Covers for Short Stories

gmw · 07-07-2015, 09:09 AM

Do readers notice/care-about the file size of the short stories they download?

Smashwords (at the behest of the people they distribute to) recommend a cover size at least 1400 wide. My own standard size is 1500x2400. It felt a bit strange having an epub where half the compressed size was the cover, but, for a novel, I figured that was okay. In my first published short story the cover came to 83% of the compressed file size, but the whole thing was only 106kB so I figured no one was going to quibble. However ...

I put together a cover for the next short story I want to publish, but the image turns out to be quite a large JPEG file. Even when saving at a quality of 50 it comes out at 460kB. A big part of the reason for this is that the background is a brick wall with lots of texture (but a plain colour). Blow it up to 100% and the texture looks great :-) ... but, of course, it's only going to be noticed by people reading on hi-res tablets and so on.

I can despeckle and smooth etc. to reduce the texture (my first experiment with this dropped the image file size by half), but it doesn't look at as good. With more work I can probably do better (both file size and appearance). But ... is it worth it? Am I wasting my time? If the readers won't care about a half-meg file then I may as well leave it asis.

This is a short story of only 4300 words, the epub is probably going to come out around 460kB with the cover I have now - the image barely compresses and the text is barely relevant - hell, I could embed the text using steganography and just upload the image (if people had smarter readers).

ETA: When I say the "text is barely relevant" I mean in terms of the file size ... the point of this post is that only that small 4300 words is actually relevant to the reading experience.

Glorfindel · 07-07-2015, 09:24 AM

I would leave it. If someone doesn't have enough storage space to add it to their ereader it's time to do some cleaning

PandathePanda · 07-07-2015, 10:12 AM

I think unless it's taking up 99.9% of the size, I doubt there is a problem.

cromag · 07-07-2015, 06:24 PM

I don't notice the file size of the stories I download, and I've never checked the percentage of that space devoted to covers. All of my ereaders allow SD/microSD expansion, and these cards are cheap. My entire Calibre library amounts to 1.5 GB and I'm still using the 2GB cards I started with. I have some 4GB cards I can move up to, if and when I need to. These days the smallest cards that are readily available are probably 8GB and go for $5 (US) each -- and the 16GB cards start at about $8.

Basically, I don't think that the cover size is a factor for most readers.

gmw · 07-07-2015, 09:16 PM

Thank you all for your input. I'll stop panicking about it. (One of the downsides of being a software developer in real life is that I notice these things, giving me yet more issues to procrastinate over with my writing

.)

07-07-2015, 09:09 AM	#1
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,809 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Covers for Short Stories Do readers notice/care-about the file size of the short stories they download? Smashwords (at the behest of the people they distribute to) recommend a cover size at least 1400 wide. My own standard size is 1500x2400. It felt a bit strange having an epub where half the compressed size was the cover, but, for a novel, I figured that was okay. In my first published short story the cover came to 83% of the compressed file size, but the whole thing was only 106kB so I figured no one was going to quibble. However ... I put together a cover for the next short story I want to publish, but the image turns out to be quite a large JPEG file. Even when saving at a quality of 50 it comes out at 460kB. A big part of the reason for this is that the background is a brick wall with lots of texture (but a plain colour). Blow it up to 100% and the texture looks great :-) ... but, of course, it's only going to be noticed by people reading on hi-res tablets and so on. I can despeckle and smooth etc. to reduce the texture (my first experiment with this dropped the image file size by half), but it doesn't look at as good. With more work I can probably do better (both file size and appearance). But ... is it worth it? Am I wasting my time? If the readers won't care about a half-meg file then I may as well leave it asis. This is a short story of only 4300 words, the epub is probably going to come out around 460kB with the cover I have now - the image barely compresses and the text is barely relevant - hell, I could embed the text using steganography and just upload the image (if people had smarter readers). ETA: When I say the "text is barely relevant" I mean in terms of the file size ... the point of this post is that only that small 4300 words is actually relevant to the reading experience. Last edited by gmw; 07-07-2015 at 09:14 AM.

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07-07-2015, 09:24 AM	#2
Glorfindel Force-Aware Elf Posts: 4,757 Karma: 11557898 Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Valinor Device: Kindle 4 w/SO	I would leave it. If someone doesn't have enough storage space to add it to their ereader it's time to do some cleaning

07-07-2015, 10:12 AM	#3
PandathePanda a toy panda Posts: 2,567 Karma: 26020474 Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Onboard the Queen Anne's Revenge Device: Various Android dvices	I think unless it's taking up 99.9% of the size, I doubt there is a problem.

07-07-2015, 06:24 PM	#4
cromag Surfin the alpha waves ~~ Posts: 24,272 Karma: 459220161 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: New Jersey Device: Jetbook Lite & Mini, Nook STR, Kobo, Hanvon N516, Kindle 2, Androids	I don't notice the file size of the stories I download, and I've never checked the percentage of that space devoted to covers. All of my ereaders allow SD/microSD expansion, and these cards are cheap. My entire Calibre library amounts to 1.5 GB and I'm still using the 2GB cards I started with. I have some 4GB cards I can move up to, if and when I need to. These days the smallest cards that are readily available are probably 8GB and go for $5 (US) each -- and the 16GB cards start at about $8. Basically, I don't think that the cover size is a factor for most readers.

07-07-2015, 09:16 PM	#5
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,809 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Thank you all for your input. I'll stop panicking about it. (One of the downsides of being a software developer in real life is that I notice these things, giving me yet more issues to procrastinate over with my writing .)

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