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The Ebook design service for content marketers

Design Cloud is a graphic design subscription service. We provide high-quality ebook designs for businesses of all shapes and sizes globally.

For a simple flat-rate monthly fee, you can work with a dedicated designer from our team every business day. All of our subscription plans include unlimited requests and revisions, so you'll never need to worry about surprise bills for your Ebook designs that take longer than expected.

If you need help with Ebook design, book a demo today and we'll show you how easy it is to get started.

Getting started with professional ebook design is easy

We've made working with an experienced graphic designer a simple, slick process.

If you need help with ongoing graphic design work, we can set you up with a designer from our in-house team in just 1 business day.

Book a demo

Everything starts by watching or booking a demo to learn how our service works.

Choose your plan

Our plans are tiered based on the complexity of work that you need to access. Pick a plan and sign up online.

Submit a request

Once signed up, you can access our platform right away and start sending requests to your design team

Start creating

Once you've submitted your first request, we'll set you up with your designer and you're ready to start working together.

We design all sorts of other things too

Our design scope is broad and there's not much we can't help you out with. Here are some of the most common requests that we get from our customers.

What is the ebook design service?

Ebooks are now just as popular as traditional books, and attract just as many readers. One of the most important features of ebooks is the appearance – we all still judge a book by its cover, after all! From an impressive online book cover to an effective layout throughout, the design elements matter. After all, it’s the appearance that creates the first impression, draws someone in, and makes them read on. If it doesn’t capture their attention instantly, it’s a missed opportunity.

Whatever type of ebook you’re looking to create, they all provide excellent opportunities to promote your business, product or service. Recently, for many businesses, ebooks have become a popular digital product to use as a marketing and sales tool. Many people use ebooks as a collection of their articles and blog posts to show their expertise, while others offer them via a link on their websites, as exclusive guides to create more interest in and awareness of their brand. Whatever idea you have or whatever topics you’re looking to cover in your content, Design Cloud can assist you in your ebook creation.

What is an ebook and how does it work?

Many aspects of our lives have gone electronic – think the likes of shopping, banking and even career training. Therefore, it shouldn’t be too surprising that many ambitious, growth-minded businesses have decided to produce books in electronic, rather than traditional printed, form.

One simple reason why is how conveniently these “ebooks” – the common shorthand term for electronic books – can be accessed and read. The convenience of ebooks starts from when they are originally purchased, as they can be bought and downloaded with just one tap or click on a screen.

However, what exactly makes an ebook… well, an ebook? The Cambridge Dictionary describes an ebook as “an electronic book which can be read on a small personal computer”. However, much like how print books can’t be edited and republished without the author’s permission, ebooks are not editable.

Where ebooks do differ from their print counterparts, however, is in interactivity. With interactive ebooks, it is possible for readers to tap or click on anchor texts in the copy to bring up more information about the book. For this reason, ebooks can often be valuable educational resources.

The interactive elements of ebooks include search functions that allow users to efficiently look for specific keywords within the text. Those words – and any others that the text comprises – can be customised too, meaning that even people with vision disabilities have easy access to the text, as the electronic nature of these books means the fonts used for them can easily be resized for the reader’s comfort.

Once you have sourced an ebook, there are two different ways in which you could store it. The most common method is on an “e-reader”, which the Cambridge Dictionary defines as “a small electronic device with a screen that allows you to read books in an electronic form”.

Option-wise, there are standalone handheld devices available that are dedicated to hosting ebooks. Amazon’s Kindle is arguably the best-known example of such a device, but competitors introduced to the e-reader field have included the Rakuten Kobo and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Your Kindle or similar device can store thousands of books. Alternatively, you can save those ebooks to your own cloud-based library, allowing you to fetch them on various other devices – like PCs, smartphones and tablets – too. This only adds to the flexibility of using ebooks. They spare you having to lug around big, heavy print books everywhere you go just so that you always have some reading matter at hand – and also you can start reading an ebook on one device and then read more of that ebook on another.

For example, you could start reading a particular ebook on your laptop at home and later, while sat in the waiting room at a medical practice or dental surgery, fish out your smartphone from your pocket and continue reading your ebook from there. Nonetheless, the e-book reading experience is arguably optimal when a dedicated e-reader, like a Kindle or Nook, is used. This is because many e-readers come with features specially chosen to account for ebook enthusiasts’ exact needs.

Some e-readers include built-in lighting to let users continue reading even in dark conditions. You might also find some e-readers advertised as water-resistant – and e-reader screens are carefully designed to avoid producing unsightly glare like smartphone or laptop displays often can.

What format will I receive my ebook in?

We know that there are a range of ebook formats and people will have different preferences, so we have various options available. We’ll send ebooks to you in a popular ebook format that’s easy to export as a document, to ensure you have no difficulties in uploading or publishing your book. You can choose from a range of digital formats that are compatible with your ebook application and different platforms and publishers such as Kindle, EPUB, MOBI, and PDF ebook.

How do you source images for my ebook?

Sourcing images and having the licenses to do so can take time (and a lot of patience). Our team have access to stock images to include in your ebook content, so you don’t have to worry about finding high-quality images yourself. We specialise in graphics so we don’t offer illustrations as a part of the service. However, you’ll have the opportunity to send over any images or photos that are specific to your ebook so we can include them for you.

How long does it take to get a completed ebook back?

For straightforward requests like an ebook cover, our team aim to have the finished product to you within 24 hours of receiving your brief. Full ebooks can often be a little more complex and time-consuming though, especially if you have a series of requests, so please allow more time for us to complete the project. We’re big fans of communication and transparency here at Design Cloud, so we’ll always keep you in the loop about how long your request will take. You can contact your designer at any time through our online portal, to learn more about their progress with your request and how long it’ll take to complete.

Why choose Design Cloud for your Ebook design?

There are several ebook templates, book cover makers, and ebook creator softwares out there that can help with designing an ebook. These types of resources might seem like an easy option, but in reality they often simplify the process and can leave out the unique elements that go into creating a visual, highly engaging ebook. Design Cloud offers an alternative option to these generic tools that are still incredibly simple and offer you an unrivalled experience. Using our expert knowledge, we’ll help you to create an ebook that truly embodies your brand identity.

From you, all we’ll need is an idea of how your brand should visually look. From there, we’ll select the best features – such as colours, fonts, structure and style – for your ebook. We’ll put our knowledge into action, using best practices and impressive graphic elements to create eye-catching ebooks. If you need any inspiration, check out our portfolio for examples of previous projects where we’ve helped with visual content marketing.

How do I design an ebook?

It can be challenging enough to consider the title, sections and the needs of your readers, amongst other factors, when creating ebooks. However, creating an ebook doesn’t have to be hard work – we can take care of the design element for you. Simply submit your request through our online portal, or by email if you’d like, and we’ll take a look at your requirements. If any more information is needed, one of our expert ebook creators will be in touch with you to find out more. Once we have the information we need, we’ll create a professional ebook that your readers won’t want to stop reading. Once we’re done, you can submit another request if you’d like any changes to be made, and we can draft another version using your proposed edits.

This service is available in our flat rate graphic design subscription plans, starting from just £549 a month. All advertised prices are a fixed flat fee for unlimited graphic design – what you see is what you get with us, so there’ll be no nasty, surprise costs. Creating effective graphics from scratch is difficult, especially if you have little experience. Our approach to graphics makes us an ideal solution. We aren’t a traditional design agency but we are more affordable than an in-house team, and still provide all the perks of having one.

Why might your business want to create an ebook?

When you think of ebooks, you might initially picture novelists and short-story writers self-publishing their work digitally – and, indeed, this would be an obvious purpose for ebooks. However, many businesses can benefit immensely from going down the ebook route. This is because, whatever your company’s reasons for looking to publish an ebook, a well-designed one can enhance the perceived value of your ebook and, by extension, the company behind it. As a result, your ebook could help you to sell other products before anyone even buys or opens the book.

Given how good ebook design can act as a marketing weapon in itself, it could help you to save time and money on marketing campaigns not even directly related to the ebook. If people genuinely enjoy reading your ebook as well, this could incentivise them to stay loyal to your brand.

Why place your faith in our ebook design services?

As ebooks are also inexpensive to make and publish, they represent a low-risk marketing strategy. This is especially the case when you consider that we offer unlimited graphic design for a monthly fee, allowing you to request multiple edits without running up higher costs. The flat-rate graphic design work we offer for you, the ebook creator, includes carefully crafting an ebook design to your bespoke specifications, resulting in a design that looks uniquely eye-catching without curbing the professionalism you would expect of ebooks from a big publisher.

While it’s not difficult to simply cobble together an ebook design, use some free ebook software on it and then publish it online, such a rushed job can evidence itself in the appearance of the finished ebook. That’s why we always pay diligent attention to detail as we craft an ebook design.

How do I create an ebook?

You might most readily associate ebooks with digitised storytelling. However, you might not have realised that, for many businesses, ebooks can effectively augment their content marketing efforts. This is because providing high-quality content can help a brand to strengthen its reputation.

Let’s assume that you run a plumbing and heating company and have long engaged in blog writing to advise on, say, how your customers could save money on their heating and water bills. You could gather a series of your blog posts based on a specific topic and compile those articles as a single ebook, with each individual blog post serving as one chapter of that publication. Ambitious businesses with email lists of different customers’ details could use these to decide which ebooks should be offered to which customers. So, for example, a customer who has recently had a new shower fitted by your firm could be handed an ebook titled “Making the Most of Your New Shower”.

There are various tried-and-trusted principles of putting together a good ebook. Firstly, you should decide why you want to write the book and who you intend to write it for. You will then be able to choose a suitable topic – and, by extension, a fitting but attractive title – for that ebook. You should subsequently create your ebook’s ‘skeleton’ – that is, its outline, including plans for an introduction, numerous chapters and appropriate calls-to-action that will be sprinkled throughout the text. This outline will help guide you as you ‘flesh’ out the ebook by writing to fill the gaps.

There are many different digital formats from which you could choose for your ebook – and which of these you do opt for will depend on numerous factors. The three most popular of these formats are EPUB (.epub), AZW (.azw) and PDF (.pdf).

If you want to reach out to the largest possible audience, EPUB would be a sensible choice. This particular ebook format is supported on a wide range of devices – including desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets and many e-readers, too – though Kindles are one glaring exception.

For Kindles, Amazon has developed its own ebook format, AZW. While AZW files can accommodate such dynamic content as bookmarks, annotations and highlights, this particular file type would only be viewable on Kindles or devices using Kindle apps. As for PDFs, these can include images, as the consumer watchdog organisation Which? notes. This could help to explain why PDF is an ebook format particularly strongly favoured by marketers.

Our graphic design agency could provide you with enticing custom imagery for your ebook. For example, in utilising our unlimited graphic design services, you could ask us to design infographics for you that would help you to get your ideas across in an easy-to-digest way – especially as research suggests that 65% of people are visual learners.

So, whatever your business goals, we could help you to meet them. With our ebook design services, we are ready to assist various business owners in satisfying their corporate objectives.

Why should I hire a book cover designer?

Rather ironically, it can often feel as though the well-known mantra “don’t judge a book by its cover”  applies to pretty much everything except books. If a print book struggles to catch attention from people perusing the already stacked shelves of bookshops or libraries, imagine what comparatively little chance an ebook has in the even more crowded marketplace of the internet.

So, you can’t afford to overlook the importance of garnering a positive first impression – as milliseconds could be literally all that many members of your target audience get to decide which new book to read. To compete with eye-catching ebooks, you need one of your own.

Couldn’t you just throw together an ebook cover design yourself? True, there’s no lack of readily-available online templates, fonts and stock images from which you could pick for your ebook’s visual content. However, relying on these readymade elements would risk your cover looking rather bland.

Furthermore, even if you have personal knowledge and experience of designing book covers, you could find designing your own ebook cover a lengthy and arduous process. Crafting an ebook cover design can be rather like carving a statue: there are so many tiny details you have to be careful to get just right, as even the occasional minor imperfection can be off-putting to people who see it.

It doesn’t help that each publishing platform has its own requirements when it comes to aspects like formatting, dimensions and front and back cover margins. If your ebook submission falls short of any of these requirements, it will be rejected – and, as you might not be given specific details of exactly why, you could be left with trying to figure all of that out for yourself.

However, these are all issues that a professional designer will already be thoroughly accustomed to handling in their day-to-day work. So, once you have answered all of their questions about what you would like to achieve with your ebook design, you can just sit back and leave them to complete it.

Still, you have to be careful which graphic designer you hire. You might be familiar with competitive services like bidding sites, where you would post a brief for various designers to see and work to, resulting in numerous ebook design ideas from which you could choose.

Still, you have to be careful which graphic designer you hire. You might be familiar with competitive services like bidding sites, where you would post a brief for various designers to see and work to, resulting in numerous ebook design ideas from which you could choose.

Unfortunately, while such services could provide you with some ebook cover design inspiration, you would be under pressure to select just one of the many provided designs in a relatively short space of time. Making a quick decision on your ebook cover design online could bode ill in the long term.

This kind of drawback is why, if you ask us to bring your ebook’s content to life on the cover, we will assign this responsibility to just one designer who we already know has vast design experience. They will also have all of the design tools they need for encapsulating your ebook content visually.

All of this therefore would, for you, remove much of the trial and error from the equation of determining just the right design elements for your ebook’s cover. You don’t have to worry about potentially wasting your time with a designer who doesn’t really know what they are doing.

Of course, another advantage of utilising our ebook formatting and design services is that, if anything looks or feels slightly ‘off’ with the ebook design we provide, you can just ask us to tweak it – at no extra cost to you, provided you are subscribing to one of our book cover design packages.

What makes a good book cover design?

It’s a somewhat strange question, at least on the face of it – as what constitutes “good” or “bad” in ebook design is ultimately a subjective judgement. Individual readers could differ in how they respond to particular colours, images and graphic elements you include on your cover.

These differences in opinion can largely be due to cultural reasons, while standards also tend to change over time. Just consider the much-ridiculed book covers displayed on the Good Show Sir website, reflecting what was deemed tasteful in book cover design even just a few decades ago.

Unfortunately, it’s often especially easy for ebook creators to make slip-ups with their cover designs, as these might not always be sufficiently vetted before being allowed to see the light of day. HuffPost contributor Nathan Shumate shares what he declares “self-publishing’s worst covers”.

Shumate explains that a self-made book cover can too easily look “amateurish” – underlining the importance of finding an extra “set of eyeballs”, particularly “unbiased eyeballs” like those our ebook design company can provide, if you want to draw attention from a broader audience.

Unfortunately, your attempts to appeal to this audience could be stymied if your ebook’s cover looks as though the ebook’s author designed it. Too many readers could assume that the cover’s poor quality reflects the writer’s wider artistic ability.

Of course, all-round ebook creation of an accomplished standard calls for a range of skills, not just writing – but many of your potential readers might not quite grasp this. Given how outdated certain book cover designs can quickly become, your own design should not include anything overly trendy.

Perhaps surprisingly, the quality of book cover design can often be defined just as easily by what’s omitted from it as by what’s included on it. By stripping away superfluous elements from the cover, you can leave the book’s title and author name easy for even casual observers to read at a glance.

However, the cover still needs an aesthetic centrepiece – an image which effortlessly expresses the electronic book’s theme, enabling people to quickly discern what kind of ebook content they could expect to find within the digital pages if they did download this particular electronic publication.

One good rule of thumb here is to choose an image that would be easy for people to associate with your book’s genre. Nonetheless, you should avoid descending into clichés. So, while a photograph of a hunky sailor in Napoleonic-era Royal Navy attire would make sense for a maritime-themed Regency romance novel, it’d be wise to avoid showing a rose, an overly generic symbol of romance.

While still on the subject of images, you should make sure any included on your ebook cover are high-quality – and not just in terms of detail and resolution. Though many copyright-free images are available online, using one of these – even a truly great one – could too easily induce a sense of déjà vu in readers, perhaps convincing them that they have already seen the book somewhere before.

Unfortunately, the less common (read: less familiar) stock images are those for which licences would be required – and, for you, obtaining those licences could be time-consuming or pricey. Fortunately, as we already have a generous library of stock images at hand, we would be able to – on your request – insert some into your ebook content.

Our flat rate graphic design services, meanwhile, mean you can cost-effectively source an array of custom graphics you might need for your ebook cover. You could also send us any images or photos you have created yourself and would like us to include on that cover.

Where is my designer based?

Our team are based in the UK and our HQ is based in Manchester. This means there are no obstacles in the way of completing your request, or your communication in the process of creating it – there are no language barriers or timezones, so our designers will always fully understand the requirements and will get to work on it as soon as they can. Our graphic designers all have a strong background in creating impressive visuals and have at least three years of commercial experience to put to good use. Our team are all directly employed by us, and we never outsource our work.

If you’re looking to create an ebook as part of your content marketing strategy or even just a personal project, the team would love to hear from you and help you achieve success. Try our unique approach out for yourself – all you have to do is click ‘book a demo’ to make your electronic book one your readers will certainly remember.

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