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Microsoft PowerPoint: Free Book Covers for Self-publishing (Udemy.com)

Free DIY book covers for self-publishing: Free Microsoft PowerPoint book covers: Book covers using free Pixabay images

Created by: Brian Jackson

Last updated April 2025

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What you will learn

  • Set precise book cover dimensions to ensure a professional, polished look for both eBooks and print books on self-publishing platforms.
  • Choose high-quality background images that grab attention, align with your book’s theme, and make your cover stand out in a crowded marketplace.
  • Insert and format text professionally by adjusting size, font, and alignment to create a clear, engaging, and visually appealing book title.
  • Use contrast and color techniques to ensure that your book title and author name remain legible, even over busy or colorful backgrounds.
  • Apply color overlays and transparent shapes to enhance readability, add visual depth, and create a modern, eye-catching book cover design.
  • Add, resize, and manipulate images to create a visually stunning book cover that looks professional and matches your book’s theme.

How it compares

Against the other 52 rated Udemy courses in PowerPoint on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.6 out of 5higher than 59% of them
  • Reviews127#48 of 53 by number of reviews
  • Length7.2 hourslonger than 82% of them
  • Last updatedApril 2025earlier than 53% of them

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Course Description

Create Stunning, Professional Book Covers for Free Using Microsoft PowerPoint

A Step-by-Step Guide for Self-Published Authors to Design Eye-Catching Covers Without Expensive Software or Services

Are you a self-published author, or do you dream of becoming one? One of the most important marketing tools for your book is its cover—a visually compelling first impression that draws readers in and conveys the quality of your content.

A poorly designed book cover can drive potential readers away, even if your writing is exceptional. Professional designers often charge hundreds of dollars for a single book cover, and many self-published authors struggle to justify these costs, especially when launching their first book. But what if you could create a high-quality, professional book cover at no cost?

With Microsoft PowerPoint 2013/2016, you can quickly and easily design your stunning book covers without expensive design software or advanced graphic design skills. This course will guide you through every step, showing you exactly how to create covers that look professionally designed—without breaking the bank.

Why Is This Course a Game-Changer for Self-Published Authors?

Many self-published authors feel overwhelmed when it comes to cover design. They either pay too much for a designer or attempt to create a cover themselves—only to struggle with confusing design programs. This course eliminates those roadblocks by providing a simple, intuitive, and budget-friendly solution, allowing you to fully control your book’s appearance.

With this course, you will:

  • Save money by creating free professional-quality coverage.

  • Gain complete creative control over your book’s visual identity.

  • Design covers that look professionally made without prior experience.

  • Avoid the frustration of complex graphic design software.

  • Learn a skill you can use repeatedly for multiple books and editions.

Whether you're an aspiring author, an established writer, or an entrepreneur looking to design book covers for your digital products, this course will equip you with everything you need to create visually stunning covers that stand out in a crowded marketplace.

What You’ll Learn in This Course

This course provides step-by-step instructions for designing a polished, professional book cover using only Microsoft PowerPoint. You will learn how to:

  • Set the correct orientation and dimensions to ensure a properly formatted cover.

  • Choose and apply compelling background images that captivate potential readers.

  • Insert, format, and manipulate text for a clean, professional typography layout.

  • Use contrast and color techniques to make your title and author name pop.

  • Overlay shapes and color boxes to enhance readability and design appeal.

  • Incorporate high-quality images and graphics to create a visually stunning book cover.

  • Save your cover in the correct format for self-publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle (KDP).

By the end of this course, you will have the skills and confidence to create your own professional-looking book covers, ready for publication.

Why Choose This Course?

Unlike other courses that require complicated graphic design tools, this training focuses on Microsoft PowerPoint, a software most people already have access to. Even if you’ve never used PowerPoint for design, you will quickly learn how to harness its powerful features to create stunning book covers.

Course Benefits:

  • No prior design experience is needed. It is ideal for beginners.

  • No expensive software is required. All you need is PowerPoint.

  • Immediate results – Start designing professional book covers today.

  • Step-by-step guidance – Easy-to-follow lessons with practical demonstrations.

  • Lifetime access – Learn at your own pace and revisit the course anytime.

  • Bonus module included – Get access to “Create a Book Cover with Me: Microsoft PowerPoint & Pixabay.”

With Udemy’s 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee, there’s absolutely no risk in enrolling.

Take Control of Your Self-Publishing Success

A professional-quality book cover is one of the most valuable assets for an author. It determines whether a reader clicks on your book, picks it up, or passes it by. Instead of relying on costly designers or settling for subpar DIY covers, this course gives you the power to create covers that truly represent the quality of your work.

>>> Don't let a lack of design skills hold you back! <<<

Enroll today and learn how to create stunning, professional book covers with Microsoft PowerPoint—quickly, easily, and completely free.

Your journey to self-publishing success starts here.

Click “Enroll Now” and start designing your first book cover today!

I'll see you in the classroom,

---Brian

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Instructor Details

Brian Jackson

Hello,

My name is Brian Jackson. I'm the author of about a dozen books, the publisher of well over 100 books, and a Udemy instructor with over 40 courses.

This is my story...

1 Origins

I was born in the middle of the last century in Los Angeles, California. I graduated from Humboldt State University, surrounded by the redwoods of Northern California. After 14 years at Lockheed Missiles and Space as an IBM system programmer and 12 years at Cisco Systems as a test engineer, I retired at 48.

I instantly became bored.

2 Community College

To break the boredom, I enrolled at Columbia Community College to take writing, art, acting and statistics classes. I took 24 units over one year and received straight “A”s.

I was still bored.

3 Writing and Self-publishing

I began writing fiction and nonfiction books and self-publishing them on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords in July 2011. Though I wrote and published several books, my self-publishing business didn’t take off until my wife joined me.

4 My Wife and Author, Melanie Jackson

Melanie Jackson, my wife, was an author publishing over two romance novels per year through her New York publisher, Dorchester Press. After publishing 24 novels with Dorchester, the company folded, and Melanie was without a publisher (she wanted to write cozy mysteries anyway).

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Reviews

4.6

127 ratings on Udemy

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By Ibrahima Amadou Diallo on 5/1/2026

Fantastic course — loved it! This course was exactly what I hoped for and even better. Clear, practical, and super well explained. I was amazed by how easy it becomes to create professional book covers with simple PowerPoint tools. Everything is concise, smartly structured, and immediately useful. Highly recommended for anyone who wants fast, effective, and creative results!

By Lisa Bell on 1/29/2023

Great course if you have little experience with PowerPoint. In a condensed version, sections 6-9 repeated what we got in the first sections, making it a bit redundant. Not a bad idea if you need more PowerPoint instruction. I hoped for more advanced techniques in the last sections over a repeat. All in all, I enjoyed the course and came away with ideas and things I didn't consider doing in PowerPoint. Most, though not all, translates well to MS Publisher if you use that software. I am impressed by how much you can do with a book cover in PowerPoint, though, so thank you, Brian.

By Charles J Darnell on 3/7/2022

This was quite detailed in the presentation. It almost scared me off. But, as I stayed with it I learned a tremendous amount about Powerpoint itself and how to make comprehensive covers for books. Brian was considerably more professional in this presentation than in some of his lectures where he puts on his folksy face and wanders through the lecture making mistakes in typing and selection. Good course.

By Paula Aites on 8/10/2019

Brian Jackson always delivers above and beyond in all ALL of his courses! His style of teaching is quite easy to understand and follow. He demonstrates clear technique in his step-by-step tutorials which makes it easy to learn and apply for oneself. I highly recommend Brian Jackson's courses. He has become my go-to instructor for all things writing, creating book covers, etc.

By Jean Jegel on 8/1/2018

I would give this course ten stars if I could. Just as I was struggling to find a reasonably priced book cover creator, I remembered Mr. Jackson's class and took it. I feel completely able to make my own book cover now. Any way I like, any time I like. This is a great reference if I should get stuck. There were plenty of examples to spark my own creativity. I highly recommend this course.

By Velma on 6/12/2018

I enjoyed the course the lecturer's voice was appropriate, the lecturer was patient and the course was easy to follow. good course

By Leslie Miller on 1/22/2017

Worth the money just to learn how to finally be able to make a 300 DPI Jpg, which I'd been failing at all day long. Clear and easy to follow and I learned all kinds of great new tricks. I was about to consider trying to learn gimp or even photoshop. Now I think I'll stick with PowerPoint!

By Janis Barber on 4/5/2016

The step-by-step material in the course is very helpful! This course is meeting my expectations of creating a book cover suitable for Amazon and CreateSpace. I never thought of using PowerPoint to create a book cover, but this course shows you how easy it is. If you are familiar with Microsoft Office, you can pick up some very good tips and tricks with using PowerPoint.

By Richard Brassaw on 2/5/2016

My first response was, "Come on now, isn't that stretching it a bit?" Still, it got my curiosity going and considering that there isn't a huge time commitment I decided to find out what Brian has to offer. First thing, I've got to admit that Brian squelched my skepticism. The covers that he demonstrates building in the course actually work as book covers. Second, I have a newfound respect for PowerPoint--especially learning how to export slides at 300 dpi (which is needed when publishing with CreateSpace.)

By Ted Hietala on 6/3/2015

Book Cover Design with Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 is the latest home-run From Brian Jackson. The Course walks you step by step through the process of creating a book cover with PowerPoint. Along the way you are introduced to some pretty neat tricks. This is my forth course taught by Brian and I will take more. These courses feel more like hanging out with a pal than being taught in a classroom.

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Overall Score : 92 / 100