I was recently trying to create a BookBub ad and I was frustrated that the design application I was using wouldn't let me scale the image to the precise size that BookBub requires. I mean, it would, if I wanted to upgrade from the free account to the paid version. But I only wanted to make one ad. I didn't want to make an ad that specific size every day for the rest of the year. Just the one was fine. Plus, how many books would I have to sell to now pay for the upgraded software AND the ad I was trying to run...just to break even, I mean. Not even to turn a profit. And people wonder why authors aren't rolling around in piles of cash. Sometimes it feels like you earn a quarter back for every hundred dollars you spend...and that's if you're lucky. (But that's a blog post for another time, for someone else to write.)
So then I was even more frustrated. I tried to scale the image to the correct size myself, with no luck. (Do you get the feeling that I'm a writer, not a graphic designer?)
Then I remembered Visme. I figured I'd try and see if I could use that to correctly size the ad I wanted. As I browsed through the design templates, I was excited to see that they had a template for the exact size I needed! HOORAY! My angst was relieved and I was able to quickly and easily complete my design, which you can see above. Now, I can admit that I used too much text for a BookBub ad, but I'm still pleased with the look of the ad. It was so easy to create that I started to play around.
Here's what happened:
Yes, I can also admit that this is painful to see from an ad creative standpoint. However, I felt like the model here was the closest I'd seen to how I envisioned the hero of Blue Skies, so I just made this for myself, wishing I had better skills to pull it off as a nice ad. But alas, that was the extent of my skills, but still. I downloaded it for myself, because it's almost Seth gazing at the floating cover of the book I put him in.
Anyway, if you want to see what else is out there for you to create author graphics, it's worth checking out Visme.co I'm still working my way through their offerings, but so far, everything has been easy for an amateur like me to use. At the very least, I found a stock image that resembles my character, and that's always a fun discovery. Have you tried Visme, or other easy design software? What did you think?