Designing My Poetry Cover With More Heart Than Skill

I am not a designer. It's not one of the titles I claim in my logo. I can sometimes be artistic and creative with images. I can take a dang good photo (though not a professional one), but I am NOT a designer.

And yet, I started designing my own poetry book cover this week because I have zero budget to have it professionally done right now.

It's been… fun? Kind of. To be honest, it feels like a little too much pressure, but as a dedicated creative, I'm pushing through it.

When you have a lot of heart and passion, you can make anything happen with a lot of research. Here's what I'm learning.

Simplicity is best

Don't get me wrong: I love a beautiful cover. But something tells me those beautiful covers are designed by professional artists, graphic or otherwise. I won't strive to meet those standards, nor will I use AI programs to mimic them.

If you are designing your own book cover, keep it simple. Don't stress too much about making it the greatest cover in book world history. Don't attempt to take on a new form of art you have no experience with. You're a writer, and your words are your art. Keep the cover simple, clean, and attractive enough to intrigue your reader without putting them off.

Now, keeping it simple doesn't mean do a bad job. I found this video on avoiding common mistakes in cover design super helpful.

Text matters, unfortunately

Marketing gurus will tell you that the right pairing of text matters when it comes to drawing the attention of your audience. This also applies to book covers—your cover is like an ad for your book!

There are all sorts of cool fonts and colors to choose from, but don’t go too crazy with them. The truth is, bigger, brighter, or more artsy and decorative isn’t always better. Readers in different genres have certain expectations when it comes to book design, and most of them aren’t looking for flashy or overly stylized choices.

If you couldn't care less about fonts (like me), here is a guide to help you choose fonts based on what publishers are already doing.

Concepts and vision boards help

If you don't know exactly what you want, do a good old-fashioned vision board, collage, or scrapbook project. Cut out pictures from magazines, print images from the web, and take some snapshots yourself. Go to the craft store. Go to the bookstore! Start looking for anything that inspires you.

I did extensive research on Pinterest before I started designing. I also saved a lot of different premade book covers I liked on Canva and began rearranging them to see how they fit. My sister is a photographer, so we set up a shared photo folder and added different photos that matched the theme.

Eventually, I settled on a photo my sister shot (which feels awesome and personal) and edited it to resemble a feature on another cover I had seen. But it took a while to get there. Lots of patience.

Pin to read later!

Free templates exisit use them

Do not guess when it comes to your cover dimensions. I did this with my poetry formatting on the inside, and it was a whole lot of work to fix.

KDP has a print cover calculator that you can use to generate a template for your book cover design. This includes margins for bleed, barcode, and spine, so nothing gets cut off. All you have to do is save the template, upload it to a blank Canva file, and then add your design.

Watch YouTube and TikTok

I pretty much use YouTube and TikTok as resources for anything I don't know how to do. I need videos and visual examples to learn new skills, and there are so many tutorials out there from self-published authors who want to help other writers get their books out.

Ask your writing/book friends

I have a few writing friends in my group who have already self-published their books. Not only will they give you the scoop on where and how to upload, but they'll also share insider tips about what happened after the process that would have changed their approach—things like which publishers were tricky with covers and margins.

If you don't have a writing group, check out Facebook. I found my ride-or-die writing group on there back in 2019 (Moms Who Write), and we still chat every day about writing life and random things.

Be patient

Remember—your words matter the most. You are writing your book to share your words with the world. If you are both an artist and a writer, you have a huge advantage. But some of us are writers only, and that's okay.

There are more options for getting help with book covers than ever before. It just takes a little research and some practice. You got this! I got this… I think.

Updates soon. Until next time dreamers,

Disclaimer: This blog contains Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases to help fund my dream of being a published author and poet. I love and appreciate you so much!

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

I won't go on too long about this book. Maybe Iwill write a separate blog. But this book really did change my perspective on what I was doing with both my day job and my creative projects. I highly recommend this to any poet, writer, author, or creative in a funk, or to anyone who needs a bit of motivation (or permission) for their creativity.