Practical cover guides
Short, specific answers to the questions that come up between finishing a manuscript and uploading a cover.
How to Write a Book Cover Prompt
A repeatable prompt recipe: genre signal, one subject, one light direction, and the title zone you need.
Read the guide 6 min readFree vs Paid Book Cover Tools: What You Actually Get
Where a free preview stops being useful, what a paid export should fix, and when a human pass is worth $19.
Read the guide 7 min readTitle and Author Placement That Survives a Thumbnail
How to place the title, subtitle and author name so they read at 100 pixels and on a printed wrap.
Read the guide 9 min readAI Generated Book Cover: Rights, KDP Rules and Ownership
What KDP actually requires you to disclose about an AI-generated cover, how AI-generated and AI-assisted are defined, what you own, and the checks to run before you upload.
Read the guideA Cover for Your First Self-Published Book
Go from a manuscript and no designer to a cover direction you can test, size and upload without an agency retainer.
Use caseSeries Covers That Stay Consistent
Build a cover system for books two and three without redrawing the first design: free preview, KDP sizing, optional designer file from $19.
Use caseAn Ebook Launch Kit in One Afternoon
An ebook launch needs three images: a store cover, a 3D mockup and an ad test. Free preview, KDP-ready sizing and a designer file from $19.
NoteWhy Your Cover Fails the Thumbnail Test
Most cover problems are not art problems. They are readability problems that only appear when the image gets small.
NotePrint Cover vs Ebook Cover: Two Files, One Design
The same design usually needs two files. Knowing which parts change keeps the two versions looking like one book.
Naming the book first? The book title generator returns ten length-checked titles and carries your pick into the cover generator. Sizing the file instead of naming it? The book cover size reference has the measurements for every common trim.