Creating A Beautiful Book Cover & Key Elements of the Interior Layout
Description: Summit host Alexa Bigwarfe facilitates a conversation with three book cover designers on the key elements of interior layout.
Format: Panel Discussion
Level: This presentation is for the beginning author.


Michelle Fairbanks
Designer
Designer, colour + typography lover and mama of two, Michelle is fuelled by coffee and blessed to live on the West Coast of Canada. Raised on Vancouver Island, it is easy to be inspired by the beauty of the ocean and forest that surround her. With almost 20 years of design experience, she keeps her artwork fresh … simple, clean and beautiful. She prides herself on being easy to work with, and for her clients to enjoy the process! She has designed over 200+ book covers, but feels most connected to women authors sharing their stories both fiction + non-fiction.

Tamara Dever
Founder, TLC Book Design
Tamara Dever is the founder of TLC Book Design (formerly TLC Graphics) and has been dedicated to creating quality books for over 25 years. The recipient of over 200 awards, TLC provides design, editorial, and printing for authors and publishers worldwide. They are known for their outstanding work as well as being fun and encouraging team players. Tamara regularly teaches at conferences, both in person and online. She lives in Austin, TX with her awesome family, is a lifelong Packers fan, and is often found jamming to ’80s tunes. You’ll find their acclaimed guidebook for authors, My Publishing Journey, a complete portfolio, and other publishing resources at TLCBookDesign.com.

Michelle Argyle
Designer
Michelle Argyle has been designing for over 19 years and has created countless covers and design materials. Michelle originally created Melissa Williams Design for a small publisher back in 2010. Since then, she has branched out to many other clients. MW Design is owned by MDA Books, which is the business name Ms. Argyle uses to publish her fiction on the side. As for design, Michelle gets crazy excited about supposedly mundane things like white space and fonts, and finds no greater joy than transforming someone’s idea into a piece of art. Details are everything. Michelle lives in the Rocky Mountains, where she finds every excuse possible to go hiking and be outdoors.
There is ONE way to still access the full 2020 experience... you can get your Full Conference Pass upgrade now!
The Full Conference Pass/ Community Access is lifetime access to all of the presentations, in video and audio form. Additionally, you get access to a private support community where we are helping each other through our writing, publishing, and selling journeys. And bonus materials! Thousands of dollars of gifts, products, discounts, training, and more have been provided by our speakers and sponsors. You can learn more about the Full Conference Pass here or you can go ahead and grab it now!
how can i find the correct panel video for this? it brings up the publishing panel from yesterday instead of the design one.
Sorry about that! Grabbed the wrong embed code! It is fixed now with the proper presentation. Thanks for alerting us!
link on panel doesn’t agree with descritption
We fixed it!
Really enjoyed this panel. When I published my first book through CreateSpace, I didn’t have the money for a professional cover. I didn’t realize how important a cover was (or professionally editing.) The cover I made with the “create your cover” program through CreateSpace still haunts me. I’ve since had a professional cover made, but the old one lingers.
Oh that’s so sad. There are so many great cover designers too, you just have to know where to find them. And unfortunately, we would all assume CreateSpace would offer good designers… good support, good quality control… etc. my first cover had to be redone too. #learninglessons
Hey BB Morgan! Sad to hear you have something that haunts you like that. I do too, actually. Glad to hear you’re in a better place with a pro cover now! Live and learn, right? We all do. 🙂
Great panel! I’ve seen so many indies, even established indies, who clearly understand cover design and yet completely fall down on the interior design, especially for print editions. For them, it’s an after thought and just something to do to make the ebook price look more attractive, and it saddens me because it’s really disrespectful to the readers.
I do my own interiors because I just can’t afford to pay for the service, but I studied up on good interior design as much as I could and spend hours carefully designing and correcting from the proofs to ensure my readers get an experience comparable to reading a trad bub book.
Sherelle, good for learning the skill on your own! It’s certainly a valuable skill that will save you money in the long run. I feel like I’m on a constant mission to educate the world about the importance of good interior design. Sigh.