Ideas for my first book cover

Well, I don't know about any other authors, but I hadn't given my book cover a second thought until I'd actually written the words The end.

Then it was as if the rug had been pulled out from under me. Every writing group that I was a member of in Facebook seemed to have posts about the urgency of getting covers done.

In addition to the urgency, there was talk about the quality of covers and needing to spend a certain amount of money to guarantee that it would attract readers.

I was in a quandary. I had very very limited finances.

My first thoughts were 'I'll design a cover myself to get some ideas, and then get someone who looks similar to my main character to pose for me.

Here is my crude attempt:

As luck would have it, I actually managed to get an old school friend's cousin to agree to pose for me.

No I didn't have to twist her arm up her back!

Unfortunately, due to circumstances she wasn't able to oblige me in the end, so that meant plan B. Make a cover myself.

I only had Word 2013, so I set about finding YouTube videos that would show me step by step how to make my own cover on Word.

Luckily, I stumbled across Derek Murphy, and after a day or two and lots of tweaking, I finally made my own cover.

AMAZON LINK TO BOOK

Needless to say I am very proud of the achievement, and it has saved me a few hundred pounds.

So, if anyone else is in the same financial situation as me...or they just fancy having a dabble for the sheer hell of it - watch a Youtube video.