Would self publishing a poetry collection or short story collection work for new authors?

I've been using Canva lately for my promotional graphic art needs - it's amazing and so easy to use IMO. Some of their graphics are free, but you can buy a license for everything else - $1 for one time use, $10 for multi-use and $100 for multi-use plus extended printing, resale and seats rights. https://about.canva.com/license-agreements/

 

I'm not sure how createspace works but this is an example of what kind of cover I can create using Pixlr. I want to know if it could be used and uploaded to createspace. There's nothing low quality or shabby about it unless it needs to be formatted in a certain size or something.

 

I am getting a self-published vibe from it.

I feel that there are typography issues. The lines of the title are quite far from each other, and I'm not sure about the font--I'm not sure if the serifed font works with the large amount of pattern and detail in the image. The white "Se" of "Sentimental" is also somewhat getting lost in front of the light-colored part of the pattern.

There's also a great deal of white space at the top (I realize that it's filled with pattern, but I still react to it as white space) while the left and right sides are a bit crowded.

 

Outlining the font would help with that, but I'm not sure you can do that in Pixlr. I know you can't in Canva, and it's definitely a weakness of the program.

 

As usual, I don't have the vocabulary or even the analytical abilities to explain, but I agree, it looks self-published.

I think it's almost always the font/typesetting that I'm noticing when I notice self-published book covers. But I have no idea how to fix that.

 

This was just an example. There are many different fonts I can use and many different background colors. I think it could look pretty good for being free. The problem I was worried about would be if I have to resize it or make it a certain file type in order to be publishable. How does createspace work on that part?

 

You'll need a PDF of a certain size to work with Createspace. There's some guidelines here on how to work out how big it'll need to be (and where to leave space for the ISBN etc).

 

I'm sorry but since I've never used any sort of software or publishing space, can you explain what kerning means? I though it gets formatted exactly how it is in the docx file?

 

Yeah, text is one of the big giveaways for self-published books. Aside from the layout, most of the fonts we're used to seeing on book covers are payware, and there are few good free fonts that can give a similar look.

And remember that, if you do download a free font, you should check it's free for commercial use in that way.

 

Is indesign a publishing platform? Or just a place to create covers? And is it free?

 

It's software from Adobe. http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.html I'm not sure how expensive it is (I'm guessing maybe $150-200), but it's definitely not free.

 

Why can't I create one using Pixlr and then just upload it to the publishing platform?

 

You can. It's just not going to look like it was done by someone with experience in design and/or produced with tools that professional graphic artists use. In short, it's not going to look like something a publisher would commission.

Like I said, I've been using Canva for some promo materials, and it gets the job done. I don't think anyone's going to think that a professional graphic artist made them though!

 

I have anothe question; people talk about a difference in paper quality? Do we get to choose what paper to use or does it have its own default paper (white)? Because we all know the beige paper is what real books are made of.

 

That's not quite true - you don't get a choice of paper weight, but you can choose between white or cream stock. I was happy with the paper used on mine, it didn't feel flimsy.

@Alex R. Encomienda - they've got a fairly sizeable set of help docs, you'll find most of your answers there.

 

I can't answer whether it'll work or not, since there are many definitions there but I really enjoy books that contains short stories and poetry! However, I do not know so many other people who do so I cannot say if it's a big market but I hope it is!