Over the years, writers have gotten access to a lot of online writing tools and resources, making it easier to turn their thoughts into books. If they’re self-publishing, one of the biggest obstacles they face is designing a cover for their book. Even if you’re publishing something on Wattpad, you have to worry about their rules, the Wattpad cover size, and other factors.
Wattpad has had a significant impact on the writing community as people get support from fellow authors, readers, and stakeholders.
That’s why many writers are now starting their careers on sites like Wattpad because it gives them an idea of what they’re getting into.
In this article, we’ll go over Wattpad, what the ideal Wattpad cover size is, and a step-by-step process of how you can create your Wattpad cover.
Let’s dive right in.
Table of Contents
What Exactly is a Wattpad Cover?
Wattpad is a social media platform that allows independent writers and authors to self-publish books and get real-time feedback on them. Authors can essentially publish individual or episode-based stories as they continue writing; meanwhile, readers provide individual chapter-wise feedback.
When you publish on Wattpad, you not only have to provide the relevant text but also eye-catching covers. Making a great Wattpad cover is the best way to capture any reader’s attention; as they say, first impressions matter.
That’s why people use sites like Canva, PicsArt, and Pixelied as graphic design tools (cover makers) to quickly make great covers.
In total, Wattpad has a global community of over 90 million writers and readers. The best thing about Wattpad is that they offer you different options to get your story out. Here’s how you can actualize your story.
- Get Published – The easiest, quickest, and most straightforward way to get your story out is to get it published as an ebook. Furthermore, Wattpad also offers support if you want to republish it.
- TV Show Adaptation – Wattpad Studios works with partners like Syfy and Hulu to get stories converted into TV shows. The idea is that if someone has a great story that can be turned into continuous watchable entertainment, they can get connected with major TV channels.
- Movie Production – Wattpad Studios also partners with Sony Pictures to bring stories to the big screen. If a writer has a short story that is completely standalone or a part-based series, Wattpad helps the writer connect to relevant film studios. If the idea is worth it, the story gets the green light to be produced as a full-fledged movie.
In all these cases, your Wattpad cover would be carrying on as the cover design.
What is the Ideal Wattpad Cover Size?
The ideal Wattpad cover size has the dimensions 512 x 800 pixels. The book cover gets its best display if it’s saved in JPG or PNG file format.
Getting the dimensions right is crucial because Wattpad has set up its online reading platform in a certain way. If your dimensions are out, your design won’t show up the same.
Unlike the Amazon Kindle, Wattpad doesn’t necessarily resize your cover. Usually, you will see your cover being cropped out if it is out of the normal dimensions. That’s why using the Wattpad book cover size is critical to having your design show up properly.
However, some people tend to use the dimensions 655 x 1024 pixels. It’s usually just a bigger version of the dimensions shown above; it’s just scaled a little more. However, you’re better off using fewer pixels as they make up for smaller file sizes. That’s because the higher the DPI/resolution, the bigger the file size, regardless of the file type.
The case of Wattpad book cover sizes for mobile phones is a little different. Usually, the sizing for Wattpad covers on mobile phones has a 2:3 ratio, but that can vary in some cases. Wattpad recommends that you use the cover dimensions 256 x 400 pixels for the ideal upload. It’s the same for both Android and iOS phones.
Using the recommended size is your best option for not messing up the cover dimensions and thumbnail.
Why Bother Creating a Wattpad Cover?
Ebook covers tend to be extremely important in determining how successful a book will be on Wattpad. According to a survey, 79% of people said that a book’s cover plays a major and decisive role when making the decision to purchase a book.
As mentioned above, your Wattpad book cover is one of the biggest reasons why readers will be clicking on your book.
Furthermore, books usually leave everything to the reader’s imagination, especially when there are no visual cues or images. You very well can’t add stock images as that would not be as attractive. Therefore, people use graphic design to bring out some creativity.
Using that creativity, writers can give their readers a rough idea of what to imagine when reading their Wattpad story. In fact, it can help readers connect to the book before getting into it.
A great Wattpad cover is bound to get you more views, reads, and maybe even your own TV show or movie adaptation.
How to Create a Wattpad Cover in Four Easy Steps
It’s best to use an online graphic design tool that offers Wattpad covers and easy-to-use tools. That’s where Pixelied comes in. As a free online design tool, Pixelied offers high-quality visuals and formatting options for all kinds of brands and businesses.
Here are a few reasons why Pixelied works great when you want to design your own Wattpad cover.
- Custom Wattpad Cover Templates – You can find tons of Wattpad cover templates in standard sizes. You’ll find an entire catalog of cover templates that you can browse through that are already set up according to the ideal Wattpad cover size.
- Wattpad Profile Picture – Create striking Wattpad profile pictures with Pixelied to stand out from the crowd and increase eyeballs to your ebooks. It comes loaded with all of the above requirements, guidelines, and recommended profile picture size.
- Tons of Stock Images – You’ll find tons of high-resolution free images that you can adjust, customize, and modify and put on your cover.
- Advanced Editor – Pixelied has one of the most user-friendly and easy-to-use editing dashboards in the industry. You have all the editing prowess that you’ll get from a high-powered design software while also getting access to things like photo effects, JPG background remover, 900+ Google fonts, and more.
- Tutorials – Most importantly, you have access to tons of tutorials if you need help in designing your new cover.
The best part about Pixelied is that you can directly start designing in the editor.
Step One – Go to Pixelied’s Editor
The first step is to, obviously, go to the Pixelied editor. When you open the link, you’ll be directed to this screen. And, don’t worry, the ideal Wattpad cover size dimensions are already set up when you click the link.
When you’re on the page, you’ll see a bunch of different stuff. On the right side, you have your blank canvas, and above it, you check the background color, width, height, and some other options (such as opacity).
On the left side, you’ll see all the Wattpad cover templates; you can also search for specific templates if you want. The bar on the left has all the editing options you have, including images, illustrations, mockups, effects, elements, icons, and more.
There are also a lot of typography options that let you write your text in different fonts, forms, and more.
Step Two – Choose a Wattpad Cover Template
On the left of the editor, you have a scroll-down menu of tens of Wattpad cover templates. Browse through them and choose a template you want; here’s how it would show up when you select a template.
Ideally, you would want to check out different templates before making a decision. Keep in mind that you can customize the template as you please. Therefore, choosing the template is all about setting up a baseline that you can use for your cover design.
Step Three – Add Relevant Assets to the Design
Once you’ve decided on a template, you can now start to add various elements and assets to the design. The drag-and-drop option lets you add in and remove any effect, element, or asset immediately.
For example, if you want to add images to your design, click on ‘Image’ in the left toolbar.
You get to see all the stock photos you can use. Pixelied’s editor has a built-in search option that lets you search for stock images from Pixabay and Unsplash.
Similarly, above the white space of your design, you’ll some options that you can use to mess around with the assets. The options include the following.
- Background Color
- Border tool
- Drop shadow
- Opacity
- Alignment
- Layers
- Flip image
- Lock
- Duplicate
- Delete
All of these options let you play around with any assets you’ve inserted in the design.
Furthermore, other things you can do within the editor include the following.
- Tweak the images using features like the eye-dropper.
- Add customized text from a wide range of minimalist fonts and Google fonts (over 900).
- Insert free illustrations and edit them according to your needs.
- Upload your own logo or favicon to personalize your design.
- Customize the design with various elements and icons.
- Use the blend option to get unique colors.
- Use the Brandify option to add multiple brand presets.
- Check out the mockups of your design on different devices.
Your design continually saves while you’re designing, so you don’t have to worry about losing it.
Step Four – Download Your New Wattpad Cover
Once you’ve completed your design and set up everything, you can download it from the top-right corner by clicking the ‘Download’ button. You can select the format you want, including the following.
- JPG
- PNG
- PNG Transparent
- SVG
- WEBP
- WEBP Transparent
You can also choose the quality you want (it determines the overall final file size) and the size of the picture itself.
How to Upload Your Wattpad Cover
Once you’ve designed and downloaded your newly designed Wattpad cover, you can upload it. Since you’ve already taken care of the Wattpad cover size, all you have to do is upload it.
Here’s the step-by-step process for uploading your new cover.
- When you’ve logged on to Wattpad, click ‘Write’ in the top navigation bar.
- Find and navigate toward your story or stories.
- Click the ‘Choose File Button’ in the lower-left corner.
- Select the ‘Upload Cover’ option to upload your custom-made design.
After that, you’re done; you now have a new Wattpad cover.
Bottomline
It’s crucial to get your dimensions right, especially when you’re making a Wattpad cover or any other. Just like you have to be careful with the Wattpad cover size, you have to be careful about the Tumblr header size, Etsy banner size, and more.
In all cases, you have to ensure that the reader sees the entire cover. If you need to, leave white spaces to manage your space and focus on using professional assets.
Knowing about the ideal Wattpad cover size, you can design, customize, and upload a unique design for every story without too much effort.
