Adding text to a cover in GIMP

Many self-publishers struggle to make a decent front cover and don't want to have to pay a professional to do it.  GIMP is a free design tool online which many people speak highly of.  Here are some tips that I found posted on the Authonomy.com website as to how to add text to an image using GIMP:

1. Upload your cover into a gimp editing window. Save it as a new file (press Shift+Ctrl+S, enter a new name and click the OK button).
2. Make sure the toolbox and layer windows are also open and visible. Press Ctrl+B (toolbox) and Ctrl+L (layers) to get them showing
3. Add a new transparent layer to the image - click the bottom left button on the layer panel then, in the 'create new layer' box that pops up, select the transparency option and press OK (the reason for creating this layer is so youy can work on the text without fear of buggering up the original image).
4. To add text, select the text tool (it's a big capital A) in the toolbox window. In the bottom half of the toolbox window, choose a font and a colour (you can change these later).
5. Click anywhere on the image window and type the title. Resize the text by changing the font size in the toolbox. You can also change the colour and font, if you want to. If the text disappears from the image, or gets cut off, resize the text box by dragging on the corners or side.
6. You can shift the title to where you want by hovering over the text in the image window and (when a four-arrow pointer shows) clicking and dragging with the left mouse button.
7. To write a subtitle or author name, click on the image window anywhere outside the text box to start a new text box.
8. If you decide you want to change some text, make that text box active by selecting it in the layers window.
9. When you've got text and layout that looks good, go to file > save as (Shift+Ctrl+S) to save the file. Best always to save as a new file as you do not want to alter your original image, and the undo thingy only works for the current editing session.
10. If you're feeling adventurous, there's a whole host of Alpha-to-Logo filters you can try out. Select one of the text layers, go to Filters > Alpha_to_Logo >, choose one and see what happens. To clear up the mess, go to Edit > Undo (or press Ctrl+Z). I tend to compress all my text boxes onto the transparent layer (Image > Merge visible layers (Ctrl+M), but MAKE SURE the little eye thingy against your original image's layer in the layer window is not showing) before playing with filters because strange things can happen. Remember, Ctrl+Z is your best friend in the Gimp!