'm super excited to try and print off my book to show people and I want to make it look at least somewhat professional. The story has a gothic style to it and takes place at a school with the same style, so I've been looking at gothic architecture to use on the cover along with a really awesome looking font. Problem is, I don't know exactly HOW to make the cover. I have no idea how to work photoshop very well either, I mostly use paint or word when drawing/designing something. Are there any tips I can get for designing a book cover on regular computer paper with the programs that I have?
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You can use editors that don't require manual editing. You should also set your printer on its best quality setting. Good luck
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You can try GIMP. It is similar to Photoshop, but freely available for download on the Internet. I know you say you don't know much about Photoshop, but there are a lot of guides on the Internet and you don't need to completely master the program. So long as you learn how to use layers, edit/move text and images, and learn the basic tools, you should be fine for making a book cover.
I don't advise trying to use Paint or MS Word for this. Those programs are terrible for graphic design and using them for this purpose often feels like trying to teach a monkey to repair a motorcycle. It's very frustrating and will not be as efficient or professional looking as a program like GIMP would be.
If you don't want to draw up an image for the cover from scratch, there are websites on the Internet that provide stock photos for individual use. Be sure to read the fine print on these! Some of them forbid using the photos for profit, so if you want to sell the book with this cover, you could get into trouble. Some of the websites charge money for their images, but it's worth it depending on how serious you are about the book. Once you have the stock photos you need, you can manipulate them in GIMP to make them eye-catching and unique.
You can also pay someone on the Internet to do the artwork and/or design the cover for you. This will cost money and you will have to make sure the artist is ok with you using it as a book cover, but you could get some excellent looking covers this way. There are a lot of artists and graphic designers on Deviantart.com who could do this for you, or you could ask around and see what turns up. Just be careful with how you pay people. Paypal is generally safe, just be careful that the person doesn't take the money and run after you pay them.
Hope this helps! :) I've never designed a cover for a novel, but I designed a cover and title pages for a school project in GIMP and they turned out amazing. Give it a try and see what happens.
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