I would love to publish short stories on Smashwords, Kindle, etc. But what about covers? Any way of doing it that won't break the bank?
Shanecom
Shanecom
Sure. Get a good digital camera and take some photographs. Use those as your cover images. Use a program like Photoscape to edit them, resize them, and add text.
It's easy, but there's a learning curve involved and you have to have the camera handy when the cover image strikes you. You have to learn how to recognize good scenes for future covers as well.
Aside from that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of digital photos available online for free or for a few dollars. Seamy Kindle page for some examples. They're not great, but the last 3 are better because I've been relearning the process as well (I used to do 3D modeling and scene setting for a gaming product, but that was mainly for print and print is a whole different animal). All of those images were pulled from the web for little or no money
Affordable pre-made covers are your best option.
Not everyone has the knack for cover design. Besides, you want to spend your time writing, right?
I have a good many pre-made covers available on my site, please take a look around - http://bookgraphics.wordpress.com/pre-made-ebook-covers-2/
You will find that some of the very generic ones can be had for as little as $10.00 - and that includes insertion of your title and author name. Others are pkg. deals that include both a cover AND a matching website/blog banner/header (most of these are $35.00). All of them are eye-catching and none are expensive.
However, although I have a LOT of pre-mades in stock right now (I recently loaded around 25 new ones - check back often because this is a high traffic area for me and I add new covers often), there is always the chance that none of them is appropriate for your story. If that's the case, it's still possible that I might be able to help you:
1. At the bottom of that looooong page of pre-mades, there is a small response box titled: GOT A SUGGESTION? LET ME KNOW! I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten a suggestion, perhaps something to the effect of - "Gee, I wish you had more bloody pre-made covers for horror stories/books" - that jogs my visual memory to a particular piece of art or photo that I know I already have on my computer. When that happens, I make the cover and load it onto my pre-mades page then respond to the person who made the suggestion; and,
2. The cost of custom covers varies wildly. My prices are easily among the most reasonable around. To date, I have never charged more than $75.00 USD for a custom cover - and that was a pkg. deal for both a paperback and matching eBook cover that was a collage of many photos and took a lot of time. And, my prices also include the cost of whatever stock photos or illustrations I must purchase for the custom cover design. That's still probably more than you want to spend on a cover for a short, but talk to me - I'll work with you if it is at all possible. If it's something I can execute quickly, it's entirely possible that you'll get a great deal YOU WON'T KNOW IF YOU DON'T ASK! (Yes, I'm a total sucker for aspiring/debut authors.)
So, if you're not confident in your Photoshop/Illustrator skills, check me out. I can probably save you a LOT of time that's better spent on writing anyhow
I used picnik to do our short story cover. It was completely free. Got the photo for free on istockphoto
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/88363