Skip to main content

Cover Design

Over at Mad Genius Club Cedar Sanderson is talking about cover design.

She's got a List of Seven Rules, and they're good ones:

  1. Book Covers are Marketing Tools
  2. Clearly Readable at Thumbnail
  3. Fits into Genre Conventions
  4. Use Legible Fonts
  5. Choose Good Art, or at least Clean Backgrounds
  6. Make the Author Name Bigger
  7. Never, Ever, Use an Unfiltered Photograph on Fiction

The last one seems a bit obvious to me and it makes a person wonder what happened to turn it into a specific rule.

Covers are scary to do, though, if you're doing your own.  They're probably scary if you're trusting someone else to do them too!

Here are a couple that I threw together for NaNoWriMo.  These really are just meant to be placeholders thrown together.   Here's my last years cover:

 The picture is from Pixabay and I've rotated and cropped it.  The font was probably one on my Adobe Photoshop/Adobe suite program (which I no longer have).  I love this font.    I really like this cover.  Love it.

It's not a good cover for a couple of reasons.   As marketing it doesn't represent the subgenre of the novel.  I think it says "science fiction" but a bit more literary than it really is.  And the font reinforces that.  And the title refers to one of the groups in the novel but they aren't the focus of the novel, so the title has to go, unfortunately.

What I'm hoping for is figuring out how to get some retro-SF custom artwork, something that harkens back to Frazetta with blasters and tentacles and stuff.

But it sure is a pretty cover, isn't it?

This is this year's cover.  I want my old font back.  I don't like the little serifs on the font.  I just want to cry, "Why?" But this is what was available on the Microsoft Paint that came with my new computer.  The background and the figure are from Pixabay.

I like the background and I sort of like the figure... she needs tobe much more prominent, golden and shining.  As is, she about disappears into the nebula behind her.  But the posture was exactly what I wanted and the colors match nicely and she will have to do.  Probably does better than I should have expected to find and throw together so I'm not complaining.

This also represents the story (as it is conceived so far... it's this year's NaNo so it's not written yet) better than the first one.  It probably needs an exploding spaceship back there, though, in order to be good marketing.

If I could make her glowing and golden and get a font I liked and an exploding spaceship, I might even want to keep this one. 

Comments

David Millar said…
Actually amazing post.Thank you so much.
background removal service
3:51 AM
yosabrams0918 said…
I’m impressed, I need to say. Actually rarely do I encounter a blog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you have got hit the nail on the head. Your thought is outstanding; the issue is something that not sufficient persons are speaking intelligently about. I'm very glad that I stumbled across this in my seek for one thing referring to this. casino blackjack
4:29 AM
harisalee@64gmail.com said…
I'm intrigued, I have to state. Entirely do I experience a blog that is each educative and engaging, and let me let you know, you have nailed it. Your idea is exceptional; the issue is something that not adequate people are talking cleverly about. I'm extremely happy that I discovered this in my look for one thing alluding to this.Logo Design
3:07 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some times some people.

 
Post a Comment
Read more

It's Not Projection

Take the case of "fascism". When you can see clear as day that the person who is accusing you of fascism is a fascist, they aren't projecting. They're talking about something ELSE. Basically, in the case of fascism, the basic set of fascist government controls are the default assumption of reality for a whole lot of people. The government is supposed to control every part of your life. The government is supposed to make you moral and good and reflect "justice". The government is supposed to do this by picking winners from the good people and losers from the bad people. The government is supposed to control the way people do business, how businesses (and farmers) function and what they produce. And people should be made to cooperate with this control because they are part of society and society is dependent on everyone being in compliance. This is simply the Truth. It's how the world works and how the world is supposed to work. The Socialist Nationalism, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tyranny.gov vs Tyranny.com

Compulsion is Compulsion, no matter who does it.  This is Brilliant Theft is Theft, no matter who does it. Freedom of Association has no room in it for *private* action   that takes that away Freedom of Association. If I have a business and have voluntary associations such that I choose to serve some people and to not serve others, that might make me a jerk and it might lose me business, it might make me smart and it might gain me business, but it's got to be my choice.  If I would normally serve the current disliked minority in my shop except for the fact that if I'm SEEN to serve them by the wrong people I'll have a private campaign against me as those people do everything possible to ruin me by preventing me from doing business physically or by attacking my customers or suppliers, then I am NOT free to make those choices. Does it really make a difference to losing my CHOICE to voluntarily associate if there's a law that says I may not serve "those people" o...
Post a Comment
Read more