If you are poor like me and don’t want to spend $200 a pop on a glossy book cover then it is possible to make one yourself. It will not be the best but it will be original and better than these B-movie standard templates that we see out there.  

As you are making the cover yourself you will be able to tie in the image with the book theme if possible. It will also be possible to add your own sub-heading with relevant keywords. It’s not that Google will pick up the keywords but the reader can gain a clearer understanding of your book. This will also help you classify it through Amazon’s genres.

Unless you are an expert graphic designer the easiest way to create an amazon e-book cover is to purchase a stock photo and then add the text to the image. Don’t forget the size of the image which for Amazon Kindle e-books is 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. The image can be added using GIMP which is a free graphics package available on the internet.

Once I had my image I had to add the title and the sub-heading. I just scrolled through the fonts available looking for a style I felt matched the mood of my book. I chose two different styles for the heading and sub-heading. If it is romantic then a romantic flourish will do. If a spy-thriller then a bold and striking font would look good.

 Once you have prepared your image using the correct image file size you can then export the file and change the file name along the way. When exporting the file there are many options for maximizing the image quality. Just choose the best and then click export and you have one original e-book cover for your Amazon e-book kindle.

Final Tip if you have an image that needs to be resized for Amazon then you can resize the image using the Image rescaler below and it will keep the image tight.