Software for Authors: Best Free Places for Book Cover Photos – If you want your covers to really stand out, you’ll need to find the right photo. As more people start self-publishing, it’s important that your book can stand out amongst the crowd. To prevent copyright problems during your upload, you’ll want to make sure that you are legally allowed to use the images you like. That’s where these sites fit in.
Best Free Places for Book Cover Photos
1. AI Images
It’s only recently that AI images have become a reality. Not everyone understands just how powerful this technology is, and what it means for stock sites going forward. With the right prompts and some creativity, you can make beautiful, unique art for your book covers. We’ve already made a post/video about how to achieve this, so you can check it out here: Using AI Images for KDP Covers – Tutorial (Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, Dall-E)
2. Unsplash
Unsplash is a popular free stock photography site. You can find thousands of photographs that photographers have uploaded for your use. You’ll find photographs, sketches, illustrations, textures and even 3D renders. Whatever you’re looking for – you’ll find something of interest.
You can check out Unsplash’s image license here.
3. Pexels
Pexels is another great option for high-quality photography. It’s incredible that so many photographers allow you to use their work for free. There are thousands of photos and illustrations to choose from.
You can check out Pexels’ image license here.
4. Pixabay
Similar to Unsplash and Pexels, Pixabay has tons of images that you can use for free. I especially like the vectors from this site, and use them regularly to create high-quality covers. The vectors are provided in EPS format which can be opened in Photoshop and edited directly in Illustrator.
You can check out Pixabay’s image license here.
5. Shutterstock – 10 Free Professional Images
Before you scroll past this one, remember that Shutterstock has some of the best images available online. They have a very high standard for image submission, so only the best is accepted. And as you probably know already – most professional cover designers source their images from Shutterstock.
With Shutterstock, you can get 10 free images when you sign up. However, you will need to provide your card details or Paypal info to access the free trial. So, if you don’t have further use of Shutterstock images – be sure to cancel your trial before it ends.
You can check out Shutterstock’s image license here.
Free Keyword Research Tools for Authors
Keywords are extremely important in getting your books to rank well on Amazon. Whether you’re using KDP or Ingramspark to self-publish your books – you’ll need to input keywords to help potential buyers find your novels. Keyword Research will help you to find the right niche to target and, in turn, make more sales. If you promote your books using Amazon Advertising, then you have an even stronger need to find the right keywords.
You can find out more about keyword research for authors here:
Software for Authors: Best Free KDP Keyword Research Tools
