How to create professional images for your book blog that go viral instantly

Yes, you read that right. In this post, I will share a free tool and a step-by-step guide for beginners on how to use this tool to create professional-looking images - Using only simple drag-and-drop techniques.

I remember when I first started my book review blog and looked at other book blogs and wondered when my blog would look like theirs. I believed I’d have to spend a ton of money for it or hire an expert to do it.

But then I discovered Canva and I found the secret. Here today I’m sharing everything about creating images from scratch without any other fluff.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have created at least 5 professional-looking images for your book blog.

Why do I need images for my book blog? Are they important?

Visual content for your book blog post does have the power to make your content insanely shareable across social media.

Here’s Proof :

Backlinko.com, veterans in blogging, have published this graph through industry studies that image-rich content gets 90% more shares vs all text content.

Here’s their article featuring ways to increase traffic to your blog.

Now, you might say that why I need other images when I have book covers to share with my blog posts.

But let me tell you my observation.

Book covers are great too – but they usually (93% of the time) contain affiliate links to Amazon or Book Depository or other book affiliates.

So your readers might not share them even if they loved your critique of the book.

Let us look at an example of a book review image that is not a simple book cover.

Just see this post by bookerina.com

She’s writing a book review for a popular novel by Dan Brown. She could’ve just included the cover of the book.

But, did you notice…

Using this image with the cover and her blog name and specifying that this is the review of the book makes the image

Much more specific in its purpose.
Brand conscious (you know where to go for reading reviews)
Shareable across social media like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.

Now, are you ready for the fun?

How do I create great images (for free) for my book review blog?

Just go to Canva.com - Try its 30 days for free

Canva has a paid version too – Canva Pro.

But trust me..

You only need the Free Version for Blogging about books. That should be more than enough. (I’ve tried Canva Pro for a couple of months).

What is Canva?

According to their website - Canva is a free graphic design platform that allows you to easily blog banners, Infographics, your logo, social media handles, create invitations, business cards, and more using professionally designed templates. You can even upload your photos and add them to Canva's templates using a drag and drop interface.

You can even use stock images, add colors, text, borders, stickers, animations on them and start using them.

The best part – they have hundreds (literally) of templates for anything you want to create.

So all you do is…

Select the template, change some colors and fonts to go buy your brand, add in your titles, and done! Your image is ready to use and share.

I love their templates. Don’t worry I’m about to show you how to do it.

How can I create an image for my book blog for Canva?

Here, now, we will see how you create different types of images for your book blog in full detail.

We will look at creating blog images.

For a book review Post

We type in “blog graphic” in the search bar.

Or simply click the button “Create Design” and again either select “blog graphic” (800 x 1200) or if you know what size image you need, enter the custom size and create a graphic with your dimensions.

I type in “cover” Under Templates. And find one that has a design that is close to what I have in mind.

Please note – when you hover your mouse over a particular template anywhere – if it says “Free”, it's free to use in your design. If it has a dollar sign, or when you use it, if it has a watermark, it has a price, and if you want to use it or download it you need to pay the money. So make sure you use only the ones marked free.

Now I remove the picture add it to my book cover and add in the appropriate titles.

To add a book cover from your desktop go to uploads, upload the cover, and drag and drop it on your design.

While changing the background colors of your design a handy tool, is selecting colors from the image you've added to your design.

Select the fonts, again remember to select one of the free fonts. Use fonts that go with your blog theme and you have consistent images throughout.

For a book list Post

List posts are the number one popular posts. So if you’re curating a list of books for your readers, you can simply add all the covers or maybe some of the covers to create the perfect image for your list post.

Again select a blog graphic. This time in the templates look for frames/collage.

Here I’ve added a set of 3 frames and copy and pasted it 3 times to create a graphic that can hold 9 photos.

Now I just drag and drop the covers from my uploads.

The next thing you do is to add text – or a title to your image. For that in the elements again select a shape, add color and transparency to it and finally add your title and brand log to it.

Your Book List Poster - shareable to Pinterest is ready!

For a Quotes Post

This one’s the simplest and it looks the prettiest. Just look at the dimension and search for quotes in templates. You’ll be spoilt for choice.

Here are two templates I loved. One is simply the quote with its author and background color. The other can use a stock photo if you have your own or just search on Canva for a free photo.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

For a how-to post

Decide on the orientation and size of the graphic you’d like. Add a stock photo or create one using stickers or elements available in Canva. Add a title. Add your brand name and you’re done.

Essentially, all the same techniques. Go by Templates or create from scratch. Both are easy.

Here I show you samples of two formats that are popular on how-to posts.

For an Author Interview Post

Here’s the perfect template Canva offers for interviewing your favorite author. Add the author’s image, title, name of the book, and your set.

For an Infographics Post

This one is my favorite template from Canva. There are so many different templates available and I’ve created numerous very useful Infographics using them.

My top shared pin on Pinterest is my Infographic on the book Ikigai, a Japanese book by Hector Garcia. Here’s a link to the graphic. Have a look yourself.

Here we go.

In the search bar type Infographic and you’ll see the hundreds of templates available. Now if you know how many elements you’d like to add, it’s simply a task of selecting a template with that many elements and just making the required changes like content color and brand name.

Here I want to create a graphic for the 6 types of images we’re creating for our book blog using Canva.

Here’s the template I selected :

Make the changes.

For a Downloadable Bookmark

Here’s a screenshot of the numerous templates available to you for creating a bookmark. What’s more, you can download them as a high-resolution PDF file, print them on card paper and so create as many bookmarks as you’d wish.

What other useful visuals can I create for my book blog using Canva?

Create visual content for all your social media using Canva.

Canva has independent templates for each of the social media platforms.

But if you’re feeling particularly lazy, all you have to do is resize you’ve already created images as per the dimension of each platform. (Resize is a feature of Canva Pro though)

Of course, you might have to realign the content on the graphics a bit, for it to look aesthetically great according to the platform.

But the effort is minimal.

Here’s you’re social media platter available on Canva:

For Twitter

Size 1600 x 900 px

For Pinterest

Size 1000 x 1500 px

For Facebook

Post – size 940 x 788 px

Cover – size 1640 x 924 px

Bonus – Create stunning visuals for your bookstagram too

Instagram Post

Size 1080 x 1080 px

Instagram Story

Size 1080 x 1920 px

Video Content for your book Blog using Canva

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mru (@mrusbooksnreviews)

Graphs

– I haven’t used graphs on my book blog yet. Didn’t feel the need. But yes, you create those too.

Suppose your sharing recent trends in books like Penguin Random House here. You can create a graph.

They have several types of graphs with explanations as to what type of graph to use when. So if you skipped that Statistics lesson in school – no worries.