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what's up guys Ryan here so I'm gonna
show you how to create KDP covers using
canva now if you've never heard of canva
it's a web browser-based graphic editing
software it's basically an alternative
to applications like Photoshop or [ __ ]
now what's cool about it is again it's
web browser-based so you can use it from
any device that has access to a web
browser which pretty much all devices
have to
it's cheaper than Photoshop it's cheaper
than most of its competition especially
if you grab the annual plan 3 oh yeah
let me go back real quick you don't
actually have to pay for what I'm about
to show you so this so I've always had
the paid plan I have canva Pro and there
are reasons to have canva Pro I'm gonna
put more content out about this in the
near future with pro you have the
potential to well for one export as PNG
which is my preferred method because
typically if I talked about this in my
channel before but if I create a design
I don't just want to upload it to KDP I
want to upload it to all of the
different ecommerce platforms that I
talked about because more products for
sale on more marketplaces equals I'm
making more money right so obviously I
need to start with PNG then I've talked
about in the past in some of the
previous KDP videos how to convert those
p.m. G's to KDP covers very smooth
seamless streamlined process low effort
high return
so PNG is my preferred method but they
will not let you export as at as PNG s
without paying but again we're just
talking about in this video we're gonna
scope it to KDP covers you can export
KDP covers as pdfs
for free using what I'm about to show
you but also I mean squid and check out
canva if you haven't I got a link right
there in the description if you're gonna
sign up for pro again stay tuned because
I'm going to show you some automation
tricks in the near future to automate
the design process because it's a design
tool this is separate from the upload
automation that I've showed you in the
past so first things first before we hop
on over to canva and by the way I'm in
incognito because I wanted to use I
didn't want to use my regular canva
account where it's pro because I wanted
to show you this can truly be done using
a free account but first thing we need
to do is we need to hop over to the book
ow book oh I don't know how to pronounce
book o w and I'll put a link in the
description this resource that I've
shown you in the past that helps us
calculate the cover size for our KDP
files because remember guys the book
covers are we're selling real paperback
books here so the size of the cover is
variable based on the number of pages
contained because obviously if you have
a thousand page book the spine of the
book the z-axis you know the the height
of the book when it's on its side is
gonna change it's gonna increase as
opposed to if you have a hundred page
book right one hundred page book versus
a thousand-page book different
dimensions for that spine and that's
gonna make this variable so rather than
us doing the math just use this
calculator it's free it's easy so if
we're doing a six by nine 120 page book
just input that click calculate cover
size and you'll see right here it says
our dimensions are gonna be three
thousand five hundred sorry three
thousand seven hundred fifty seven
pixels wide by two thousand seven
hundred seventy-five pixels tall so I'm
gonna come over here to canva I'm gonna
click create design then I'm gonna click
custom dimensions I'm going to paste the
width three thousand seven five seven
and again guys only use these dimensions
that I'm using in this video if you want
to create a book that's six by nine trim
size with 120 pages if you if this stuff
doesn't add up you're gonna have
problems and you're gonna be like what's
wrong I followed the video no it needs
to be again six nine 120 if you want to
use these dimensions alright to seven
seven five is the height and put that in
the height and I'm gonna click create
design alright so here we go first thing
I like to do is I like to switch the
background to a darker color next this
is kind of important this is not a
requirement it's not an absolute
requirement but it's highly recommended
you want to use the book ow cover
template generator and you can see a
kind of blurry image of what it's going
to generate for us when we use it but it
generates so look at the red border
there that red borders indicating where
we cannot design our covers if you bleed
any any graphic or text into that space
katie pees like pretty sure it's
automated but when they review every
book that you submit it'll detect that
something's in that space where it's not
supposed to be and
your submission so you definitely want
to avoid putting any content there the
easiest way that I know to do that is to
again just go down here to this free
resource it's the same thing six nine
one twenty the only difference is you
have to put an email address in and
they'll email you the file with the
design rule so I already have this set
up and I've already uploaded it to my
demo canva account so I'm just gonna
drag and drop just keep in mind though
guys this is OP this is dynamic so
you're you know these these design rules
that I'm showing you right here it's
optimized for my trim size in page count
I just keep saying that because I do get
people like people in my KDP course
hitting me up with these these problems
questions related to this concept it's
because like when you see it the first
time it makes sense that it's a little
bit confusing so I get I got it but
alright so next now you just got to use
canva to create a design and honestly
KDP is like early day Amazon merge
status where you can get away with like
I mean it's not that early on people
have been knowing about KDP for a while
but I swear to you
text-based designs still sell very well
like without without a question you
don't need to be getting crazy with cool
graphics well there's nothing wrong with
that but if you're just starting like
you want to focus on getting your first
hundred books up ASAP without spending
five hours on like two designs that look
really cool in my personal opinion
because obviously with Amazon there's
lots of people selling lots of things
saturation it should not deter you from
selling but saturation is a real thing
so if you have the best design in the
world and it's on page three guess what
happens you know nobody's gonna see it
if nobody sees it nobody buys it so I
kind of like the quantity approach at
least initially get your base up get
your base so that you start seeing sales
come in when you start seeing sales come
in it kind of reaffirms in your mind
that this is actually worthwhile and
then you can go and get get crazy with
cool designs later that's my personal
opinion anyways so I'm gonna go to the
text tool first if you're new to C in
canva one of the cool things they do is
like they pair together this is just the
text tool we're looking at right now
they do cool stuff you know they do a
lot of other cool stuff but they pair
text together that looks really great as
combinations of like headings and
subheadings for instance so I'm gonna go
ahead and just choose one kind of at
random I'm gonna go ahead and drop this
one here and you know if you're using if
you're used to like Photoshop or
illustrator you're obviously gonna
notice really quickly that this is not
it doesn't have the same robust feature
set but if you are not a intermediate to
professional or expert graphic designer
then this will get you exactly where you
need to go and again with the automation
potential which again I'll talk about in
a couple weeks maybe think I'm still
figuring out how I'm gonna present it
but with the automation potential it's
really good it's really really good it's
got me loving canva so anyways I'm gonna
create just a random design world's best
typo there world's best nurse alright
now watch what I'm about to do you can
go over here to the elements tab on the
left hand side and they have a bunch of
cool graphics all right you can see here
they have like a heart with a pulse I'm
not gonna lie I had this pre-planned I
knew it would look good
so world's best nurse look at that how
hard was that to do right that took
maybe like one minute to come up with
this design we had the text heading plus
subheading pairing already decided for
us and the graphic is free to use we
have the rights to use it and we got a
great looking design in one minute
that's all it takes guys so then I guess
the last the last thing we have to do is
download the design and first and
foremost we don't want to download the
design with this rule on it right this
red border so we're gonna click that hit
delete simple as that it's all we got to
do next top right corner hit publish
click download change from PNG to PDF
standard and click download alright and
then if you don't have a canva pro
you're gonna get a pop-up each time you
download trying to convince you to do
something beneficial for them they don't
want to give their tool away for free
honestly they want to make some money
but hey for our purposes this worked you
can see right here that our world's best
nurse cover is ready to be uploaded to
KDP if you check out the KDP video that
i dropped most recently in this series i
show you how you can go grab is
many as like a hundred I think free KDP
book interiors so now you've got the
free cover creator the free interiors
what what excuse could you possibly have
not to be selling on KDP get to it close
this video actually no wait till the end
I think it helps the YouTube algorithm
if you actually wait till the end so let
the video play out do me a favor there
hit the like button drop me a comment
saying thank you and then go get to
uploading cuz really like it's I'm
recording this on December 7th so if you
go upload your first couple books right
now the likelihood of you getting a sale
is multiples higher because so many
people are buying stuff as gifts for the
holidays so now is the best time to get
started I hope this video finds you when
you have time to jump into it and you
take advantage guys so thank you for
watching hit that like button hit the
subscribe button let me know if this
helped and I'll see you the next one
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you
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