Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Cover Boy

I've been working on some ideas for the cover of my ebook.  Ebook covers ideally need to be considered as separate entities than paper book covers.  First of all, everyone will be viewing them initially as tiny little thumbnails on their devices.  So the title of the book really needs to stand out.  Some pleasing but catchy colors can also be effective.  Because the old advice to never judge a book by its cover is hardly ever taken.  At the same time, if you, like me, have a reader instead of a tablet, the cover needs to work in black and white as well, meaning it has good contrast and the colors don't all convert to the same shade of gray.  And, of course, there needs to be a strong graphic on the cover to catch the eye as well.  I have found working on this little sub-project over the weekend to be both fun and frustrating.  I worked up the daytime picture in Lightroom 5 and various Nik plug-ins to give it a darker look, the assembled it and the lettering using multiple layers in Photoshop Elements.  Version 9, I believe.  Anyhow, here are 4 variations on a theme:




And one that is completely different.



What do you think?  Any comments?  Suggestions?  Thoughts?
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6 comments:

  1. JordanJuly 23, 2013 at 12:31 PM

    Compositionally I feel like the first picture might be hard to deal with. It's hard to fit the text on there without it merging with the road. I like the first font and the last font the best, and I think the last picture is more interesting. However maybe you could make your name smaller on it in order to leave the cover less crowded? Just a few ideas, good start though.

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    Replies
    1. Jeff DamronJuly 23, 2013 at 12:59 PM

      What? Make my name smaller? That's crazy! :) Thanks for the input though.

      Delete
    2. Bill FlowersJuly 23, 2013 at 1:22 PM

      Looking at this, first, from my Feedly reader, I was going to comment that I like the last one best, but I was going to suggest that you consider a small black border all the way around. Then, when I go directly to your blog page, I see you had already thought of that! The last cover has a lot of impact and with the blood red in the corner fulfills your desire for one being attracted to the cover in both color and b&w.

      Delete
  2. UnknownJuly 23, 2013 at 3:20 PM

    I like the the last one best. :) What if the word "of" wasn't italicized?

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  3. AnonymousJuly 23, 2013 at 9:28 PM

    #1 struck me right away. Something about it reminds me of 1940's Dell mapbacks. The font and the gradient, perhaps. It says "Mystery".
    #3 is cool, but it looks like a 1960's science fiction cover--probably the wrong vibe.
    The other covers didn't light my fire.

    Ripping off the classic covers of the 1940's might be fruitful:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/56781833@N06/sets/72157627476144347/detail/

    Adam

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  4. Jeff DamronJuly 23, 2013 at 10:13 PM

    Thanks for all the thoughts and comments! And Adam, those covers are amazing! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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