Wanted Artist

Lafayette

Lafayette

Man of Artistic Fingers
Supporter
Joined
Jun 14, 2016
Messages
656
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Hopefully in a few months I will have finish editing and revising my e-book and I will need a cover. So my question is where do I go for an artist that is not only good, but pays attention to details and doesn't charge boo-koo bucks? I'm on a limited income.

A friend got me an artist from Fiverr.com, however he quit or said he couldn't fulfill my request. My objections were one of the characters was too pretty (I was picturing Johnny Cash), another character you couldn't see his mane of red hair, and that all the characters were just standing still and not doing anything.

I know I don't know a great deal concerning writing, but I do know that a static cover is not going attract readers. I want a great cover.

Any ideas?
 
It's good to know what you want and lay that out right away to the artist. And I have no problem with someone demanding the best. However, unless you can do the artwork yourself you may want to be certain you are being diplomatic when discussing the weak points.

I will suggest: because someone else will likely suggest: that you reach out to @Gary Compton . He'll let you know what he needs from you and I've seen him give a pretty good response to people here with cover ideas for their work.

Also when dealing with places like fiverr.com you might want to make your choice after using their utility to select the options that match what you need before choosing an artist or service..
 
Lafayette said:

I know I don't know a great deal concerning writing, but I do know that a static cover is not going attract readers. I want a great cover.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Can't help with the artist enquiry but this worried me. What don't you know a great deal about? The writing, or the business end of it? Don't self publish until your product is a good one - in my experience that always comes back to bite you. :)
 
Jo's advice times a million. Don't rush to be published, take your time and create the best novel you can. :) (if your post was about not knowing too much about the craft of writing.)
 
Yes it would have made more sense to say::
I know I don't know a great deal concerning artwork, but I do know that a static cover is not going attract readers. I want a great cover.

Unless you do know a great deal about artwork; in which case I would suggest you block out your own using your skills.
 
Jo Zebedee said:
Can't help with the artist enquiry but this worried me. What don't you know a great deal about? The writing, or the business end of it? Don't self publish until your product is a good one - in my experience that always comes back to bite you. :)
Click to expand...
Wholeheartedly agree with Jo on this. Get your story written, beta'd, and edited and finished before worrying about artwork. Not least as the finished story may change from how you imagine it in the beginning; characters grow and your picture of them alters. I imagine you want the art to be representative of what the reader will encounter, so don't give the reader impressions from an early draft. Good luck with the writing.
 
I believe I will go with the consensus here and hold off on the artist and concentrate on the revisions. I certainly have enough of that to do.

I may have been thinking what my friend was trying to get me to do and that was just get it (my book) out there and do the revisions later since it is an e-book. To be honest the perfectionist in me cringes at this idea. My friend since then has eased his prodding.

This same old friend has always been very supportive of whatever I've been involved in. He himself has published a number of e-books and when my time comes to publishing he will help me.

So when I said, "I know I don't know a great deal concerning writing" I meant the writing end and not the business end. I am not too concern right now about the business part. One problem at a time. Right now, my main concern is the writing. From the critiques I've received I've learn that there is a lot more to learn.

Thank you for your support and comments. Please keep in touch.
 
Just reiterating that you really do want to get the best possible TEXT of the book out there. Sometimes people do relaunch a book later with a better cover because they don't feel they are selling enough or the cover is letting down the contents in some way. But just because it's an ebook and can be replaced with an improved version is no reason to put out a rough version that has not had sufficient editing. If a reader feels let down and disappointed, they certainly won't try your work again, might leave a negative review and - this has come up more recently - could complain to Amazon that it is full of typing and grammar mistakes, resulting in your book being suspended on Amazon.

Re cover design, there are some good sites on the internet to read about what makes a good cover. For example, Derek Murphy has a number of posts on the subject - book cover design | Search Results | Creativindie
Joel Friedlander gives feedback every month on covers on his site - The Book Designer - Practical advice to help build better books - plus advice.

From what I read a couple of years ago when first researching the subject, it's considered old fashioned now to have a cover that literally translates a scene from your book. Instead, you need to convey a mood/atmosphere/impression. And less is more - usually just one character or sometimes two but not a whole crowd. Also, there's been a move away to 'headless' figures or back only, the idea being that the reader projects themselves into the character and doesn't have to be restricted by a literal interpretation.

Finally, if funds are limited, there are a lot of sites that provide cheaper premades rather than having to commission something from scratch which can be expensive, though it is obviously best to go for something that looks similar to traditionally published books as you don't want to stand out in a bad way.
 
Lafayette said:
A friend got me an artist from Fiverr.com, however he quit or said he couldn't fulfill my request. My objections were one of the characters was too pretty (I was picturing Johnny Cash), another character you couldn't see his mane of red hair, and that all the characters were just standing still and not doing anything.
Click to expand...

Agree with the advice so far, but I'll just add that when it does come time to get artwork, especially from somewhere like fiverr, you want to be very, very specific about what you want. If you're paying a lot of money to work with an artist you can expect a bit of back and forth, but when someone is working a gig (fiverr) they're only going to give it one or two shots to get what you're after, then they'll probably move onto another project.
 
Fiverr tends to pay far below industry standard rates for art. Be aware that for art that meets you standard (dynamic poses, varied body types and ages, distinct designs) you will likely need to look elsewhere and pay more. Many skilled artists avoid Fiverr.

Fiverr also primarily attracts artists in countries where the low pay rate stretches further -- countries like Indonesia -- so you can run into more of a language barrier. Be very clear when describing your expectations.

Your friend did a lovely thing buying you art (what a nice person!), but there are much better places out there to find artists for hire. Deviantart and Tumblr are good starting points.
 
pambaddeley said:
But just because it's an ebook and can be replaced with an improved version is no reason to put out a rough version that has not had sufficient editing. If a reader feels let down and disappointed, they certainly won't try your work again, might leave a negative review...

That is a very good point one which I'll remember. This reminds me of something my Mother use to say, "If you're going to do something do it right and not half ass."

it's considered old fashioned now to have a cover that literally translates a scene from your book. Instead, you need to convey a mood/atmosphere/impression. And less is more - usually just one character or sometimes two but not a whole crowd.

Another good point which I haven't thought about. I will meditate on it.

E.Maree said:
Fiverr tends to pay far below industry standard rates for art. Be aware that for art that meets you standard (dynamic poses, varied body types and ages, distinct designs) you will likely need to look elsewhere and pay more. Many skilled artists avoid Fiverr.

Be very clear when describing your expectations.

Your friend did a lovely thing buying you art (what a nice person!), but there are much better places out there to find artists for hire. Deviantart and Tumblr are good starting points.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the additional heads up on Fiverr.com. It explains why he was not more flexible. I will look into Deviantart and Tumblr. My friend has always been in the habit of doing lovely things.

Thank you all.
Click to expand...
 
I hired an artist from DeviantArt for my first book cover. She did an excellent job with my request- you can see it on the landing page ad on this site (as of 2/22). I paid $170 for her work.
She wasn't available for my next book, so I hired an artist on Fiverr for that cover. I paid $105 for that cover. I could've gone cheaper, but I wanted a style not used in a long time and so the cheaper artists tend to just rearrange photos and such. It was worth the price for unlimited revisions and good quality.
Today, I went with a simple cover for a short story series I'm publishing soon, so a cheap Fiverr cover works well. To cover the language barrier, I write in simple English and detail my request with example photos as best as I can. Though, the artists I have the most trouble with tend to be British and American, for some reason.

If you want a basic DIY cover, you can make do with a free royalty free photo from Dreamstime or someplace like that. I found a few pics there for my Wattpad series, since I don't plan to sink $300 for a cover for a free site. For this to be useful, you really have to have an idea of what kind of photo you want.
 
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