08-24-2010, 04:54 PM | #76 |
Banned
Posts: 5,100
Karma: 72193
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: South of the Border
Device: Coffin
|
Here's just a couple of pointers for everyone, and what I've learned since starting to do covers (some tips from a non-artist such as myself that'll give your covers some pizzaz!)
1. No serif fonts. They very rarely look good and are quite old-fashioned (this goes double for bevels and any of those text auto-effects you'll get in popular photo programs.) 2. The cover image must be colourful, or have a dominant colour (this helps it stand out in amongst a lot of other covers). 3. DON'T just slap a font on top of a picture that is near to what your story is about. You took time and effort to write a novel, now take a while to come up with a nice cover (although, I don't do this at all. It usually takes me fifteen minutes for a cover because I'm like an excited child when I get an idea). 4. TEXTURE, TEXTURE, TEXTURE. Layers of paper textures and grunge textures and canvas textures all over what you're doing, then play with blends until something pops out at you and screams COVER! 5. Go symbolic. Don't try and tell your whole story on the cover. Pick out an element or two that can represent your story in a visually eye-catching way. Get a good tagline on there to entice the reader (when they look closer). 6. Do it cheap. If you're an indie you won't have the budget for photoshop or illustrator or any of that. I use all free software (both free as in money and as in freedom to tinker) such as The Gimp and Inkscape on a free operating system (UbuntU) 7. Play to your audience's expectations. If you're writing horror, grunge up your cover, a thriller, you better have something on there that'll draw in a thriller crowd and so on. Again, the big sin with covers is just slapping some text over a picture. It will GUARANTEE a large portion of your potential audience will just skip reading you. Here's some of my recent covers (from my own publishing house) just to give you a flavour of what a non-trained person experimenting with images can come up with (all subject to drastic change). |
08-24-2010, 05:18 PM | #77 |
Groupie
Posts: 172
Karma: 200001
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: London
Device: Kindle keyboard
|
Really useful post, Mojoe.
(Do you mean it about serif fonts? Isn't there a place for them in some genres? There are quite a lot of them in the bookshops.) |
08-24-2010, 05:21 PM | #78 |
Kate
Posts: 1,685
Karma: 3165009
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Oregon, United States
Device: Nexus 7 2013, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Forma
|
Moejoe did the first version of my book cover, which you can see in this thread here.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62363 I totally loved it, and it only took him about 2 hours from the time I posted asking for help. The only reason I changed the cover is because I needed one 300 dpi for the paperback version, but even working from his original idea, it took me a couple of months to come up with the final version. The tagline is his - it was too perfect not to use (and the fact that he came up with it from a two paragraph synopsis is just astounding). He has a gift. |
08-24-2010, 05:35 PM | #79 | |
Banned
Posts: 5,100
Karma: 72193
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: South of the Border
Device: Coffin
|
Quote:
Of course, I do break my own rule. In the cover below for my novel "The Song of Insects" I used a serif font to mimic the 'curly' nature of the main graphic (but as I look at it now, I'm beginning to have my doubts about the usage). |
|
08-24-2010, 05:54 PM | #80 | |
Banned
Posts: 5,100
Karma: 72193
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: South of the Border
Device: Coffin
|
Quote:
First I'd like to ask which market are you targeting? is it the romance market or the mystery market? From your blurb it could easily be either. Once we know your target we can move forward and start coming up with a design (or designs) that will most effectively address the potential readership. EDIT: And you know, Lexi, you can have the one I did if you'd like it. It only took ten minutes or so, and its yours if you'd like to use it (of course I'd have to correct the spelling mistake on the front first and it's absolutely useless for print, but there you go.) Last edited by Moejoe; 08-24-2010 at 06:03 PM. |
|
08-24-2010, 06:02 PM | #81 |
Groupie
Posts: 172
Karma: 200001
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: London
Device: Kindle keyboard
|
I think your question goes to the heart of why I didn't quite manage to get an agent for Remix, Moejoe. It's contemporary fiction with elements of romance; it's a whodunnit but without the masses of suspects in the frame you usually get; it's not chicklit but my daughter reckons readers of chicklit would like it.
I wrote it attempting to write something as much of a page turner as an early Dick Francis, with an intelligent yet naive heroine as in I Capture the Castle. My go at commercial fiction after writing two books in that unique genre, fantasy for people who don't like fantasy. What a kind offer - but that's a carousel horse rather than a rocking horse, an important distinction Last edited by Lexi Revellian; 08-24-2010 at 06:08 PM. |
08-24-2010, 06:06 PM | #82 | |
Banned
Posts: 5,100
Karma: 72193
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: South of the Border
Device: Coffin
|
Quote:
From your description, I'm sensing a lighter tone to the work than I originally imagined. Give me a couple of minutes and let me see if I can come up with a more modern, chick-litty crossover cover. I'm thinking more primary colours, a green or a purple with a central image that pops and a slightly funky font beneath. |
|
08-24-2010, 06:23 PM | #83 |
Groupie
Posts: 172
Karma: 200001
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: London
Device: Kindle keyboard
|
Thank you - if I don't reply it won't be a stunned silence, just I'll be asleep as it's 11.20pm in London and past my bedtime.
|
08-24-2010, 06:25 PM | #84 |
Banned
Posts: 5,100
Karma: 72193
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: South of the Border
Device: Coffin
|
And it's 11:24pm in't North of England, it's about time I bring in the whippets and settle down in front o't coal fire with a pint of best
|
08-24-2010, 06:35 PM | #85 |
Groupie
Posts: 172
Karma: 200001
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: London
Device: Kindle keyboard
|
|
08-24-2010, 07:07 PM | #86 | ||
zeldinha zippy zeldissima
Posts: 27,827
Karma: 921169
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Paris, France
Device: eb1150 & is that a nook in her pocket, or she just happy to see you?
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
08-24-2010, 08:21 PM | #87 |
Banned
Posts: 5,100
Karma: 72193
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: South of the Border
Device: Coffin
|
Okay here's the light, breezy, chick-litty version of the cover. It'd fit right nice into that section of WHSmiths where my sister exclusively picks ALL her reading matter LOL
|
08-25-2010, 05:19 AM | #88 | |
Groupie
Posts: 172
Karma: 200001
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: London
Device: Kindle keyboard
|
Quote:
(I don't much like pink, because of the colour-coding of little girls one sees such a lot of, which I think is a Bad Thing.) |
|
08-25-2010, 06:23 AM | #89 | |
Banned
Posts: 5,100
Karma: 72193
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: South of the Border
Device: Coffin
|
Quote:
My sister is mid 30's going on 14 In the cold light of day, I'm not into the design much, although I still like the horsey. I'll have one final crack at it. |
|
08-25-2010, 07:47 AM | #90 |
Banned
Posts: 5,100
Karma: 72193
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: South of the Border
Device: Coffin
|
Blue colour. Guitar illustration.
|
Tags |
compelling, easy read, feel good, free, page turner |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Classic Touch Screen Page Turner | Pomtroll | Barnes & Noble NOOK | 30 | 10-15-2010 12:50 PM |
iPad Engadget: AirTurn's BT-105 footpedal is a real page turner | kjk | Apple Devices | 0 | 07-19-2010 11:25 AM |
Drummer Boy - A Paranormal Page Turner | DebbiM | Reading Recommendations | 1 | 05-11-2010 04:30 PM |
Any Page Turner Scripts Out There? | Barney | Kindle Formats | 0 | 09-26-2009 05:36 PM |
Entertaining, capturing and inspiring soul teaser | irapas1 | Reading Recommendations | 0 | 10-25-2003 07:15 AM |