Script Fonts--Yes or No

I am completely against using a script font on a cover since it's difficult to see in a thumbnail.

So how do I explain this?  It's quite large.  That's all I've got.  It's a beautiful font and I keep trying to use it.  I don't recommend it or any atypical font.  The good thing is that nothing is permanent.  It's all a test, you can try everything out and if it doesn't work, you can always change it.

I suppose some people can't live with this state of flux.  They don't enjoy self-publishing and want someone to do everything for them.  I don't care how many times I change things around, there are always new people coming on board who have never seen it before.

What did I do to this image?  It's something I got at a stock photo site--the girl in the hat, for a bargain price.  You don't have to pay an arm and a leg for a pretty good image but unfortunately you'll probably invest hours looking for it.  Some sites have more commercial type images and others, usually more expensive, have more artistic shots.  At some point someone will realize there is a market for images created with ebooks in mind.  Hasn't happened yet.

I blew the image way up not caring if the photo became unsharp or not.  There is post processing involved with the image and she's nowhere near that saturated originally.  Then I layered a photo I took of a little orange flower with a cobweb on it which diffuses the background/woman.  The dew is real since it was first thing in the morning.  There are other layers involved  but that's mainly what's going on.

It's funny how the edge of the leaf follows the brim of her hat so perfectly.

Cover Design Is Like Haiku

Because it takes a small amount of space to convey the idea.  I think we can agree on at least that much--a cover should convey something about the book.  How we envision that outcome is probably something we can't agree on. 

I can tell you what doesn't work for me--bad vector art, amateurish artwork, poor photography, images pasted together that weren't meant to go together (size differential).  Anything sims I think.  I've never seen it work.  Covers that are so dark I can't tell what's going on, covers that have too much going on.

Here's a site where you can look at hundreds of book covers and see if they work.  If yes, why, if not, why not.
Book Cover Archive.  There are links to the sites of individual book designers as well.

Maybe you're just not interested in designing a cover.  I understand.  4 years ago I didn't aspire to editing, proofreading and formatting.  I didn't dream I'd be making covers.  But publishing isn't the same as it was 4 years ago.  You have no publisher to do all the work for you so either you do it or you pay to have it done.  I'm a DIY type.  We all need to be sharper about how we present our work and covers are part of it whether you do the work or pay someone to do it for you.

Here's a portrait of some famous men in their youth.  I suspect if you look at it long enough you will figure it out.

Nothing Serious

The cover is done.  I forget where I am on the interior.  Probably done.  I admit I'm distracted by trying to follow too many issues today.

What you can't see is the template I downloaded from CreateSpace is underneath everything, it's just turned off.
I'm trying to think what I can tell you about cover design that I haven't already said.  Each element should have it's own layer.  Barbara Morgenroth front and Barbara Morgenroth spine are separate layers so if I should mess up one, nothing else is effected.

This concept was something hard for me to understand before I started working with Photoshop.  I didn't understand layers because I had never seen them.  It seems in life everything is flat.  If you draw something then color it in, it seems like 1 layer because it's a flat piece of paper.  In reality it's 3 layers--the paper, the drawing and the color.  In Photoshop that becomes apparent.  It's good to have everything segregated and safe.  Then at some point you can merge all the layers down.  I don't advise doing that.  Or go ahead and do it, just make sure you keep a working file that's not merged.  Once you merge and save, that's it, you're not unmerging; the layers are glued together forever.  The problem with that is if you want to go back and change anything, you'll probably have to rebuild the image. 

Dream Horse is ready to be printed.  Murder is scheduled to be printed--I'll use that for a giveaway at GoodReads (is there a more difficult site to navigate than that or is it just me?)

Good thing I did this post.  I realized I needed to put LARGE PRINT on the back cover.  It's not necessary for Amazon, but if I ever decide to go with the Extended Distribution, it would be correct to have that prominently displayed because being large print is definitely a selling point.

Dream Horse and Its CreateSpace Junket

Luckily I had a nice bottle of Angry Orchard Hard Apple Cider Ginger Flavor to get me through this one without running screaming outside and throwing myself into the pond.

I'm going to guess and say between me and my computer genius pal, we created about 12 versions of the file both in Word and Open Office, none of which made it through the CreateSpace meatgrinder and yet oddly enough looked perfect on our monitors.  Did I ever get a version that passed in doc?  No.

Here's what I did.  I took the most perfect version, looked at it again, made sure all the chapters started on a right side page, made sure all the numbering was correct, made sure that I could live with whatever little bits might be slightly skewed and I turned it into a PDF.  I uploaded that and CreateSpace became Happy Happy Happy.

Then I swore a lot.  And then uploaded the cover.

 

You are absolutely correct, I didn't put anything about the book on the back cover, just some reviews from BN.

It's not like this is destined to be sold in stores, it'll be at Amazon.  Read about it in the description.

When I did Impossible Charlie through Lightning Source, yes, I did the back cover all perfect, just like a real book.   This was already a big enough hassle, I didn't want to take on more.

Yes, it's a simple cover.  For this purpose, it doesn't need to be more designed than that.  It's about 5000% better than the original cover that Atheneum stuck me with, a grim and dark green and gray thing with terrible artwork.

Here there's beautiful Sparkle who will live on forever--you can't get better subject matter than him. 

Dream Horse Cover For CreateSpace

I have the background color faded so you can see the template which will be removed at the last step.
The apple is also faded so you can see thru it.  I'm not sure I'll leave that as an element because I favor using some of the great reviews off of BN for the book.

I see that CS is offering some generic covers for people to use.   All I can do is beg you not to default to that.  At least try to do your own cover. 

I might use this on the back.  It's the image of an apple put in a heart shape.  Simple clipping mask 

technique.  

 Yes, when the cover is done, I'll post it.