Making author Twitter headers
All righty, time to get all your author graphics looking good. While we've concentrated on teasers, there are many other places that readers see your name and get an impression of your authorial awesomeness.
I got the idea for this post on Twitter: a Bookbub post on "stunning header images" of Twitter authors to be specific. So, don't let anyone tell you the hundreds of hours you spend on social media are a waste of time. You get graphic inspiration and photos of hockey players in suits. Or maybe that's just me.
The Bookbub post suggested there are five kinds of author heading images, and I'm going to go through all of them.
First of all, let's fire up the Canva. Surprisingly, you'll find the Twitter Header template under Social Media & Email Headers. Pay attention to the greyed-out areas because you won't be able to see them when you post the header. In general, think about images that will look good horizontally and on a small screen.
1. Promote a single book
This would be your newest book. Or your most expensive book. Or perhaps your favourite book. You can use a variety of words here: launch dates, very short blurbs, or promos. Most of the Bookbub authors use best-selling accolades, but I figured that #1 Bestseller in a tiny suburb of Vancouver wasn't going to cut it. Besides, I'm not even sure that's true. Next time, I'll settle for A Legend in Her Own Mind.
Okay, let's talk fonts. In last week's post I extolled the features of author brand boards. Did you make one? If you did, you'd be on easy street now. Font choices and colour choices would come straight from your brand board. You'll notice that I use the same author font in each of these headers. It's all about the branding, baby.
Also, did you notice my cool 3-D covers? I used Covervault, and if you want to as well, check out my most popular post.
2. Promote a series
Obviously, it's good to tie in the back visual with the series theme, so a Vancouver skyline for the Vancouver Vice hockey team I invented. The visual is a horizon, so you can't get more horizontal than that. I've used something similar on my Facebook author page. In fact, while you're making these Twitter headers, it's not a bad idea to do a new Facebook Cover for your author page as well. I'm going to do that as soon as I finish this post and the 75 other things on my to-do list.
3. Display multiple titles
This is header that I'm currently using on Twitter. I like its low key promotion. For the background photo, I used the Vignette filter to soften the photograph. A slightly blurred photograph helps the eye to focus on the most important aspects of the header: your author name and your books. I blended the colour palette of the background and book covers, and for my author name I took the colour straight from one of the covers. Also, I now have a slogan/tagline: Romance for Hockey Fans. This line was the result of a comment that there was Too Much Hockey in my books. You've been warned.
4. Showcase art
Well, this kind of header works best when you have special artwork to display, like illustrations or cool graphics from your book, which I do not. You can see examples in the original Bookbub post.
5. Author Branding
So, now I have four new Twitter headers and only one place to put them. (Is it just me, or does that sound dirty?) The best solution is to alternate your Twitter headers. Although they don't get viewed very often, changing them up occasionally so they'll noticed. You might want to create a new one whenever you have a new book or series. Because your launch to-do list isn't long enough already.
One last design tip: don't forget to colour-coordinate your Twitter theme to your new header. If you've used a special colour for your fonts, just copy the colour number and paste it into the theme colour box on Twitter.
Next week we have another Makeover Monday candidate. And guess what—it's a hockey romance. I bet you didn't even know this many hockey romances existed.
Comments
Post a Comment