A Humble Guide on Making Covers in Launchora

Hello there!

My name is Blaire and I’m here to offer a bit of a basic background as to how you may begin your own journey in making covers for your story in this wonderful site.

Disclaimer before we begin:

1. I am not a professional digital artist nor am I an expert cover-smith in Launchora. I just wish to teach the few things I have learned about making a cover for my stories and poems. (Seriously, if you want to see how amateurish my work is taking a peek at some of the covers I’ve made hahaha!)

2. This is not my way of saying you should stop using the beautiful covers the site gives us for free. I cannot stress this enough: the covers Launchora give us for free is amazing, beautiful, and they deserve to be a part of your stories. I’m only here to help curious authors who wish to impart their own personality, their own idea of aesthetic and create an identity for their stories.

3. I’m seriously BAD at communicating so if some of the points I raise in this guide seems a bit hard to understand feel free to comment below and tell me all about it. I’m not afraid of criticism and I very much welcome questions for some subjects I am not able to discuss here as well.

So what sort of learning outcome must you expect after reading this essay?

a. Learn the importance of image dimensions in making your own cover.

b. Appreciate the importance of having a personal cover tailored by the author for their own stories.

c. Create your own amazing cover with the help of this guide.

Part 1: “What is the is the size of a cover in Launchora?”

Let’s begin with the first mistakes some of the authors do when they upload their own unique covers here in Launchora: Image dimensions. Okay, here me out here, I am not talking about some otherworldly subplot you may use in your new Sci-Fi short story (though I’m interested in seeing that!) I’m talking about the size of your cover.

So what is an image dimension? It’s the width and the length of your image or file (width by length or YxZ wherein Y is the width and Z is the length). It usually looks something like this: 8x11 (wherein 8 is the width and 11 is the length of the image, this is the standard dimension for a short bond paper). The minimum image dimension or size for a story cover in Launchora is 850x340; it’s a common mistake I often see wherein an author would place a cover with an improper dimension thus making their cover incomplete or some portion of it is cut out of the frame which is, in my opinion, a lazy way of giving your story a face and an identity. I cannot stress out how important it is to make a compelling cover for your readers to see so messing up the dimension of it and making its identity incomplete for the beholder to see is honestly, a huge turn off for me.

You do not want a mishandling of your cover’s image dimension to brush people off from what could have been your magnum opus.

I usually make my cover in Photoshop so if you’re planning to use the same software as well simply put 850 as the width and 340 as the length in pixels. I usually use 1000 as my resolution so it appears huge in PC but there is no need to exhaust your computer with such high resolution if it can’t handle it.

Part 2: Give a few spaces on each side of your cover for the app.

Okay, now this is to address a certain issue I personally dislike about the Launchora app when it comes to our covers. I religiously use the Launchora app and I open it at least thrice a day to check The Bar. To demonstrate what I mean by this issue let me demonstrate what I mean through screenshots.

 

 

Notice in these photos how one of the covers had a part of it cut in the sides? Why is that? Well, let me show you the original images where these covers came from.

 

The first cover I have used for A Certain Immoral Doubt occupies all the spaces in the image. Meanwhile, the second cover has a noticeable space on its side particularly on the right side where the text is located. I did this in order to appease to an issue in the Launchora app wherein a significant portion of the cover's side is trimmed for some reason. Now, I love the app so much and most of the people who know me are aware of this, but this issue aggravates me a lot because I just can't seem to ignore having my cover butchered while looking at it in the app. This problem does not exist while using your browser in any devices. In order to fix this or at least make your cover presentable in the Launchora app, you need to allocate a few spaces of your cover devoid of any important details or favorite embellishment on its sides so users like me who often use the app will be able to see the important highlights of your cover. 

My biggest wish now is that the good people in Launchora would acknowledge this problem so I can use my original cover hehe! 

Part 3: Adapt your own style

Looking at the few covers I have made for my stories and poems so far you might probably see that I have a definite format of a theme I follow in all of my covers. Now, this is not a rule per se, but sort of a suggestion if you plan to make your own cover in Launchora. I believe that having your own style not only in writing but in your covers as well is a good way to distinguish yourself from other creators. It’s a way to show your own identity, your personality, and the numerous traits that make you stand out from the rest of us. For me this is important, especially for your readers; they might not be able to see you in real life but they can see the real you in your covers and I think that’s really beautiful.

In my case, my style in making a cover is using classical paintings or album covers of my favorite musicians as a base or core of what makes the appearance of the cover. Next, I would use overlays to make the image darker and edgier to give the usual atmosphere of the stories and poetries I write. Lastly, is the static and the Medusa Gothic Font; I always found a way to put a static effect in my entire covers to make it chaotic, confusing, blurry, and just downright weird while Medusa Gothic creates a balancing light and grace in the cover. And thus, it will result in a bizarre amalgamation of classical aesthetic and the unhinged chaos that is my writing hahaha!

As I said, this is not an absolute rule one must follow all throughout their escapades in making Launchora covers. This is an advice to you from me who is just like you, an aspiring author who wishes to show the world the beauty of literature. If you disagree with my opinion on having a centralized theme or style for your covers that’s totally fine by me, in fact, I would love to hear what you think about this because I seriously feel like I’m the only one who believes in singular theme all over your covers.

And that concludes my guide in making covers here in this amazing site! I hope I managed to help you a bit in making your cover. I am looking forward to seeing the masterpieces you’d make for your covers. Thank you so much for reading!

(… if you enjoyed this guide don’t forget to SMASH THAT RECOMMEND BUTTON WRYYYYY!)