Book Brush for Authors

 

What can I say? This app is all about authors. Using it, we can create covers, trailers, ads, and more. It costs more than Canva, for example. But with the additional features, you might find it worth the price.

The program absolutely favors indie authors. Being able to create our own covers for our self-pubbed titles is priceless (or $99 a year, if we are being literal). For me, with my wonderful cover artist, who gives me deep discounts, that $100 amounts to two covers. Last year, I purchased four covers and have two more in the well, waiting. Yes, you need a certain amount of graphic design skills to create an eye-catching cover. But if you have it, why not go for it?

For non-indie authors, ads and trailers can assist with creating any brand. Using the same program to make all your graphic materials can create the consistency needed for a solid brand. (Of course, indie authors can do this too, I’m just saying.) Each image is customizable and can be saved as templates (beta) to use again with modifications. Plus, images from Book Brush are easily used on other things. They download as JPG, PNG, or PDF, and videos are MP4.

Let’s talk about what else Book Brush offers for authors.

Click on the Community Templates then Custom Templates to view a slew of other graphic products to create. When you first begin, you will be offered Facebook, BookBub, and Instagram graphics. If you click on the Platform menu in the middle, a huge list of other products appears. Book Brush can create your entire paper/digital graphic platform. Items include bookmarks, postcards, business cards, email signatures, zoom backgrounds, and more. It’s one-stop shopping with all the graphics you need and an easy program to piece together all your graphics. And like Canva, it’s easy to adapt/edit old graphics if you change your tag line or have a new book for your Twitter header.

The best part of Book Brush is the entire program is centered around books and authors’ needs. Other programs such as Canva, Gimp, and Photoshop are not designed with only authors in mind. If you are skilled at graphics, you might want to up your level to Photoshop. But if you are in the middle, as most of us are, Book Brush offers fantastic graphic solutions and ease of use.

 

Book Brush Pt 2

 

Last week, we flew through how to create ads and book covers on Book Brush. This week we will focus on book trailers. Video is all the rage in marketing. Readers enjoy getting a sneak peek of your book through a trailer. We’ve discussed TikTok and the impact the app has had on the industry. Book trailers are another wonderful way to promote your book, brand, sales, etc. And you can post them on TikTok and other social media.

Once logged into Book Brush, click Trailer Templates on the left menu or choose from the top menu, Tools, then Trailer Creator. This time I’ll use the templates to create a project. Both options allow you to filter the templates by genre. Creator has them listed across the top. The left menu Templates has a drop-down menu. Hover over each template to preview the image. The video will run with stock images and filler text to illustrate how the end product will look with movement, number of text boxes, and animation. Click on the template you wish to use. The next screen has easy and advanced controls. Let’s start easy.

At the bottom of the screen, trailer elements from the template are illustrated in a line with circles. The first usually is a music note. There are also letter Ts and images. A large pink/purple button will flash at the bottom of the screen to get started. Click it. The app automatically has you start with the first circle. Mine was music. A menu on the left opened with several tabs: My Music, Bright, Emotional, Romantic, Dark. Each tab (except My Music) will have a list of musical choices. You don’t have to change it you don’t want, but why not? Click the white play button to listen to various choices on the left menu. Press the green plus button to replace the current music. Press the red/pink play button on the bottom of the screen to view the video with your music choice. Hate it? Add a different one with the same green plus sign.

Click on the next circle. Mine’s a T. T stands for text. This opens a menu on the left with standard options for text. Erase the current text and type your message. Templates have multiple text boxes, so plan what each will say. Design the text with font, size, color, gradients, transparency, the same options we used on covers. Click More Options to edit the text background with color, transparency, shadow, and border.

If you have a Plus plan or higher, you can click on the image circles to change the background of the slides. Also, you can slide in 3D pictures of your cover if you created those earlier. To add them, click on the Book Cover image, and select from the left the saved version of your cover or drop and drag a cover you created elsewhere. These may count as part of your uploads.

Most templates include a picture of the book cover. Find the panel with the cover image on it and click on it. On the menu at the left, click swap covers to add your own cover. This will switch you back to the previous cover image upload menu. Select the cover to use and click on the cover image on the slide. The app will update the image. The menu also has options for changing size, transparency, blur, and filter options. Background options for the book include color, transparency, and border.

You can go back and forth through the video by choosing the element (circle) to view or press the back and previous buttons. At any time, press the red/pink play button to see your creation.

For advanced users, you can add more complicated video effects such as timing, zoom, animation. You can also add more media to your video with more images, slides, text, etc. Video production is a whole semester class, so I won’t (can’t) go over all of it in a couple of blog posts. But Book Brush will get you started with simple book trailers highlighting your book, your brand, you.

Book Brush has many features, but also a great customer service department. Live Chat is available for assistance. Also, on the left of the Home page are Webinars. The creators have many How-To recordings to assist you in using the program.

 

 

How to Use Book Brush

 

Since the app is a paid service, first choose your subscription level. Again, there is a free tier, but you cannot save projects. Essentially, it’s the free trial.

Once your account is created and logged in, you land on the homepage. Everything you need is right here.

Let’s start with book covers. 

• Click on the templates from the left, Cover Templates or on the upper right menu bar, choose Tools, then Covers Creator. I’m using Cover Creator to start from scratch. (The templates are still listed at the bottom even if you choose Cover Creator.) 
• Hit Create New. The Cover Creator screen has a warning regarding your subscription level, i.e., I can make but not save. 
• Choose your book type. I’ll continue with an e-book. 
• Next, choose which vendor to format for: Kindle, Kobo, Wattpad, and Kindle Vella. You can also create a custom cover by putting in your own dimensions for the cover.

Background:

• The left side of the screen has elements to add to your cover. 
• Click Background. 
• Choose from the library or upload your licensed photo. You can search their library. 
• Once the photo is added, click and drag the image back and forth to find the section of the image you want. This is great for repeating a slightly altered image for a series or for creating a print cover. 
• Once the image is up, a menu bar appears above with options to flip or change transparency. Click More Options to add a menu on the left with additional choices. Included are Size, Gradients, Color, Border, Blur, Overlays, and Filter. Essentially, you can alter the photo in many ways to create the perfect background image. (Animations are available, but only on paid plans.)

Text:

• Click on the Text option on the left menu. 
• Click Add a Text Box. Multiple boxes can be added. 
• Click on the text box to open a new menu on the left. 
• Inside the new text box, erase the current text and type your title, author name, or whatever is needed. (There is a spell check.) 
• Bold, italic, underline, all caps, and alignment are next. Under that, find font, size, color (you must press Okay on the color pop-up menu, old school but…). 
• Next, there are options for transparency, shadow, shadow color, line height, letter spacing, and you can make the text a button. 
• Last, there are options for text background color, transparency, shadow with color, rounded corners, and a border with color. Again, animation is only for paid subscribers. 
• To change the position or size of the box, click on the picture. Use the directional arrows on the edges to change the size. Click and drag to move the element. You can flip the words (arrow in the upper left of box), trash the text box (trash can upper right), or copy the box (plus sign bottom left).

Images:

• The images section has a series of community stamps to be added to the cover. Things like vendor images or bestseller stamps can be easily added to your cover. 
• Click and drag the image to the desired spot and adjust the size. 
• Next on the menu is a place to upload your own images depending on your subscription. 
• Last, you can search for images to add a small icon or pic to the cover. This last section seems better used for ads than covers. 
• Stamps and Images can be customized further if you click on the element and then More Options above it (gray menu). 
• Choose from the left menu to flip, make more transparent, blur, filter. 
• Next is background with color, transparency, shadow with color, and rounded corners. 
• Last is Background Remover. This is a premium option that lets you pull a person, animal, house, or whatever from their background and use the image. Credits are used for this option, and a More Info button is there to explain further.

And that’s just the cover people!

Under Custom Templates, there are a slew of choices for ads including Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub. Click on Platform to see all the options. You can also choose templates designed for genre, a certain descriptive (like a dog or coffee mug), and partners like Book Funnel. These templates are customized, much like the cover with a few more elements.

Book Template allows you to add a 3D cover of your book to the ad image. These are considered an upload if you used a pre-made cover from somewhere else. Options include print, digital, audio, and cover-reveal images. Background, Text, and Images are the same as under Cover Creator, except you can add video to your background.

Next week, we will look at trailers and videos for Book Brush.

Book Brush

 

Thanks for supporting my two months of social media posts. Everyone seemed to find something of interest. I had my best numbers so far. Thank you so much for supporting the blog. As mentioned before, I teach classes on EVERYTHING I post for the blog. Video conferencing is my main option currently. Once the Delta numbers calm, I can teach to groups in person. One-on-one sessions are also available. Email me at ginnyfrost214@gmail.com for more information.

Book Brush is a marketing app for creating book covers, social media posts, and ads. It’s specifically designed for authors.

Book Brush contains templates for advertisements on various social media and bookseller sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub. It has mockups for ads where you can insert your book cover and have an instant social media post. You can also create a book trailer through the app to include a video dimension. Book Brush can help you create book covers for individual titles and box sets. Covers can be for digital, print, and audio.

The app requires registration and has a tiered pricing list. Free accounts allow you access to unlimited pen names for one author, fifteen image downloads, the ability to save ten templates and ten backgrounds with ten uploaded images. I believe you cannot save a project, though. (So basically, it’s the free trial). The next tier is $8.25 a month ($99 a year) for additional 40 backgrounds, 40 uploads, unlimited downloads, and fifty saved projects. You can upload fonts and have access to the cover creator. For $12.25 a month ($146 a year), add the mockup and box set creator tools. Last, the highest tier has the trailer maker, platinum mockups, and the background remover. This last feature allows users to remove the background behind images. For example, you have a graphic with a woman on the beach in your photo and want just her. The remover will erase the beach background, leaving only the woman who can be used as a separate graphic.

When exploring their site and testing features for “free” users, most aspects have a quick “learn more” slide and a tutorial video. The program allows users to explore before buying into a subscription. There is also a blog with tips and tricks to make Book Brush work for you. It has ideas about creating content for TikTok, customizing templates, even marketing strategies. Customer service is also available and a priority on the paid plans.

Book Brush is a great product for ads, social media, and book covers for Indie authors who lack advanced graphic design skills.