Merging two or more photos together is one of the most useful photomanipulations that you can do. In this tutorial I will walk you through how you make a book cover by adding extra sky to a photo to make it fit better into a book cover.

There are easier ways to do this using alternative programs – Photoshop, PaintShopPro, Photopea or Gimp will let you use a soft brush erase and allow for more subtlety – but this is how you do it in Canva.

Just click on the red play button to watch the video on YouTube.

You can sign up for a free Canva account here: partner.canva.com/Jeev*

If you want to talk to other authors about how to use Canva in your book marketing, come and join the free Canva Tips for Authors Facebook group at facebook.com/canva4authors

* This is an affiliate link. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it gives me some small amount if you get a Pro account.

#Canva #Canvassador

Five years ago, Alex met the man of her dreams on New Year’s Eve – but he never called. Years later, and after a string of failed relationships, she’s given up on men and accepted that ‘New Year’s Eve Guy’ will always be the one who got away.

Until the day he turns up in her office – a management consultant tasked with ‘streamlining’ the company. New Year’s Eve Guy – Gihan – might shut down Alex’s team!

Gihan is as just as gorgeous as Alex remembers, and she swears there’s still a connection between them. As she gets to know the real Gihan, will sparks continue to fly – or will Alex have to accept that the man she knew as New Year’s Eve Guy was never real to start with?

Knowing Me Knowing You (aha!) is out in January 2024, but you can preorder it right now! https://amzn.to/3EXRFGS

I can’t believe I haven’t read any Cathy Yardley books before. I’m fixing that now. I finished this one and immediately started on the next book in the series

I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages, and I can’t remember why it’s taken me so long to get to these. It’s a real pity because I totally loved it.
I enjoy reading about characters who are smart and competent at what they do (it doesn’t really matter what they actually do, it matters that they’re good at it – if that makes sense). I also like geeky characters and characters with diverse/ mixed heritage … and I love a beta hero. So this ticks all the boxes.
Tobin’s goofiness is endearing. Lily’s super-organised rigidity is completely the opposite to Tobin. I liked that they softened each other’s hard edges and that together they were more than the sum of the parts.

BUY LINK: https://amzn.to/3O1lQlX *

*As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn a few pence from qualifying purchases. It won’t cost you anything extra.

This is a brilliantly evocative book. It follows four people who live in the Grand Life Apartments. Kamala (whose daughter has gone off to university, leaving Kamala feeling a bit lost), Revathi (whose job is treating her apallingly and whose mother is nagging her to get married), Jason (who is running away from his heartbreak) and Mani (who owns the building and is fighting a battle of his own).
We get to meet each of them and see the ups and downs of their lives.
It’s a quiet book – nothing overly dramatic, but it vividly describes every day life in modern Chennai.
I really enjoyed reading and the food description meant I was craving a decent curry by the end

Buy Link

This is one of the best books I’ve read this year! Lady con-artists and an audacious heist. I raced through it.
Mrs King and Mrs Bone are both so well described and easy to root for (they aren’t NICE, but they’re each relatable … and formidable in their own way!).
I loved the heist aspect of it and was genuinely tense reading the climactic scenes. There was a subtle mystery thread running through the book, which added an extra layer of intrigue.
Wonderful!

Also, that cover is just amazing.

Buy link*

*As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn a few pence from qualifying purchases. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Have you seen those graphics that have a book in the centre and then list all the reasons you should read it – with romance, it’s usually done by listing tropes. This works because romance readers tend to like tropes. You’ll often see social media posts that say ‘I love this trope – tell me more books that have it, please’. So someone scrolling through their social media feed might come across the image of your book cover and clock that they like a certain trope in it … and hopefully click through to buy it.

You don’t HAVE to use tropes. You can list awards, if you’re lucky enough to have won any. Or even very short quotes from people.

It’s remarkably easy to make one of these in Canva. Here’s my step-by-step tutorial on how to do it. It’s on my YouTube channel. There are a whole load of other videos on there – a lot of which are about how authors can use Canva to promote their books.

The graphics that you see are often made by publishers’ marketing departments, but there’s no reason why you can’t make one yourself.

If you’ve found this tutorial useful, please share it (and subscribe to my YouTube channel – I’d be very grateful).

If you’d like a free Canva template – sign up to my newsletter here: https://jeevanicharika.com/canva-for-authors/

Join the free Canva for Authors Facebook group: www.facebook/groups/canva4authors

You can sign up for a free Canva account here: partner.canva.com/Jeev*

If you want to talk to other authors about how to use Canva in your book marketing, come and join the free Canva Tips for Authors Facebook group at facebook.com/canva4authors

* This is an affiliate link. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it gives me some small amount if you get a Pro account.

#Canva #Canvassador

I loved The Love Hypothesis, so I expected that I’d love Love on the Brain too. I did – it’s got a scientist heroine. I love the lab related dynamics and the sausage referencing (because they’re very true to life). The whole thing with the engineer who did one term of neuroscience patronising the woman who has a PhD and a whole bunch of papers in actual neuroscience is also very relatable.

The story is great. My only quibble is that Levi seems to be very similar to Adam from TLH. Come to think of it, Bee is kinda similar to Olive. Apart from that, it’s a great book. The secondary characters were great. Love the goth girl.

Great STEM rep and a good fun book. If you haven’t read The Love Hypothesis, you’ll like this one. If you have read TLH, you’ll probably still like this one, but feel a weird sense of de ja vu from time to time.

Buy link