Songs for the Lord marked its first anniversary as an e-book last month. A whole year! Hard to believe, right? I celebrated by giving the book this new cover image.

Let’s face it. People do judge a book by its cover. The cost of hiring a professional book designer is money well spent. But what about ministry-minded (or just plain broke) writers like me who self-publish on a small budget (a zero budget, in my case)? We, too, want our book covers to look attractive and communicate information about the book’s style and contents. After all, a cover that fails to grab the attention of its target audience or makes a negative impression on them doesn’t help put the book into their hands.

Aside from my investment in a digital point-and-shoot camera (several years ago) and modest photo-editing software, this cover fit perfectly into the budget I mentioned. Want to know how I did it?

I’ve put together a 52-minute narrated slide show showing the process, from my digital photo to this finished cover. You can find it on my Resources page, under the heading of E-Book Formatting, Publishing, and Marketing. If you want to watch it now, just click here:

Designing a New E-Book Cover for Songs for the Lord
OR “How I Dunnit” by Linda Bonney Olin

When the slide show opens, click on the icon for Full Screen mode for a good look at the screenshot details.

One thing I love about publishing Kindle books is the ease of revising them. I’ve made several small improvements in the book’s content since the first version of Songs for the Lord went live on Amazon on February 14, 2012. Each modification took effect within hours after I uploaded the new book file. Now it sports a more polished cover, too.

Pop me a comment and let me know how you like it!