How The Heck Do I...

...Make an Ebook Cover
using Cover Factory? - Part 1

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Step 1:

Create a new folder on C drive and name it Cover Factory. (Do that by clicking on 'C Drive', then choosing File/New/Folder, as shown at right.)

This will make it easy for you to find your various cover factory files.

Inside the "Cover Factory" folder, create two more folders. (You do this by FIRST highlighting the folder called Cover Factory, then choosing File/New/Folder. Name the first new folder pictures and the other one finished books.

Now, inside the pictures folder, put a copy of the picture or photo you want to use on the cover of your book.

Step 2:

Open Cover Factory.

Click on the blank page with "Create a new cover project" on it.

Step 3:

On the next screen, you get to choose the kind of cover you want.

The default is "Custom Size Book", but you can choose anything you like. (As you can see by the tabs, there are various sized books, boxes or CD covers - or even a business card!)

For this tutorial we'll stick with the Custom Size Book. Make sure this choice is highlighted, then click NEXT.

Step 4:

Now you get to choose the dimensions of your book.

The default sizes work pretty well - use these to begin with. (width 124, height 176, depth 50). Click NEXT.

Step 5:

Now it's time to choose the cover art for your book.

Click on Browse and find your way to the Pictures folder you have prepared inside the Cover Factory folder (See Step 1 above). (Of course, you can go to any folder on your computer to choose a photo or a piece of clipart.)

In the picture at right, you can see that when I let the cursor hover above the 'pictures' folder, it shows that there is a 'sunset' photo inside the folder.

That's the one we're going to use for our sample cover.

Step 6:

Highlight the name of the picture you want and click 'open'. The name of the picture will appear in the file name box. (You can also see the whole 'path' to the picture - in this clip, you can see that it is in c:\CoverFactory\Pictures

Click "next".

Step 7:

In the next step, "Fit Picture to Front', you can experiment to see which part of your image looks best as the cover. (It's very rare for the picture to fit perfectly as it is!)

For this tutorial, I've chosen to use the center part of the picture. You can click each option to see which one looks best for your cover.

Click 'OK'....

Step 8:

In the next step you choose the appearance of the spine of your book. You can use the same picture, if you wish, or you can just choose a colour. I'm going to choose a black spine. Click "NEXT"...

Step 9:

Now you can choose the colour and the thickness of your pages.

I've just left this at the default colour and depth.

Click "NEXT".

Step 10:

This step chooses the background colour for your e-book cover. Usually, your image will be going on a page with a WHITE background, so leave this at the default (which is white). Click "NEXT".

Step 11:

THIS IS IMPORTANT! When the next screen comes up, it will have a default image size of 200 pixels by 200 pixels. This is actually quite a good size for an e-book cover on a website, and we WILL change it back to that later.

For now, though, we are going to CHANGE this default size to 800 X 800 pixels.

Why are we going to do this? Because if we make the image large to begin with, then it will be fairly clear at the larger resolution. BUT... when we shrink it to 25% of this larger size (to a final size of 200 X 200 pixels) then the image will be nice and sharp! Doing it this way really does make a difference to the look of the final e-book cover... no jagged edges!

When your width and height boxes both say '800', click "NEXT".

If you're NOT SURE whether you want to (or need to) save your image at the larger size - CLICK HERE before you go any further. I've created different e-book covers so you can see the difference. (This page will open in a new window - you can close it and you'll be right back here.)

If you don't want to bother with reducing the size of your e-book cover - if you will only ever want to use it at this size, 200 X 200 pixels - then leave it at 200. You will still be able to create a nice looking cover.

Step 12:

Choose whether you want your e-book cover to appear to have a shadow or a reflection.

Play around with this if you like. Lots of people like their e-book to appear to be casting a shadow or a reflection, because it adds to the 3D-effect. For this tutorial, I am going to opt for a simple e-book cover without a shadow, so I will UNCHECK the box beside 'shadow'. (The image at right shows this box as it appears on the screen - already checked. You can leave it that way, or UNcheck it as I have done.)

Step 13:

The next screen is for SPECIAL EFFECTS - you can choose a bevelled edge, a colour effect, a border or a lens flare. I don't want any of this for a simple cover, so I am just going to click 'FINISH'. (Yes, we're nearly there!)

CLICK HERE to go to PART 2 of this Cover Factory Tutorial....
 

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