Adventures in Writing

3) Your Cover and Title

Your Cover and Title

Creating a cover for your story is seriously important. The cover is the eye-catching portion that makes a reader stop scrolling to scurry back and check it out. When someone says don't judge a book by its cover, they're lying. Because we all know that that is exactly what we do. You wouldn't pick up a cover that looked like it was vomited on by a two-year-old who got a hold of a glitter packet.

So, here are some tips on how to make a great cover.

First of all, I know Wattpad has this nifty thing to make your own cover if you don't have any other programs to use, but to be honest, their create a cover thing is severely limited and probably won't do your book justice.

Second of all, I know there's this awesome program on your computer, on every computer ever, called MS Paint. Don't use it. Like, I can't even stress that enough. Paint tends to distort pixels, even if you save it as PNG and not JPG. Reds become blurred over and blues become piles of blue lumpy crap. No, please, do not use Paint. It is not a good place to make your cover.

I personally use Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 (which is pretty old), but it works. I'm not saying you HAVE to get a hold of this. Photoshop is kind of expensive, especially if you go for the newer versions, so if you can't get a hold of Photoshop, don't fret! You don't need it. Not with our handy dandy GOOGLE FRIEND.

Go to Google and look up "photo editors". These are usually websites that give you the option to upload a photo to their site and they give you dozens upon dozens of ways to edit it and make it your own! How neat is that? You can edit title fonts, make the photo all flashy and beautiful. The only difficulty with this idea is that you can only use one photo while some other authors tend to mold two or three different photos together to create one cover. But that's all right; some people tend to misuse this option and end up with too many flashy photos crammed together in one small space and it makes you cringe.

Also, you must know that, on Wattpad, your cover size has to be 256x400. So when you save a photo or open a program and it gives you the option to size your photo, ALWAYS do 256x400.

This way, your cover isn't hacked in half and looks sad and makes you sad and then everyone is sad.

Let's avoid that.

Let's also avoid unicorns puking all over your cover. Your cover is about a teen coming out of the closet, but he runs into so much along the way, angst here, horror there, difficulities, before you reach the end. But your cover has a half-naked guy with glitter splashed around him and a bright red title that says "I CAME OUT OF THE CLOSET AND NOW I'M ANGSTY".

No. Stop. Don't.

Your cover needs to express the story. It needs to attract attention, but not attention from other unicorns looking to mate with your cover. Just because there's a half-naked dude flexin' them abs at me does not mean I will read it. Even more so, red, while a very attractive color and can actually increase arousal, doesn't mean I'm gonna read it either. I'm not saying don't use red. Go ahead and use, it's a beautiful color. But don't use it incorrectly.

If your book is about a teen coming out, you need something that portrays that. Find photos in which a person appears to be standing alone, because coming out sometimes makes the individual feel like they're alone against the rest of the world.

Don't make your title huge bubbly letters and for the love of all that is holy, stay away from the Comic Sans font. Nothing says "i have no idea what I'm doing" like using Comic Sans font. It's okay for 80s comedies, but for a serious book about an individual who is about to face the biggest struggle of his life? Just avoid it at all costs. Go with something bold that says "tough road ahead". Or you can even try a cursive font, but always make sure it is legible and suitable to your cover.

Of course, there is also the option of just commissioning a cover. As in, find someone who makes covers and ask them if they offer cover making services. Some people may charge and others may not. It just takes some asking around to people. Asking someone where they got their cover or how they made it is totally okay.

What's not okay is stealing artwork. If you plan to make a cover, do not steal an artist's artwork to make your cover. A lot of people find artwork from deviantART, and that's okay. Sometimes the artist lists in their artist's note that it's okay to use the image, so long as they gain permission first. That is A-OKAY. Always make sure you can use artwork legally before you just snatch it up and use it. Art theft is not okay. You wouldn't want someone stealing your work, would you?

Now for your title. You always see this kind of title: "I'M IN LOVE WITH HIM BUT HE DOESN'T LOVE ME SO THAT MAKES A HUGE PLOT" or "THIS BAD BOY IS MY BABY'S DADDY". It's telling the story and it's also friggin' long and amateur. I personally hesitate to read books with ridiculously long titles like that.

No, you want a title that makes the reader stop, tilt their head, and hum curiously. Let's go back to the teenager coming out example. Instead of titling it something like, "I CAME OUT OF THE CLOSET AND NOW I'M ANGSTY", try something a little more subtle... and not all in caps.

It has to be something that suits the story. Something that tells the story in as little as four or three words at best, but not a whole sentence. You can save the story summary for the, well, you know, the summary, not the title. The title has to be eye-catching and thought provoking. Telling the readers that the bad boy is your baby's daddy just makes them shrug.

"Who cares? 90% of teenage pregnancy have a bad boy daddy in the stories. What makes your story different?"

Oh yeah? Well, how about this:

"Unwanted". Whoa. What? Who's unwanted? Why? There you go. Questions. Everyone's best friend. This title could even work for our coming out teen example, especially if his coming out is actually rejected by his friends and family.

But it doesn't have to be one word either. You could try something with two or more words.

To be honest, titles tend to be one of the most difficult parts for a lot of writers, including myself. It's so hard to cram a whole story into just a couple words. A lot of authors on Wattpad tend to change titles halfway through when they find something much better than what they had before.

So don't sweat it if you can't come up with a kickass title right off the bat.

Just remember; no matter how much we put emphasis on don't judge a book by its cover, we do. Everyone does, even if they aren't thinking about it. Make your cover simple, but attractive and your title eye-catching, but not a mouthful.