So you’ve done all the hard work with writing your story. People are visually attracted to things, which is why packaging is so important. Books need covers to appeal to a reader’s eyeballs, so let’s jump into how you can go about designing Wattpad book covers of your own.
Decide On Your Photo
You can use a photo from free photography sites like Unsplash or Pixabay without any qualms about legal stuff. Free downloadable graphics are also completely okay to use. But if you really, really want to be on the safe side, you could try using a stock photo library. This includes digital copies that you may be distributing or with monetary gain, such as ebooks.
Edit, Adjust And Add Effects
With the photo of your choice, experiment with using different filters, photo effects and adjustments to your liking. Try out many different photo effects before deciding which one resonates with your personal style and story genre. The best part about all this is that you get to put your designing skills into practice and publish it later. Consider it a design accomplishment 😉
Fit Your Design To Your Book Content
It’s simple. Depending on what your story is about, try to fit the design so that it suits the contents of your book. Just saying – a feminine, floral pattern won’t work with a story that belongs in the horror and gore genre. Make use of free online tools like Pixlr X to place, adjust and edit your designs. You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to make your own creations.
Pair Your Fonts
If you’re designing for fiction like romance, for example, fonts that work well with your content genre would be cursive or feminine. Use a tech-related, boxy style font for a sci-fi or game-themed story. Get as creative as you can with the story themes and design your book cover accordingly.
Go Big On Text Titles
Bigger… yeah, bigger. Supersize it. In a sea of book titles vying for attention on the Wattpad site, you’ll want yours to stand out rather than blend in. This makes it easier for potential readers to decide on whether to read your story or not. It also helps your readers identify your story, especially if you’ve just updated a new chapter or so. Think of it as a book’s brand identity, if you will. Look out for all the weekly free fonts (and the free font bundles right here) you can readily download from TheHungryJPEG.
If this is your first time designing your own Wattpad book cover on Pixlr X, follow my written guide down below to begin!
Designing Steps
Step 1
Launch Pixlr X on your browser of choice and choose to Create New. Set the artboard dimensions of your Wattpad book cover to 512 x 800 pixels. Follow the width and height dimensions identical to the image below.
Your artboard or working space should appear vertical like the screenshot below.
Step 2
Click the last icon on the left sidebar to open the Add Image menu. Select Stock to choose from a huge array of photos available on Unsplash. If you already have an image you want to use, you can choose URL or Browse to grab it from your files.
Step 3
If you’re getting your photo from Unsplash, once you click on the photo you’ll see a pop-up like this. Choose Add Current to add it to your Wattpad book cover sized artboard.
It’ll look a little something like this. Grab the blue squared corners to drag and resize it to fit your book cover design. The photo I’m using for this guide is High Tide by Sacha Styles on Unsplash.
Step 4
Now, you’re gonna want to add text – naturally, the title of your fiction. Click on the Text icon on the left sidebar to get started, and then select Add New Text.
Choose an appropriate font to give a hint about your story
Change the font size, line spacing and letter spacing to suit your design
Add a shadow under your title of any color of your choice according to your book design
Adjust the placement of your title to your liking
Step 5
I wasn’t satisfied with the lighting of the photo so I decided to go with the Danligter Effect under Retro. I adjusted it to about 66% opacity on the slider and fell in love with the results. This step is optional. You can play around with all the effects or filters available on Pixlr X to make your book cover design pop though.
Step 6
That’s it for my tips and tutorial on designing Wattpad book covers. Once you’re satisfied with the outcome, hit Save and automatically download your new Wattpad book cover design to your computer files. Voila! You’re all set to publish your new Wattpad fiction piece!
Explore more inspirational and design tutorials here. If you need more tools, check out Designs.ai to get creative!