The Cover of Your Book

[Apple Ice]

I was lurking about Waterstones the other day judging books by nothing but their cover, If i didn't like the cover I stayed away. The generic war ones entitled stuff like "Osama: The Unknown Son" which have a picture of an exploding helicopter on the front didn't get a second look at. Neither did the countless ones with a Spartan snarling at me. These could be good books for all I know but their covers made sure to tell me to keep away, which ironically could be luring other people in.
The ones I did pick up tended to have either bold colours or understated/pretty covers. Now that I have a novel in my hand the first sentence of the blurb has to be right. "In a world where..." or "One detective, one clue, one city, one murder" is the sort of opening that makes me put it back down and sigh.

I read a lot more than i write, I think about writing a lot and have many ideas but I lack motivation at the moment, something that doesn't worry me in the slightest because it will come. So saying that, I like to think I'm somewhat of a fair judge of these things because being a "writer" hasn't deluded me in thoughts of grandeur (not that I'm saying all writers have).

I was wondering how much you people have thought about the aesthetics of your masterpiece. I'm sure there will be a fair few who don't think about it at all until they've finished. But for those of you romantics who do, how much do you think about?

My whole cover and blurb are going to be the dogs bollocks I often think.

[Bloggsworth]

Well, as long as the dog isn't licking them, you might get away with it...

[Jeko]

I think it'll be someone else's job, and all I hope is that they do it well.

[Gavrushka]

It would be lovely to think one day I'll be losing sleep over such things...

.

[Apple Ice]

Ah yes, I didn't think about those who might not want to or be able to do it. I think I know better than anyone else about what will work with my story, certainly in terms of the text that is put on it anyway. As for the cover, I can't draw but I think I know what looks good.

EDIT: One day Gavrushka, one day

[OurJud]

My whole cover and blurb are going to be the dogs bollocks I often think.

And there's no reason it shouldn't be. I get a real kick doing mock-ups like these. The first is just one example for my current WiP, and the second is for a completely fictitious book.

[Apple Ice]

The first one is a lovely cover OJ, not too sure about the review, but the cover itself is something I would pick up and have a gander at. The second one is eye catching, I would expect so much acid in that book. I wish I could do that sort of stuff

[OurJud]

Thanks, Apple. You just need to be ambitious and brave. If you have some photo editing software (Photo Pos Pro is a good free one) just find a suitable image on google, crop or resize it to a rough book size and play about with the software's effects tools. When you get the sort of vibe you're looking for, add some text and play around with different fonts.

Jut be brave and let your imagination surprise you. Do things with the design your brain is telling you not to.

[Apple Ice]

You know, you may have just inspired me to give that a go, there's no way it could hurt, thanks for the software recommendation. I'm also glad to see that someone else has at least thought of their cover, i thought I was on my own for a moment.

[OurJud]

You know, you may have just inspired me to give that a go, there's no way it could hurt, thanks for the software recommendation. I'm also glad to see that someone else has at least thought of their cover, i thought I was on my own for a moment.

Go for it. One tip I'll give you for choosing the colour of the text on the cover, is to use the software's colour picker tool (it will look like an ink dropper). If you look at my Roadside Cafe cover, for instance, I needed a light colour for the title so that it stood out against the dark, so I picked the colour from the brightest spot of the sun, just above the steering wheel. Then for the author's name I also needed something light, but different to the title, so I picked the pink towards the top of the windscreen.

Doing this helps pull it all together