Creating Your Audiobook Cover

They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but realistically, a well-designed audiobook cover can be an amazing promotional tool. You can entice potential listeners to buy your audiobook with a great cover that helps your work stand out. But as a self-published or indie author with limited resources, it can be daunting thinking about how to design your own book cover. Where do you even start? What tools do you use, what elements do you include, and how do you make it look good? If you want to learn how to create a book cover that will help you sell more audiobooks, we’re here to help with some practical tips, design tools, and audiobook cover requirements that you need to know.

   

Audiobook Cover Design Requirements

The basics of creating effective audiobook cover designs are the same as creating impactful physical book covers. The same general guidelines apply: make sure the design is well-balanced, the imagery and color palette are reflective of the book’s theme, and the typography is clear and easy to read. But when it comes to how to create a book cover specifically for an audiobook, there are some unique specifications that make modifying your original book cover to fit audiobook cover requirements a necessity. 

   

Technical Audiobook Cover Requirements

To ensure your audiobook cover is accepted by all of our distribution partners, the below requirements must be met:

• Dimensions: Your cover must be a true square; recommended dimensions are 2400 pixels x 2400 pixels.
• File Size: Your cover design file size must be less than 5 MB.
• Format: Your file must be in JPG format.
• File Name: Your audiobook cover file name must be alphanumeric. Keep it simple: do not use spaces or special characters (e.g., AudiobookTitle.jpg).
• Resolution: Minimum of 72 PPI (pixels per inch)
• Color: Minimum of 24-bit true color, RGB format.
• Contents: The author name and title of the audiobook are the bare minimum. If you include a subtitle and the narrator’s name on the cover, they must match what is announced in the opening and closing credits track of your audiobook exactly.

   

Tips for Creating an Audiobook Cover Design From an Existing Book Cover

So, how do you go about turning your existing book cover into a captivating audiobook cover? Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as cropping your original book cover art or stretching it to fit the audiobook cover square design. There are a few key elements to consider when designing self-published book covers for audiobooks:

• Graphics Placement & Size: When adjusting your book cover from a rectangle to a square, you may need to shift the placement of the main image so that it fits and is appropriately scaled and centered.
• Proportions & Perspective: The proportions of objects featured on your original cover may need to be adjusted to fit the square dimensions of your audiobook cover. You want to achieve the right scale and perspective based on the composition of the audiobook cover.
• Names & Titles: Audiobook covers should include the author's name and the title of the audiobook. You may also include a subtitle and the narrator's name. If the audiobook is narrated by the author, that can also be mentioned (e.g. 'Read by the author'). All details on your cover art must be a 100% match to the information announced in the opening and closing credits track of your audiobook.
• Imagery: The cover image should be scaled to fit the full height and width of the square audiobook cover, with any vertical side borders from the physical book cover removed. Keep in mind that some distribution platforms may feature your audiobook cover with a triangle in the lower right corner, so it’s best to avoid putting any important information in that section. 

How to Create an Audiobook Cover: Step-By-Step Guide

Step 1: Determine Your Timeline: 
It’s best to start working on your audiobook cover design as soon as possible, or at least four months before your publication date. Having a completed cover will help you with your audiobook marketing strategy. You can use it in promotions to generate buzz, on pre-sale pages to start taking orders, and more. 

   

Step 2: Decide Your Plan:
Whether you go the DIY route or hire a professional book cover designer, you will need to figure out what tools or resources you will need to create your audiobook cover. For authors wanting advice on how to design your own book cover, there are many self-published book cover design tools available, such as this book cover creator tool from Canva, and this one from Adobe. Free graphic design and photo editing tools such as GIMP, Inkscape, and DrawPlus Starter Edition are additional resources that can help indie authors learn how to create a book cover. 

If outsourcing to professional graphic designers is more your speed, there are several cost-effective services such as 99designs, Fiverr, and Upwork that can help connect you with the type of artist you’re looking for. Additionally, there are specific book-oriented services such as GetCovers.com and Reedsy.com that create book cover designs for authors.

   

Step 3: Draft Your Requirements
Now comes the fun part – deciding how you want your audiobook cover to look! The visuals, everything from the background to the colors to the fonts need to be determined ahead of time to ensure a cohesive story for your cover design. Elements to consider include:

• Color: Choose a palette that suits the mood of your book. You can also look at competitors in your genre and try to stand out by using a different color palette. Free tools such as www.coolors.co can provide additional inspiration when determining your audiobook cover design’s color scheme. 
• Fonts: Be sure the typography on your audiobook cover is clear and easy to read. Most platforms display audiobook covers as small images, so you want your fonts to be big and bold. If using multiple fonts, be sure that they complement each other.
• Imagery: How do you want to depict your story visually? Through illustration, photography, or just a simple background? A graphic designer or professional artist can assist with creating a custom illustration for your cover design, or if you’d like to use a photo, you can explore stock photography or hire a professional to shoot some imagery for you.

   

Step 4: Design Your Audiobook Cover 
You’ve gathered a ton of self-published book cover knowledge and resources, and now you’re ready to design your audiobook cover. The final step is to arm yourself with some market research to keep in the back of your mind while creating your cover. Take a look at the current audiobook best sellers. What do their covers look like? What are the current trends in audiobook publishing? Because, at the end of the day, your audiobook has to be marketable as well as visually appealing. 

    

Ready to get started? We can help. Check out our audiobook creation resources for authors!