How to Rise From the Dead on Wattpad - A practical guide to getting noticed

Tip 5: Create a Good Cover - Technical Stuff

Size

Standard Wattpad book cover dimensions are 512x800 pixels. If you make yours smaller, it will look blurry when blown up, and if you use different dimensions, it could get cut off. If you are able to select DPI (dots per inch), choose 300 for better quality. It can always be compressed as needed. It's good to have a high quality original in case you ever need a larger version, or it needs to be printed.

Legality

Make sure you have rights to use the image. The following are acceptable:

- Find the image from a royalty-free source (I'll list resources below)

- Ask for permission from the artist (if unable to contact artist, at the very least give credit for the work somewhere prominent)

- Buy a stock image

- Create your own (like from your own artwork or photography)

Searching the web and grabbing whatever images you like is UNACCEPTABLE. This is stealing. Imagine you encountered a website where someone stole your story and passed it off as their own. That's how artists feel all the time when they find their artwork taken and used without their permission. Respect their efforts the way you want to be respected for yours.

Free Stock Images

The following are valid sources for royalty-free images that have already granted consent for personal or commercial use:

https://burst.shopify.com/

https://www.pexels.com/

https://unsplash.com/

https://pixabay.com/

https://www.freeimages.com/

Free Image Editors

Canva - This seems to be the online image editor of choice for many Wattpadders. They even have a Wattpad template with the correct dimensions to make things easier for you.

Pixlr - Recommended by one of my followers.

GIMP - Free, feature-rich software available for multiple platforms.

Adobe Spark - An online book cover maker by Adobe. Seems legit, but no one I know has used it, so I can't say that anyone recommends this. Just mentioning it as an option to check out.

Paint.NET - Image editing software using layers, effects, and other tools. Recommended by one of my followers.

What do you use to make your book covers? Share here!

Cover Artists

rreaire was kind enough to share this tip:

There are many "cover shop" books you can search for on Wattpad itself where the artist will make you a beautiful cover for usually only a follow and credit in your blurb. To find one, use Wattpad's search bar. Usually artists put their names in the titles (eg: Emma Covers, Jane's Cover Shop), so the best search term would be "cover". "Book cover" and "cover shop" work too.

If you have the money to spare, many freelance cover artists are more than ready to help you (I remember JimenaVivancoo being pretty nifty for covers.)

Want gifs or banners? Search for "graphics". "Graphics shop" works too, but may filter out titles which don't contain the word "shop".

Part of the BTS fandom? Search "bts covers" or really "[your fandom] cover/graphics".

You can also find cover contests where new cover artists compete.

Thank you, rreaire for this advice! If any of you readers are cover artists, feel free to drop a comment here with a link to your cover work.