Inkshares Community discussion
Inkshares Publication Topics
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Cover and Title Questions
Titles are tough. They can't be cliches. They can't be too long (unless they are). They have to be catchy and memorable. They should have multiple layers of meaning (maybe one that relates to the overall theme, and one that relates to the main character, etc.). It needs to be original (which mine was until I took to long writing it and now there's a crappy movie and another book released in the past year).All that, plus you have to like it.
It's hard.
I know some artists who I might see about commissioning a cover if I get the money together. Granted I'm still really figuring out what I'd want the cover to look like in general, let alone a fully commissioned pretty one.
Seriously, check out fiverr.com. That site is infinitely helpful for this kind of stuff. Pro tip: if you're too much of a lazy slob, outsource it. Worked for america. Should work for you too...Also, not being intentionally racist. But I do unfortunately know a few asshats that would interpret anything as offensive.
Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about the title. A lot of great books have titles that mean next to nothing until you read the book (Wool). Others are so generic as to barely serve as a descriptor (The Martian). In my limited experience, it's a lot harder but even more important to work on your elevator pitch for your book. You'll be asked again and again for a two sentence description and most of us won't know what to answer. I sure as hell don't.
Covers are tougher. Yicheng has a good idea using Fiverr.com. You can also go to your local design school and ask if some of the students would like to design something for you for a reasonable price. Illustrations are the killer so if you can get away with a clever design idea that doesn't rely on a photo-realistic painting of a dragon and/or spaceship I would lean in that direction.
I would definitely think of setting money aside for a decent cover however. Never under-estimate the impact of a great image.
I agree with JF. Titles can be generic and still be memorable. For me, I had to sit back and realize the title doesn't have to describe book. The cover needs to grab the reader and reel them in. Most of us are visual people and the visual is what we are looking for. I may not ever read the title unless the cover catches my eye.
I am artistically challenged, so I usually have to leave the covers up to someone else. My experience with designing is I know what I want but I can't articulate it through artistic means. That puts my at a disadvantage I guess. Something like fiverr.com could be very useful if you are like me when it comes to artwork. Thanks for the recommendation.
It's go to know that titles aren't everything. They do help a writer convey something to the reader. I'm going to be looking into either designing a cover, or commissioning someone to design my cover.
I am blessed. I have a CRAP Ton of artist friends that do graphic novels and design work. Basically, me being into novels is an oddity. Everyone I know is graphic novels, art, commissions, or music. If you want, I can put anyone in contact with the guy who did mine.
I'll admit that I'm a bit of a design snob and if I see I bad cover it does immediately turn me off a book. My day job is design though, so I'm sure not everyone feels the same. If I had the time I would offer my services to you folks but this month will be crazy enough as it is! :(Generally I would stay the heck away from sites like Fiverr.com on pure principle - "You get what you pay for" and again, design snob here. I would suggest finding a friend who can help you out or maybe just buying a nice stock photo to use instead.
E. R. wrote: "I'll admit that I'm a bit of a design snob and if I see I bad cover it does immediately turn me off a book. My day job is design though, so I'm sure not everyone feels the same. If I had the time I..."I don't want a complex cover, just something simple. I try not to judge books by their covers, especially YA books. Sometimes YA books have some of the ugliest covers :P.
Wow, that's a lot of good advices! Keep it rollin', people...
Mod
I'm going to throw the name Joshua Jadon in the ring. He does amazing fantasy and sci fi covers, and I just hired him to do a better cover for Blood Dawn (I did it myself), as well as for a short story I'm having featured in a magazine.http://joshuajadon.com/
John wrote: "I'm going to throw the name Joshua Jadon in the ring. He does amazing fantasy and sci fi covers, and I just hired him to do a better cover for Blood Dawn (I did it myself), as well as for a short s..."Wow gorgeous covers! I'm looking through his portfolio.
I just updated the cover for my book, if anyone wants to take a look and give some thoughts I'd appreciate it.http://bit.ly/ghostsofwar
I think it looks great! I love the little details like the tally marks still being there. And the character looks like he silhouetted and fire. That's really cool! I would love to have a 3D cover like that! What are you using to do that?
i used templates from here:http://www.psdcovers.com/
there's tonnes of them on there, they're essentially just photoshop actions. Press one button to make the template, then put the appropriate pictures in, and then another action makes it into the 3d thing.
pretty nifty.
Hey Paul who did the drawings for your characters? They're amazing and awesome.
K.E. wrote: "Wow gorgeous covers! I'm looking through his portfolio. "I'm in the process of hiring Josh to do the cover for Blood Dawn. His prices are a bit higher than I'm used to, but you'll probably agree his covers are AMAZING. We need to be able to stand out in the catalog of hundreds of covers to convince prospective backers to click on our book in the 1-3 seconds we have to grab their attention. It's a bit of an investment, but from the bit of background I have in cover as a marketing tool, I can't stress enough how a cover will make or break an author, since if you don't get your reader's attention, they won't make it to your blurb, or your first chapter.
John wrote: "K.E. wrote: "Wow gorgeous covers! I'm looking through his portfolio. "I'm in the process of hiring Josh to do the cover for Blood Dawn. His prices are a bit higher than I'm used to, but you'll pr..."
That's why I worry that Silver Eyes isn't getting the coverage it needs. People look at the cover and go that's boring and not interesting. *sigh*
Right now I can't afford to commission anyone at the moment, but in a few weeks I should be able to. It sucks, cause I want my book to sell.
K.E. wrote: "Right now I can't afford to commission anyone at the moment, but in a few weeks I should be able to. It sucks, cause I want my book to sell. "I'd say my cover sucks too, though I did what limited wizardly I could manage to make it look okay. I think anyone who does their own cover, unless they are a professional cover designer, is going to have the same problem. I can't afford a cover either, but I'm happy to pay the interest on my credit card and go into debt because like you say, the book has to sell. I'll live under a bridge if that's what it takes to afford to make this book come to life. There are worse things you can spend your money on, like a new bed or an entertainment center, etc. Spending money and going broke to pursue your dream? Invaluable.
John wrote: "K.E. wrote: "Right now I can't afford to commission anyone at the moment, but in a few weeks I should be able to. It sucks, cause I want my book to sell. "I'd say my cover sucks too, though I did..."
You have to be somewhat reasonable too. Once your book is funded, Inkshares does provide some limited cover design for your book. If you're going to invest, that might be where you'll want to spend the extra dollars.
For my book 'The Life Engineered' I had an amateur cover illustration for the duration of the campaign. Once 'funded', I spent some extra money to get an illustration done by a professional so that Inkshares would be using something custom instead of stock imagery or just graphical devices.
Obviously, you need a nice enough cover to get past 'step 1', but if you can keep as much budget to make the final version even better it can turn out to be a wiser investment.
Of course, if you have the money to get a kickass, super professional cover pre-funding, then go right ahead. Hopefully it funds though 'cause that's can be one hell of an investment.
J-F wrote: "You have to be somewhat reasonable too. Once your book is funded, Inkshares does provide some limited cover design for your book. If you're going to invest, that might be where you'll want to spend the extra dollars."That's a good point. Spending the $3,000 on a cover that it would cost for original artwork and top-of-the-line design would be silly -- that's why we're trying to fund through Inkshares, because they pay for that cutting edge. You can get cheap stock art covers for ~$300, and that's quite reasonable. You can get them for cheaper too, depending on either if you have connections and can convince someone to cut you a deal, or if you can find someone who will work for cheap but still do good work. Josh's price is $500 -- a bit more than I'm used to, but considering that he works from stock art, I'm super impressed!
Right now I have bills to be paid and rent to pay. We're also saving up to move. Right now I'll probably just do something cheap for now, or do my own.
J-F,What sort of cover design did they offer you? And how did you come to the choice of going out on your own?
Paul wrote: "J-F,What sort of cover design did they offer you? And how did you come to the choice of going out on your own?"
I don't know how much is proper to go into but they have a budget set aside for design and some images. I don't know how they settle on said budget so I can't tell you much about that part.
I can tell you that soon after funding you will be asked to fill in several documents, one of which is a design brief so the designers know the mood, feel, themes and imagery that your book should convey. I had a very firm idea of what I wanted and I've done a lot of artistic direction so that went rather smoothly for me. What I can tell you is that part of the budget for my cover I was able to use for a proper illustration (don't expect to pay the full illustration on that though. I did because my art guy is a big fan of my book and took an 80% cut on off the price). The people there seem very competent with design though so it's worth working with them.
That's what I was wondering. Obviously, they want to see you succeed. I filled all the info out already. That was fun, and difficult...I guess I am just anxious about getting into that part. I wont have to wait much longer.
Thanks!
K.E. wrote: "Hey Paul who did the drawings for your characters? They're amazing and awesome."they were done by a guy called BrotherBaston.
http://brotherbaston.deviantart.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/BrotherB...
I did a little photoshop experimenting (along with a photo that my boyfriend took using a nice camera) and I'm thinking this cover for my book looks nicer. What does everyone think? 
I really like it! One small critique? The "Silver Eyes" part fades into the trees a bit. Could you increase the contrast so that it stands out stronger? (As strong as as name at the bottom.) Also, I'd suggest cutting "By:" as it is customary in book covers to just put the author name. But I LOVE the background and the eyes! Gives a feel of a forest spirit / wood nymphs if that's what you're going for.
John wrote: "I really like it! One small critique? The "Silver Eyes" part fades into the trees a bit. Could you increase the contrast so that it stands out stronger? (As strong as as name at the bottom.) Also, ..."I wanted it to be adventure like, and well Elwyn spends a lot of time in a forest. What do you think of this:
The title here looks much clearer! Interestingly, the contrast also makes the eyes subtler, which I think adds to the mystical feel. Great job!
One final comment -- an afterthought -- you might consider adjusting the lightness / contrast in Photoshop on the background image. The brightness of the sky is one thing creating a clash with the font in the title. Some adjustments might take the edge off this a bit, making those letter stronger.
K.E. wrote: "John wrote: "I really like it! One small critique? The "Silver Eyes" part fades into the trees a bit. Could you increase the contrast so that it stands out stronger? (As strong as as name at the bo..."I don't know why I felt compelled to do this. Random inspiration? It's not even terribly good...
Woah!!! Shut up that's amazing. Better than anything I could do.
K.E. wrote: "Woah!!! That is amazing!!!"Oh cool. Let me know if you want a high resolution of it. It's kinda slapped together so obviously not something I'd use for a final product but if you like it, use it.
J-F wrote: "K.E. wrote: "Woah!!! That is amazing!!!"Oh cool. Let me know if you want a high resolution of it. It's kinda slapped together so obviously not something I'd use for a final product but if you lik..."
Really? Wow! Something you slapped together, ffs that is just, I don't know what to say. I'd love to use it if you don't mind. I don't know exactly how to credit you other than put a link to your book or something.
I'm a graphic designer and brand specialist irl. Trying hard to get out of that horsecrap business though. Design is.. ugh... not a fun place to work.Sure, book link sounds good.
I'll email you a high rez version in JPG.
I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE WOULD DO SOMETHING SO NICE FOR ME! *fails into the sun*. Maybe this will help push my pre-orders up to 20 *crosses fingers*
K.E. wrote: "I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE WOULD DO SOMETHING SO NICE FOR ME! *fails into the sun*. Maybe this will help push my pre-orders up to 20 *crosses fingers*"Settle down. lol
Have you listened to the awesome voiceovers Inman's been doing for people? Or just how Joseph made this group to begin with?
If within the next few years some or most of us are to get published, we'll be each other's contemporaries. We'll be coming up in the industry together.
We're all in this together.
If I can do my part to help a little, then I'll try. A review here, a link there, a cover when I'm in the mood.
JF -- that's a PHENOMENAL cover! Kate -- I think you're going to take off like a rocket with this one. ;)
Good work JF! Pay it forward! I like the design too.
J-F wrote: "K.E. wrote: "I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE WOULD DO SOMETHING SO NICE FOR ME! *fails into the sun*. Maybe this will help push my pre-orders up to 20 *crosses fingers*"Settle down. lol
Have you listene..."
I know, it's just, I dunno, I'm not used to this kind of thing. I'm not well known or have many pre-orders. I can't do awesome things for others. I'm just a writer who hopes to publish.
Kate -- can you email me a copy of this cover once you have it? I'll replace the one I have on my blog for your interview.
Sure John! I didn't even think of that. Ugh allergies are clogging my mind so much. Stupid nettles and ragweed :P.
J-F wrote: "If within the next few years some or most of us are to get published, we'll be each other's contemporaries. We'll be coming up in the industry together.We're all in this together.
If I can do my part to help a little, then I'll try."
I think this should be our group's official motto!
Also, covers. My cover for Silver Eyes is basic at best, but alas I can't afford to commission someone to make a lovely beautiful cover. Do you believe that basic covers can still catch the attention of the readers?