Book Covers for self publishers

"I Wore Heels to the Apocalypse"

A 'title of the year' contender (y)

And, yes I checked, it has positive reviews on Goodreads.
www.goodreads.com

I Wore Heels to the Apocalypse

Is anyone truly prepared for the apocalypse? Well, Kerry certainly isn’t, and she fairly quickly discovers that looking sharp in a busine...
www.goodreads.com
 
I can understand budget-challenged folks daring to endeavor to make their own book covers. We, yes, me included, often don't have much of a choice so take that desperate step. Despite the fact that at times with great desperation comes great disaster. So I wonder if it's possible, perhaps feasible for book cover amateurs to share their efforts here to get advice, feedback, suggestions, and whatnot? That is instead of mocked or otherwise insulted having seen too often such behavior have seen in forums on other websites.

I hope I'm not being too wordy. I do write and have a few sci fi short stories on Amazon and Smashwords. However, I was one of those kids who had a "What If" imagination. So would jump around from one fascination to another. Therefore, I'm now experimenting with the idea of using animation software in conjunction with a cheap graphics program to make book covers just to see what I can learn. Ultimately, if good enough offer them for very cheap sale or give to writer friends. BUT, BUT, BUT, I've decided (as usual) to march to the beat of a different drummer. So my cover characters are what I call atypical. They're not these impossibly perfect and sexy models one usually sees. I use heavy, elder, various ethnical, and other "real" people as models. I hope I provoke writers to write more sci fi stories about such people. So now, putting money (as if) where my mouth is, I'll stick my neck out by sharing one of my efforts here.
 

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@BuriedAlien ; I'm not a graphic artist, cover designer, or can even draw a stick figure right... But, I have some issues with a LOT of covers where clearly someone didn't take the time to match the quality of various pieces of art/photographs they insert, perspective, and that includes text. What I mean by that is, if the images of people are of a crisp resolution, the background should match it. Take the lowest resolution item you have...then reduce the quality of every other to match it.

That also goes for any text. Most folks pick a font and slap it over their image and that's that. Instead, they need to take that text, make an image of it, erase its background and then deres it to match the image.

Finally, I have issue with a LOT of poser program images, or perhaps it's simply that folks don't take more time. So, here are limbs in unnatural positions, feet that don't match the angle of the floor (and it might be a minuscule perspective change), expressions that make them look lobotomized, whatever.

As an example, this is just a hacked up image to give myself some ideas and have something for my beta readers (the background is a web snagged image so I'd have to secure rights FIRST to use it). This image contains the background 'altered,' flag significantly altered in shape and wear, background removed from the model image, shadows added, graffiti, grime/oil/rust on the text, and a number of additions and alterations to make it fit the story. Again, this is just a whipped out image that will never get used:

cvr.jpg


So, take the time to get the images to match, perspective, contrast, saturation, and resolution.

By the way... Go Vols!

K2
 
Hi Buried,

You can get quite reasonable covers done by artists for say 1 to 2 hundred bucks. And if that's not an option you can use a place like 123RF to get images for much less again. And a single image used well is often all you need. Attached is the mock up of my next book, done that way. Now if only I could finish the book then do a blurb!!!

ChyFullCover1.jpgCheers, Greg.
 
BuriedAlien said:
So I wonder if it's possible, perhaps feasible for book cover amateurs to share their efforts here to get advice, feedback, suggestions, and whatnot?
Click to expand...
If said book cover amateurs have at least 100 counted posts here, it's entirely possible -- and does happen.

However, we have strict rules forbidding self-promotion by new non-subscribing members which means they cannot give any details of their published or about to be published work, which would almost invariably catch cover designs produced by or for new members without those 100 posts -- the only exception might be if a would-be-writer is so enthusiastic s/he's drawing up the cover well before the book is actually finished.

So a lovely idea, but here it would be restricted to well-established members, and those would be best served by starting their own thread asking for help, rather than having a single thread or even sub-forum for everybody.
 
-K2- said:
@BuriedAlien ; I'm not a graphic artist, cover designer, or can even draw a stick figure right... But, I have some issues with a LOT of covers where clearly someone didn't take the time to match the quality of various pieces of art/photographs they insert, perspective, and that includes text. What I mean by that is, if the images of people are of a crisp resolution, the background should match it. Take the lowest resolution item you have...then reduce the quality of every other to match it.

That also goes for any text. Most folks pick a font and slap it over their image and that's that. Instead, they need to take that text, make an image of it, erase its background and then deres it to match the image.

Finally, I have issue with a LOT of poser program images, or perhaps it's simply that folks don't take more time. So, here are limbs in unnatural positions, feet that don't match the angle of the floor (and it might be a minuscule perspective change), expressions that make them look lobotomized, whatever.

As an example, this is just a hacked up image to give myself some ideas and have something for my beta readers (the background is a web snagged image so I'd have to secure rights FIRST to use it). This image contains the background 'altered,' flag significantly altered in shape and wear, background removed from the model image, shadows added, graffiti, grime/oil/rust on the text, and a number of additions and alterations to make it fit the story. Again, this is just a whipped out image that will never get used:

View attachment 66719

So, take the time to get the images to match, perspective, contrast, saturation, and resolution.

By the way... Go Vols!

K2
Click to expand...

Thank you, K2. An incredible and much appreciated response compared to other forums I've seen wannabe cover designer get. Seriously, your reply was an education, especially about the title fonts. Make an image of it and put it into the graphic? Never ever thought of it but then again, I just started messing with cover design. Tex matching the image? Common sense, didn't think of that either. I guess it's true that common sense isn't common. I will be incorporating your suggestions into future covers. The existing ones, I will leave alone and eventually post here for input on them.

I get any background images I use from public domain sites like Pixabay to avoid licensing issues. Others I create myself with animation software. Some, I use my very OLD Canon FTb SLR camera to photo locations If OK with you, I want to copy and paste your advisory/comments here and save to a text file for future reference in my new endeavors. May I?.

GO VOL! indeed.
 
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psychotick said:
Hi Buried,

You can get quite reasonable covers done by artists for say 1 to 2 hundred bucks. And if that's not an option you can use a place like 123RF to get images for much less again. And a single image used well is often all you need. Attached is the mock up of my next book, done that way. Now if only I could finish the book then do a blurb!!!

View attachment 66723Cheers, Greg.
Click to expand...

I know. I avoid doing that because they're available for anyone. I'd think authors want their covers to be one of a kind. I do use Pixabay license-free images sometimes as backdrops. Not all of us can drop a few hundred bucks and that's why we try to make our own. Budget challenged folks can't just drop 1-3 hundred here and there at a whim.
 
The Judge said:
If said book cover amateurs have at least 100 counted posts here, it's entirely possible -- and does happen.

However, we have strict rules forbidding self-promotion by new non-subscribing members which means they cannot give any details of their published or about to be published work, which would almost invariably catch cover designs produced by or for new members without those 100 posts -- the only exception might be if a would-be-writer is so enthusiastic s/he's drawing up the cover well before the book is actually finished.

So a lovely idea, but here it would be restricted to well-established members, and those would be best served by starting their own thread asking for help, rather than having a single thread or even sub-forum for everybody.
Click to expand...

Should have read your post first. Hear you loud and clear. That upload will thus be my first and last. I always try to exhibit respect for forum moderator rules and such. Thanks for letting me know this.
 
One thing to bear in mind if designing your own cover is to never underestimate the power of text!
My personal favourite is the first edition of The Vampire Lestat, It is a classic design, worthy of an essay.
Vampire_Lestat_Original.jpg
 
Astro Pen said:
One thing to bear in mind if designing your own cover is to never underestimate the power of text!
My personal favourite is the first edition of The Vampire Lestat, It is a classic design, worthy of an essay.
View attachment 66724
Click to expand...


I agree 100%. As part of my time-killing when I needed a break and for other threads here, I worked these up in the past as a simple version of my above image:

plainsm.jpg
___________
testB.jpg


K2
 
I find some of those in the opening post very effective and wouldn't call them bad. I once designed a purposely bad EP cover for my band:

a0198267732_10.jpg


And it led to one of my favourite review quotes: “Mothers Against Bacon is an awfully named EP with terrible artwork that thankfully redeems itself with its content...”

I also think "bad" drawing is an art. Some people can do it very well.
 
Astro Pen said:
One thing to bear in mind if designing your own cover is to never underestimate the power of text!
My personal favourite is the first edition of The Vampire Lestat, It is a classic design, worthy of an essay.
View attachment 66724
Click to expand...
I agree and think K2 sort of emphasized this as well. I'm really loving how you folks give truly meaningful advice. Wish I could put my other 5-6 covers here to get more input. I'm learning a good deal here.
 
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