Transcripts
1. Introduction to the Course: Hello, there you a published
author or an expert in your topic who would love to create an audio book
option for your listeners. Thus, brilliant news. My name is Nina Harrington and I'm an author just like you. My fiction is published by
a traditional publisher, but I've also been
independently publishing books for other authors
for several years. One of the biggest
shifts that I have seen is the rising popularity
in audio books. Why audio books, audio book cells around
the world are booming. In 2020, the global audible
market is expected to grow by 25% to $3.5 billion. Here in the UK alone. Audio book sales
increased by 43% in 2019, with sales of 69 million pounds. That is predicted to grow to a 115 million pounds in 2020. Those numbers were
before the pandemic. I would expect to
increase to be even larger when the data for
this year is reported. It's no surprise to me that audio books have been
massively popular. They are accessible for gender people's lifestyles and are remarkably good
value for the listener. If you are an author who was independently
published your work, this is your chance
to offer your readers a new format for
your existing books. And auto find new
readers who loved to listen to books in
your particular niche. The growth in audio
book sales has also created another opportunities
for entrepreneurs. Even after production costs, the revenue from
audiobooks probably a much higher compared to the same book in e-book or print format. This is why many authors have decided to start with
the audio book format. There may have an existing
audience or platform or no, a particular niche very well, and recognize that
their listeners would value an audiobook. This approach can
work very well for nonfiction and business users. You know that you can take care of the production
of the audio book. But when it comes to creating
cover art for your project, hiring a graphic art designer
can be really expensive. There is another option. You can design your own
audio book cover for free using graphic design
software like Canva. I've been using a
free account income for many years to design a book covers and promotional materials
and fund it easy to use. And most importantly, Canva helps you to create
national looking results. In this course, I'll be showing
you step-by-step how you can use Canva to create effective audio
book cover designs. But you can upload to any of the audio book
production platforms. We'll be covering the course
material in three parts. In part one, we'll
cover the key features, audio books, and
your target niche. What makes them stand out? In part to our introduced you to Canva and the main
elements of the software, you will be using
a cover design. In part three. The practicality of creating
an audio book cover using Canva with
case study examples. After completing this course, you'll have a much
better understanding of what makes a good
audio book cover. How to get started on Canva, how to modify your own
e-book or print book cover, and also how to create an
audio book cover from scratch. This causes packet
extra information about graphic design techniques
and where you can find high-quality images you can
apply to any cover design. I look forward to meeting
you inside the course.
2. The Market for Audiobooks: In section to the course, we're going to talk
about audio book design. The points are
going to cover are what kind of books work
well in audio format. The key elements, ONE, effective audio book cover, how to research your
petitioner niche or market, and the layout and specifications
of an idea audio book cover that will be accepted by the cell publishing
audio book platforms. See you inside. This is a graphic from the
Catalytics site for data from November 2019. The percentage
share of formats in category for the top
100 books on Amazon. In all formats. Kinda format dominates in romance, mystery,
thriller, suspense. But look at some of
the categories where audio book has
really made inroads. Science fiction and fantasy, biographies, political sciences, huge increase in
business and money and self-help and medical books, fitness and dieting,
education and teaching. This data has changed
because of the pandemic. But the fundamental trends
are still the same. If you look at the
percentage share of formats, audio books have reached almost 50% in some
categories. Why? Look at the categories and
looked at the formats? People love to listen to science fiction and
fantasy and literature. They also find it very
helpful to listen to business and money and self-help
while they're commuting, doing other things,
perhaps trekking, jogging, traveling
to work, lunchtimes. These are ideal formats
for that particular niche, which you can take advantage of. One of the most popular
audio book platforms for listeners is Audible, which is an Amazon company. If you go to the audible
site on Audible CO2 kp, the moment the front
page tells you everything you need
to know about how we can become an audible member. The subscription service, the type of books
which are sold, bestsellers, latest releases, and how you can use the
orderable technology. Listen to those books
in any format you like, any contact, your light, and the device you like. There are wide variety
of categories. Let's look at some bestsellers. This is the top 100
best sellers are audible books in all categories. You can see it's a
variety of fiction, biography, nonfiction, habits, and then Harry Potter
stories read by Stephen Fry, which are extremely popular
for children's bound to see, as well as non-fiction,
self-help, motivational books. The variety of books in
this top 100 indicates just how popular audible books and audiobooks in
general have become. There are a number of ways you can look at individual
categories. The most easiest is from the main sidebar on
the left-hand side. Let's look at fiction.
As you can see, there's popular
fiction, literary fiction, self-help as fiction. Classical fiction such as
George Orwell's Animal Farm. Classics such as the 100
year-old man who played out the window disappeared
from 2012. Let's look at crime and
fillers, for example. The variety here is
quite remarkable. Sherlock Holmes is mixed
with brand new bestsellers. One of the classic elements
of all of these audiobooks. In nonfiction, for example. The general layout
of these books. You'll see that the title tends to be in the
center of the page. This is where your eye is taken. In the tiny thumbnail
image with auto will give you a reader just
like an Amazon, will look at the title, the cover, the name of the
author, and the ratings. If you want to look a
particular category, you can use the search bar
at the top of the screen. Let's look at
Romans, for example. Over 40 thousand results. These are the top 20. Again, a wide variety. Look at the layout, as
well as the colors. The title is in the
center of the page. The colors, the summer
books tend to be blue. The dot Romans
tend to be darker. Let's look at this number one. If you want to Gibson, it's a very popular
romantic comedy writer. The image of the car and
the vineyards either side. As you can see here, contrast brilliantly with the
background image. If you own books, you can easily find
new ones to add. Let's look at the
Best Sellers again. Biographies this time. You can, such by different
categories such as artists, business leaders,
political figures, look at Award winners. Audible exclusives
are very popular. As well as the bestsellers. From anyone for Michelle Obama. David Goggins, have a wide variety of ways
you can actually get to that bestseller list from
within the audible store. They want the cell audiobooks. That's their business. Let's make it easy for
them by giving them a cover which will instantly attract a browser to
the audible store, which is consistent with what a listener
would expect to see. If you have any helper tool. The help lines and details on this audible page for providing
the information you need on how to create the
best format audio book you can. Thanks for listening.
3. How to Design the Ideal Audiobook Cover for your Audience: Many authors have created audio book Originals without having published
books available. This section describes
how to select an edit, an audio book cover that is
a great fit for your genre. Mad all starts with researching the key features
of books in your niche. We just want to
recognize titles by their cover and know exactly what kind of
book they're reading. And buying. 13 to do is to go on Audible.com
or your local audible. Browse by bestsellers and then go to the category
you're interested in. This particular case,
we're talking about business and careers and
other countries of the world. It could be called
something else. Scroll down the top 50
titles, business and careers. And look carefully at
the colors and design. Those books. As you can see in the
1.5th dozen here, there's a lot of whitespace in the cover design and light
colors and highlighted text. Lots of white-space,
white backgrounds, pale backgrounds, dark letters. Occasionally there is a book written by a celebrity person, such as Roger Uyghur. Or in this case it's
Rachel Hollis who have recognizable biographies
and a platform, which means they can have their own photograph
on the cover. And it will instantly recognize
what their books about. Dave Ramsey for
example, Elon Musk. But in many other cases, fact MyDrive few cases
that is not the case. It is a pale colored cover with clear writing
centralized on the cover. And the text is designed
to be very evocative or the experience and
the promise that you are giving and
delivering to your listener. Atomic habits, good
habits, habits again. Negotiation. Leadership, leadership,
leadership. Mental strength, mindset, mindset,
and self-esteem, mindset and self-esteem, money. You can see the type of content which has
been displayed here. This is a classic book. Pale colors, very
distinctive graphic image. Very clear message. What kind of title, what kind of book do you
want to pitch in your cover? This one, The Art of
War by some Zoom. That is a very old book, but restated for audio
book number 21 in the American charts
with 12,638 ratings. Blogging, work-life, success,
leadership leadership, passionate mindset,
negotiation skills. Mindset, mindset. Interesting, audible,
original, caffeine. Stopped doing that, S HIT, self-sabotage. Tim Ferriss influence. You see the type
of content here, you see the type of covers. How does your title
fit into this list? I'm looking at the
top 2030 here. It's a very small list. Also worth looking at this
tab for the New York Times. I'm in the audible.com website. It covers the New York Times. I'm going to
nonfiction hardback. Looking down the list
for the non-fiction hard back in audiobook format. A variety of nonfiction. Again, personality, personality, saga
of Churchill family undefined during the Blitz. Personality, Personality,
Personality, sociology. Sociology. Sociology. Very interesting. Let's go back to
the audible chart. This is in careers.
In this exercise, exercise two, we're
going to make a list of the three key features
of the top 20. Do book covers. The business and
career section or business section
in your country. The audio book chart on Audible. What type of colors are they? What kind of font? Or they're led by topic
or led by personality. How can you emulate, model, your book cover? On that particular design? You'll see a little badge, sometimes only from Audible. Only from Audible. Leave some space in the corner you design with that sticker. Cmo. Only for multiple
leaves, some design. We'll stop there and get
back to the exercise.
4. Audiobook Cover Specifications: In this video, we're
going to talk about the specifications for
audio book covers. One of the best
resources is HCX. This is the audible
creation exchange. This is where most
independent publishers will come to create
their own audio books. Sex will then distributed
the audiobook format of your book to audible,
Amazon, and iTunes. There is a huge variety
of resources available on the HCX platform to help you
create your old yearbook. If you look through the
options on the front page, you'll find a range of
resources and information. If you're not familiar with HCX, is always worth
spending the time to go through each of
these sections and make sure that you understand your requirements and
how you can create the most effective and
salable audio book to find specifications, but auditable covers one of the most useful sections is the frequently asked questions. You can look at how you create your profile as a
narrator and author, and also how you can record and produce your video, audio. Then cover art requirements are under the review and
approve section. If you look at what are the specifications for
creating the cover art, HCX will give you a full
description of the formats, the size, specification,
the color, and the dimensions of
the idea audio book cover they will accept
onto the SEX platform. It must contain the name
of the title of the book. Together with any primary
subtitle or other author names. Here's an example of
acceptable cover art. Note that in many cases, Audible will introduce
graphic design in the bottom right corner. You should avoid having artwork in that
particular location. In this section, SEX is
telling you that you cannot add side borders
to a vertical design. The title must match the
title of the book and also the blurriness
is not acceptable. This is very important section. Can I use the cover art from the print edition for
my book, my audio book. It is extremely important. But if you paid a cover
designer to create an e-book or print book
cover for your work, then it is essential that
you understand who holds the copyright on both
the cover artwork and the font and overall
design that you purchased. Go back to the contractor in you and your
designer and check what rights had been assigned to you by the artist
opposite publisher. Here is a quick summary of the audio book cover
specifications. The image must be PNG, or suitable high-quality image. The cover image must
be a perfect square, at least 2400 by 2400
pixels in dimensions. In the past, you were able
to add side borders to a vertical e-book or print
book cover to create a square. This is no longer allowed. It must be an original
square design. The style and layout
we have seen for market research that
the cover image focuses on the
title of the book. One key element of the
background image or design that you want
your listener to focus on when they see a small square thumbnail image
of your audio book cover. The choice of all your books. Browsers only have a few seconds to select the audio book
they want to listen to. Let's focus on those two
key design elements, the title of the book and one key element of
the background image.
5. Introduction to Canva: Section three of this course is an introduction to Canvas. The points you are going to
cover include what is Canva, this free software tool? How to create a Canva account? Getting familiar with
the Canvas dashboard. See you inside. If you're
completely new to Canvas. Go to canva.com. You can start an account
using Facebook and Google with easiest way
is to use email address, put in your name, email
address, and a password. I didn't get started immediately
for free using Canva. What you'll see next is a
welcome screen asking me about the type of purpose you'd
be using Canva for. I prefer to use the
personal option. You can start immediately using a test piece that
doesn't seem to be any way of coming out of this screen and go
into your own designs. But easiest thing to do is
to click on any design. And then you can
click out and go to the homepage and start
your own custom design. This happens to be
an Instagram post. It's very useful to
demonstrate the features. Go to your home. This is your main
control panel in Canva. At the top you'll see design
anything from this panel. You can control what you see. All the options you
have available to you. As you can see,
Canvas is used for a huge number of
social media and professional graphic
design projects, including ebook covers. This is the Kindle template we want to do is create
a custom design. So go to create a new
design, your first design. We want custom dimensions
where the pixels, and we're doing 3,200
square and create a design. You'll then be taken to a blank template on
which you can work. Rename your page. Now, that way you'll
always know what it was. On your left you
will see a range of templates for that
particular design. And there are hundreds
of free templates. This is just a test wanted to show you what the features are. You can then edit every single
element in that template. As an example, you'll see the position is
called group and ungroup. Colors are available for the
document or the project, or you can choose
your own colors using your hex code
for that color. Should you have particular
color you want to work with? Your own photos and images are added to the uploads panel. You can drag them
from your desktop or PC straight onto
the upload screen. With images and videos. You can also drop
them directly onto the blank image that
you're creating. Backgrounds are very helpful. You'll find that your
design is right there. It may take a while to
objects the latest version, but this is where
your design will be held and you can
edit it at anytime. Thank you for watching. I hope this introduction to
Canada was useful.
6. Demonstration of How to Use Canva to Design an Audiobook cover: Open up a new accounting Canva, if you don't provide a 1.5, go to your account. Go to create a new design
using custom dimensions. Create a new design and
use custom dimensions. We're going to experiment
with the audio book file size 3,200 by 3,200 square, and then create a design. This is your blank
editing screen. Now we're going
to have some fun. Idea is to work
through the range of features on the Canvas, dashboard and experiment
with images and texts until you are comfortable working with all the
range features available. No one's going to see this
image unless you decide to enjoy playing with
his great free tool. First of all, let's create some new pages by
adding a new page. Then, exercise one is
to work with photos. Go to photos. In the left sidebar. You'll see a whole
range of images. Most of them are free. You see as your
hopper of your mouse, a little free image will appear. Click on one of the images
which appeals to you. It does not have to be linked
to your audio book project. This is about having fun. Let's choose this one. Click on the image once metal
move across to select it. Move it around up and down. Look at the red line that
goes through the center. This is your centering line. You'll also see a grid
box around the image. You'll whip main working space. This gives you an indication of the dimensions of
your working area. In each corner of the
image are white dots. Dragging this dot will
fill the screen and you can drag and pull
that image anyway, you want to go up and down. So checking the center line goes right to the
center of your image. Now we're going
to have some fun. Click on the white. This
is your background. This is why you
control the color of your background image. You can click on this
to get rid of it and hide it. Background color. What you'll see is that the palate will show
the photo colors. Canada will very
carefully look at the colors inside the
photograph you're working with. A suggests some photo colors. For example, this quite
attractive, green or gray. If you'd like others. Similar to that. When you click on that color there and click
on this box here. If you can then
change that color by dragging across the color bar, color wheel squared attractive. That's the hex code
for this color. This is important in as many times, professional
image designers, especially book cover designers, will choose a specific
background color linked to your brand. Let's duplicate this page
by saying copy page. Delete that background by
just simply clicking Delete. Let's try something else. Let's go to Background. Look at the range of free a
background options available. Have fun. Experiment with a
few backgrounds. You'd be surprised
what's available. One option you can
use, gradients. Gradients are where
one color melts into another color over the
space of your design. Most of these are
free and adjustable. Let's look at this one on,
for example, it's free. Blue at the top,
green at the bottom. Click on it. You can adjust it. Brightness. Contrast, blur. This can be quite handy. Blurs out the features. Don't know that one.
Let's choose another. Let's delete that. Delete. Delete. Okay, text, very important
for all cover designers. Heading, subheading, body texts. Those are the main
three you'd be using. Also a great suggestions of font combinations can be super useful if you're
stuck for design, you're not familiar
with using fonts. Move this image
down a little just by dragging it and
pulling it down. This is quite
attractive and it's free to look at
this combination. Again, drag it and pull it down. This is small. Pull the handle, pull it back. Same thing. Red center line. This texts combination is in three parts with
three different fonts. This is called a group where the three text boxes have
been linked together. You can manipulate each one separately by doing
the Ungroup feature. And then put together
again by using group. Let's ungroup. This font. Tells me that we're looking
with playlist script. This is a script part
looks like handwriting. And later, later
is the non script. Like the Plato better. So I'm going to do
Undo button here. This is playlist
script. This is later. Let's have a bit of
fun. Let's edit this. I don't need this one here, so I'm gonna delete
it and redo it. Just highlight the text. Chinese meals. For all. That text is too large. I got two choices. I can pull this handle here and stretch the
text out to the side. In fact, I recommend doing that because when you click
on this checkbox here, the little arrow goes
to a full circle. You can lose alignment. Alignment will center your box. I'll put it left,
right, or center. The center is extremely useful. Drug that box down. That one up. If you want to get
a better idea of what your design is
going to look like. Hide the options menu. Down here. You'll
see magnification. If you use 10%, you'll get a much better idea of what the overall design
looks like from a distance. If you use this one, it's the full screen. This arrows between
the number of pages. You can look at this
in much more detail. Check for any pixelation
and the blurring. Then when you're done, just use little arrow here
to exit full screen. This number here
tells me there's four pages in this design. 1234. I don't need that. I don't need that. There's two pages now. You can do any
multiplication you like. I usually work at twenty-five percent electron or the image. Delete that gives you
a blank page with the same background
color used before. Now it's time to
look at elements. Elements are free. Usually free components which
you can add to your design. There are hundreds of
different types of elements. The two you tend to use most
are grids and shapes and frames. Not the same. Grid is a design element
where this is a photo grid. If you clicked on photos. It will fill the
space or you can move it to certain
parts of the space. This is a photo grid. It will the image here
sample, Let's drag that down. It will fill up that
particular box, that frame. It is a frame for your images. This can be super helpful. Delete that, delete that shapes. Very helpful when it
comes to checkboxes. You can do anything we shapes there are huge
variety seashore. See all. These are all the shapes you can use and they're all free. The premium ones
are at the bottom. This is extremely useful. This shape is, but this color, we can click on the color wheel and change it to
any color you want, such as the color in
the previous designing. Leave it at this dark purple. Drag the handles
out to the side. Go back to text. Let's say I want to
add a heading here. Just drag that heading across here closer and
look at the font. I want to have a heading here. We've just used playlist
script and later for this one. But let's look at
more decorative ones. You can search different types of font by clicking
on this box here. For example, let's try
Handwriting, corporate, paragraph, some serif or
straight headings like this, where the font does not a
little tails on the end. The seventh font
or little tails. Rounded, modern, elegant,
vintage, that's dry elegant. You now have a whole
range of fonts available which camber
decide or elegant. If you're seeing a
little crown next to it, it means this is a
premium paid font. So you will have to be a Canva
pro user to buy that font. Use that font. But there are
hundreds and hundreds of fonts to choose from. Best do a text that's due, highlight the text and
the say in capitals. My biography. Again, drag the box
out to the side. Let's do a couple of numbers. Is click on the box. Copy and then
Control V for paste. Bracket. Pull it down. Same again. Copy and paste. Try different font. This was basic font. Let's try something
more decorative. Let's try this out. Let's try area Alpha is helpful. Let's try Bodoni difference. This is a serif font
for the taps and tails. Let's change that one to. Let's count the
bottom here and let's try a few more that are, as you'll see,
there are hundreds of fonts to choose from. Motels quite an
asphalt. Subtractive. Have fun. You get the idea. There are huge number of ranges to choose from and you have full
flexibility on how you want to use some and where
you want to place them. In this first exercise, I want you to create
a new design. This size, and
experiment with images, and experiment with shapes,
experiment with text. We have a great time
and really get used to enjoying the benefits of Canada.
Thank you for listening.
7. How to Create an Audiobook cover using your own eBook cover design edited: In this video, I'm going to
demonstrate how to create an audio book cover
from your e-book or print book cover that you
created inside canva. The first thing to
do is to download a PNG format file of that
e-book or print book cover. This tends to be
higher quality than the JPEG cover that is
used by Amazon Kindle. Download a PNG file of your cover and save it onto your desktop or the
folder for your book. You can sort any images of your book covers by
the file format. Then go to your home
screen in Canva and open up a new design
using custom dimensions. When pixels, this is a square, 3,200 by 3,200 pixels
standard audiobook layout. Save the new blank
audio book file with the name of your book. There's mentioned eat much
easier to find later. If not done so already upload a copy of the PNG file you've
just created into Canva. This will be your
reference point. I find it useful to add
a copy of this into a fresh page below
the design area. Most cases, it is
not possible to use the vertical e-book design to create your
audio book design. It's too narrow, but it's
always worth checking here. First, first thing to do is to decide on which elements
you want to focus on. You must have the title of your book and at least
one key feature. Your author name is not as crucial as the title
and the key element. Start manipulating
this audio book frame. You are not allowed to have borders either side
of a vertical book. Hcx is outlawed that which I believe many authors
used to do in the past. The first thing to do is to pull out using the
handles on each side of the image to fill the complete square frame
with your book cover. There, move it up
and down and chill. You have at least the title
of your book on the screen. Inside the working area. Then assess what features
are still remaining. Take as long as you need to just manipulate the image so that it is completely filling the frame and providing
an, a pleasing design. In this mock-up
bromines cover design, I wanted to focus on
the kissing couple, as well as the title. For me, that
particular image was cutting off too
much of the couple. The best thing to
do now is to go back to the original
photograph you used to create your book cover. Your e-book or print book cover. Start working with that
as a new background. Center, the kissing couple. Onto the grid of your
new square layout. Or whatever design
feature you want to focus on in your
particular design. Canva gives you a grid. It's always good to use it. Move it around. As you can see, I want to
focus on the cosine couple. That's what the reader
will be looking at when they browse the audible store. We compare that with
the cut-off screen. You have much more information
on this particular image. We don't have, of
course, is text. You can add text
directly to your image. Starts from scratch again. Or you can go back
to your homepage. Open a new window and
you can go Window. Open up the design you created. For the book cover image. You're going to copy
over the text boxes from your book cover onto
your audio book cover. The idea is to have both
screens open at the same time. You can flip between
one and the other. Just move them around the screen depending on the size
of your monitor. Of course, you may have to do it one-by-one, step-by-step. Paste each text box one
at a time. Just copy. Then Control V to paste. Now there will be
different sizes because obviously
this is a square as opposed to a vertical. So this is your
chance to decrease or increase the size of the text on your new audio book cover. Copy and paste each
text box one at a time, place it more or less
where you want to go. The idea is to have a similar looking audio book
cover that readers will recognize as being
similar to your e-book or print book that you
already have on the Amazon book
description page. You see this Christmas
in Paris box is small relative to
the size of the box. So in this particular
audio book case, you'll want to increase the
size that particular element. Drag and drop each box. Shape. This case we align. We don't need that
book cover anymore. Let's focus on the
audio book cover. Increase the size of the font. The font the same. By
using the same fonts. Font styling as your
original book cover, you're making sure that you have completely
consistent appearance. Find one useful thing is to drag the text boxes to the side of the frame and then use the alignment tool to make sure that they're completely Center. You have confidence in that your system
will not go wrong. Increase the size of your
font, increases situation. But always make sure that the center line goes through
the center of your textbox. Red line should appear at the
center of your textbooks. Same font. Let's increase the size. The text box around. Since you're designing
it yourself. You have full flexibility as to where your image sits on
the audio book cover, how you want to make to appear and how much text
you want to appear. If one box is covering, just move it out
the way temporarily while you manipulate
that particular box. The spacing bar
allows you to reduce the gap between letters and
also the gap between lines. This can be very
helpful when you have limited nitrile space. You can always increase or
decrease this font size. Any point. By using the same font to
use in your book cover, you have created a very
consistent appearance, which will look great on
the book description page. When you're offering
the audio book option as well as the print
and e-book option. Once you're happy with that, just visually check very
quickly how this Ebook Cover looks compared to the resized one and your original
Ebook Cover. Once you're happy
with that design, you can download
it as a PNG file, ready to upload onto HCX or other Audible audiobook
creation platforms. Thanks for watching.
8. Transforming a Purchased book cover into an Audiobook cover: Section five, transforming a
purchased e-book or print book cover into
an audio book cover. The first thing to do
is to open up Canva and create a new design used
in custom dimensions. This is a square, 2200 by
3,200 pixels audiobook layout. This will ensure that
your design meets the minimum specifications
of 2400 times 2400. You will now have a
blank new audio book, Square Edit pane, which you can now name with the name
of your book project. Next, upload book cover
image into Canada. There should be a
high-definition image, if at all possible. You can see it uploading
by the blue circle on the left sidebar.
Click on your image. If you drag it into the square, it will fill the square. Undo, click once, Copy, and then Control V for paste in. Place the image on the square without completely
filling the space. Move your image around on the square until you
have centered it. The key focal points
you want to include in your design always have
the title of the book. This means that
some of the image we'll go over the top and bottom edges of the
audio book Squarespace, cropping off that
area of the cover. Adjust the size of
the image by pulling the handlebars on all four sides and the dots in the far corners. So you can fill the space
and center the image. Or we check that
the thin red line inside canva goes through
the center of the image. This is the center guideline. Will make sure that
your image will be centered inside the diagram. Can take a few minutes to manipulate the image by
pulling and dragging the handles to completely fill the space
you're editing pane, your square editing pane. You'll remember that
we're not allowed to add empty spaces into each side
of the vertical design. We have to fill up that space. You could try adding
a background color. By looking at the
photo editing options. The background color, skin pain. This will add a
contrasting color, which is one of the colors
in the photo to each side. Experiment with this to see if this will
help your design. In most cases, it is easier
to pull the image to the sides of the square and work with that image
inside the editing pane. At this point I had
the main figure. I have the title of the book and the subtitle of the book, and the title isn't
big enough font. Now I'm going to add some text. This is the name of the author. I'm using a subheading text. What I need is a font, which is similar
to the font I use. The designer used
when they created the heading of the
title of the book. Cover design. It's a non
serif font in capitals. At the moment is open sounds. By clicking on the
corners of the textbooks, you can resize it and drag it down to location
you want on the screen. Pull the handles to the side. Whereas in position.
And that way you'll always know that your
text is central. Take a few minutes to
manipulate your image, manipulate the text to
create a pleasing design. The benefits of creating
your own audio book cover is that you can create
something very unique. But if you have a
published book already, then it is always must be consistent with the
appearance of your e-book or print book that weren't appears on your Amazon
book description page. A listener and a reader knows
that this is the same book. What I good idea is to
experiment with different fonts, copy of textbox, and
then edit the font. This case, I'm looking
for business fonts which tend to be non serif. You can look at any
type of font you want. Experiment. Try few different
headings, fonts out. But again, it must match the font that was used
in the original book cover. Once you choose one, delete, the ones you do need. Reposition. The one you do
want to use on the screen. Inside your editing pane. Don't be frightened to
try something slightly different if it makes a more
distinctive appearance. Experiment. Particular example. The title of the book is an a very rounded
and non serif font. If you know the name of the font from your cover designer, this is the font you should use. I've gone for aria in
this particular case. In change the size of the font. Make it bold. Italic, whatever is a match for your e-book or
print book cover. Align it to the left or
right or to the center. If possible. Align the extra text with a texture value on the screen to create a pleasing design. I think this works. If you are happy, download
a PNG file of your image. This is your new
audio book cover. Using these techniques,
you can manipulate any professional audio
book cover that you've purchased. Thanks for watching.
9. Creating an Audiobook cover for a Business Book: The first thing
we're going to do is to create a new design. A custom dimensions
for an audio book, 2200 by 3,200 square. This is going to be
a business book. One of those popular books at the moment is by Rachel Hollis. I don't want to use
that as an example. I've uploaded the book
cover from audio. Rachel Hollis, a central figure. Plain background. Work we want to
create is for men. Let's look at photos. Search by business. Business. Look at a male figure and we
can use for our background. It takes a few minutes to find something which might work. Always check for free.
This was interesting. When I want to do
is just put it in position that I can enlarge it much as I want and
have it centered. Be even larger than that. To do that, go to 10% and just
pull this out a bit more. As you move that in, you will
see a frame in the middle, which shows you where
that's going to be. I think logic even
further better. Let's click back on the image. Done. Twenty-five percent. Now we're going to talk
about texts and shapes. Look at elements, go to Shapes. We're going to put a text
box inside a shade box. All the way across. We can always change this later, which you can drag the
handles up and down. I want the color of this text with the same color as a suit. Go there. And again, Canvas
suggests photographs. Picks up the color from the photograph and
suggests colors. That work's going
to be a main title, a subtitle, and an author name. Let's start with a main title. That's right in the center. Hence by the grid lines. Let's go to text. Other heading. Drag it and
move it into the center. The heading for this book is
going to be called witness. All capitals, winners. New textbox. Subheading. This one is a long one at, so I'm going to drag
it all the way out. I'm going to call
this mindset secret. Millennial billionaires. That fonts too large. So let's drop it down. 100104. If I've clicked on that border up across the whole screen. There. Repeat that textbox
by clicking on it. The shape for either
by clicking on it. Copy would like to do is change the font by having two different
boxes to different shapes. Position back. The box is behind the lettering. Let's focus on the heading
right now. Winners. I don't like that
particular font. Let's change the color of
it to perhaps a pale cream. Also know perhaps white. Then change the font. We're looking for a business
style fonts selects actually save image and look
for business fonts. Conda, we'll give
you all the fonts it recommends for business use. Let's try a few. Does highlight the text and try a few fonts. This could take awhile to find the perfect font.
That's not bad. Again, if you see little crown, it means that's a premium font only for an incumbent members. But there are a hundreds of
fonts here to choose from. Quite nice, but it's too small. Type in a number
here. Give it a try. Even bigger. Let's add an exclamation mark
at the end of there. Again, always check that the
textbox goes to the end. It's centered by the red line going through the center of it. Then I'm going to
pull this one up. It just fits inside. But changed the font. That was paddock. Let's shoot, choose
a really nice font for this elegant Madani. Experiment with these, have fun. Make it look professional. We don't use D2 quite so
large. Bringing that up. Now what is the
name of the author? Let's add a surpassing again. This time is going to be
straight text are not inside a shaped colored box. Invention name. Let's call this gentlemen. Robots. Make it bigger. You see I've got 244. You want larger, you type the
number up here. The font. Again. This fall is
quite attractive that padlock. Select this. Select the font, check it's
right in the center again. Then change that to. Now I can really get
going with working on fine tuning this
particular design. I think this figure
here is too small. Let's go back and make an
even larger 10% again. Expand the image, then moving back about the head
in the picture. I also want the hands that could be too big.
Let's have a try. Let's try another design. Copy this image, and start
working on different options. For example, we
can bring this in. Again, keeping it center. Bring the box in. That even larger,
let's say for 20. Pan out. Which one looks better? Bulk going straight across the page. The bow in the middle. What do you think?
What's your opinion? Another option, we to break up this subtitle into two sections. Again, copy this image so
you don't lose anything. Then start working on this one. You do is expand the box. Move the text bucket. That isn't looking too good. Best change the font. We have hundreds of
phones to choose from. Let's look at one which is
going to look interesting. Work down the options until you find something which
really catches your eye. This one was quite interesting, but the gap between those
two lines is too large. All you do is click on that
and go to this icon here. This is the spacing between the letters and also
between the lines. Were GCE, the gap
between the lines. Result look better. It's
entirely up to you. This is your project. You can do whatever
you want with it. Let's increase that
font size to 120. And then move it up slightly. Again, always
checking its center. All changes saved. Pan out. Which one do you prefer? Of course, you can
move those images and those designs anywhere
you want on the screen. Hope that helps.
10. Creating an Audiobook cover for a Wellness Book: In this video, we're going to
be looking at how to create an original Audrey book cover for self-help and wellness book. Let's go to audible.com to research the title which are currently at bestsellers
in this category. Go to audible.com and go
to Browse bestsellers. Health and wellness category. We also have the relationship, parenting, and personal
development categories. We're going to focus on the
health and wellness category. This is the top 100. The first thing I notice is the colors of these
audio book covers. There is a purple dark
color with white font. As we scroll down, we have. The alternative is a very clean, clear background in pale
colors with dark text. But look at the number of purple and dark colors on
these audio book covers. The topics mainly concern sleeping, breathing,
and centering. You can increase the
number of pages. I hear. Any of these topics match with the topic
of your ODU book. This is an interesting one. It looks like a Mandela in
blue on white with blue text. Link to hypnosis. Again, blue with
black and white. More purple, red, more purple, white, more purple.
Quilt collecting. Slowing down. Relaxation.
Self-control. This an excellent selection. The main text, if you look at the location and layout
of the audio book covers, Let's go back to the
chart very quickly. The main text seems to be in
the bottom of the layout. These are audible originals. Created within audible. Audible 500 rating, 620 ratings is obviously
very, very popular. Dark colors. Title
in the middle. Meditation. Meditation,
fasting, very simple. Two colors, clock, sign,
common restful piece. This gives you a
good indication of the type of audio book cover that listeners will come to
this page and expect to see. There was also an
excellent source of research in the Canvas
covers themselves. Let's go into Canada. Instead of opening designed
for an audio book cover. Let's look at the templates. Let's look at
templates for e-books. You can go here or you
can go into, we'll cover. Here are examples of book
covers which being created by the excellent designers
at Canva and also by users. Let's open one up. In the template section
for book covers, you will see they
are categorized by the topic and theme
of the Ebook Cover. Not seem to copy exactly the ebook cover
in these templates. But it gives you an idea and inspiration for the
combination of fonts. You can use. This one, for example, very, very simple. The font here. Linux,
the font here, trna sounds, sounds, sense. Very different. This
particular case, the font is glacial
indifference and noontime fonts you
wouldn't normally use. These are very
inspirational books, also gives you lots of ideas. Let's go down the categories
and see if we can find out what would match a
wellness and health book. This is interesting.
Very unusual design. Sound waves. Again, look at the
fonts. Rocks per. Scroll down. Think about the what you've just seen
in the audio book covers. This interesting one has the color scheme
that we've just seen an audible and also
a very clean font. Need Gothic sources. Last example. Personally, I'd like
to see a person. If you go back to the audible, there's also a person, a figure or a landscape. These covers. Let's
go back to Canva. This kind of scheme
is attractive. If you click on it, you'll find it's being
changed. The fonts. This is, there are
three actually for textboxes in this title. The first one is sources. If you do ungroup, each one of those
will become separate. You can move it
around. As an example, let's just download
that as a PNG. Idea is that when you have a combination of
fonts that you like, you can use the same fonts. Canvas suggests in a book cover. For your audio book cover. We go back to the
homepage, create a design. Custom dimensions,
32003200 pixels. This is our audio book square. Here we have a blank. Here. I'm gonna call it Wellness high that now we're
going to upload the image that we've just downloaded by dragging the image from our desktop or where we
placed it onto the screen. While like to do
is actually create a blank new page and drop the image into that
one. As a reference. Copy. Paste. Put it in a
corner and drag it down, then drug a handle
and drag it out. Then move it around. Again. I've got the
red center line going to the center
of the design. Each of these, this is a set. This is set. I put the PNG, It's a color, you
can't change it. If you go back to
the original design we looked at in Canva, you can get the text and
you can get the sizing. This is an idea for inspiration. Let's duplicate that.
Then delete it. Let's start with the image. Go to photos. We're looking for. We're looking for a
background first, I think. Let's look at wellness, yoga, health
fitness, meditation. Again, we're looking
for that free selling. That might be
attractive. Drag it in. Don't forget, we can
change this at anytime. Duplicate that. Let's try again. Now that little crown
means that it's professional design and
you have to pay for it. Looking for the free ones. That's quite attractive. Fill this space. Now, you click on that. Go to Effect. You can create a
different color frame for that image. Let's go to adjust. I'm doing the filter. Peony dalliance. That's quite attractive.
Let's try another one. Do you see what fun
we're having here? We can do anything we want
with these free images. Pretty to try another one. Let's try a person. That person to be quite large in the middle. Let's make that
really stand out. If you lose the end
of the picture, just go to 10%, then you can move it
around, drag it out. You will see a square appears, the main working area.
Let's go to that one. Done. Go to Filter. Dalliance. Fifty
twenty-five percent. This becomes outline. You can do with a picture like this is actually increase the transparency of it to
make it more whimsical. Because there's
transparency button here. Drop the transparency down. Control. You can control the density of the tone
of the image are using. For maximum deep purple
right through to pale. An alternative is to
keep it at maximum. Go to elements and then shapes. Use a square shape. Fill your image with the shape. I want it to be,
the purple shape, such as that one or that one. Then decreased
transparency of the shape. You're adding that
depth and Lair. Move it around and
see what you got. You can actually make it
paler by having a gray. Again transparency. Bringing down the intensity
of the image underneath, so it's just visible,
but more attractive. Let's scroll out a little
so we can see what we're doing on a range of pages. Knocking on that one,
Let's delete that one. That's quite attractive. So as that, Let's use
the same technique here. Adjust, drop down the
rightness. Quite dark. Increase the contrast. Saturation, and
increase the tint. Make us very, very slightly
blurry than the effects. Filters Baker, button, pink. Or could you suck the
same technique that we've used here and use a purple overlay.
Let's do that. Click on that, go to
elements and then shapes. Cover the complete image
with the rectangle shape. Change the color, let's say to that deep purple or
a lighter purple. Then reduce the transparency at the image peaks
out from underneath. Now let us look at text. What is the title of your book? Text and add a heading or subheading under a
bit of body text. Remember in the eBook title, subtitle, author name, and
little bit of texts there. Let's look at other
heading to this one. I'm going to have it here. I might move the image
up a little bit. Move that to one side. I'm going to set
up a little bit. Good, move that back
over our heading. Let's call it meditation. I want to move that right to the end by grabbing the handles and pulling it right across. I don't like that
particular font. I also want it to be. Look back to Audible
for a moment. These are all lowercase. Notice not uppercase. Don't like the font. Let's choose an
interesting font. I want something elegant. Let's search by perhaps
handwriting architects daughter. Again, you see the
little crown means it's a premium fonts and you
have to pay extra for that. Experiment. This
way you can have fun with all the different
types of fonts available. Quite attractive would
make it much bigger. This range here it goes up
to 144 if you want large, I just type in the number here. Let's make that 400. Not sure that's working. Let's show another one.
Again. Experiment, have fun. That's quite attracted. These are handwriting. To save time, let's keep on
that one for the moment. We won't change the font color by choosing this button here. Going for either a pale cream. We can go for white paint cream. It matches gentle
colors of this design. Drop that down a little bit. Let's say 350. Liked about here was
the very small subtitle and the capitals author name. We're going to add a subheading. Let's make this a guide. For Beginners. I'm going to change
the font to white. Pale cream. Going to
use a lovely font. Instead of handwriting. Lex choose. Elegant. Canada was suggested. Lots of elegant font here. That's attractive. That's nice. That's move it up a little
bit and move that down there. Now this is actually
a little bit small, so let's increase that to 170. Don't forget this gonna be seen as a thumbnail tiny image. I may devices. One more subheading here. That's the name of the author. That's gonna be small, gonna be in capitals. Let's call them Elise Jones. Let's make it the same. Make it perhaps 180. There we have a very
quick indication of what you can do with fonts and text inside Canvas
using free Canva images. The best thing of course, is that once you have decided on your font and your colors, you can copy and paste
onto your image. Experiment may
designs as you wish. Particular one, I
think it might be better to actually have
the title in the middle. The author name towards
the bottom. In smaller. Check this in the center. Always check AS in the center, I'm going to center align. Double-check.
Always. If in doubt, you can always
click on there and use the alignment control. Make sure it's in the center. I hope that was helpful. It gives you indication of some of the resources
you can use inside canva. Thanks
for watching.
NINA HARRINGTON, Bestselling Author, Tutor and Blogger
