Inkshares Community discussion

Hi all,

I have just finished preparing the cover art for my book and I am really proud of what my fiance and I have created. But looking at other art on Inkshares I can't help but feel it is a little amateurish. (mine is included in the introduction topic)

So I thought this might open up a good discussion on a couple of matters:

Do you think this hinders a book's performance?

What have you used to prepare your cover and what tips and tricks have you picked up along the way?

Regards

Jamie

Jamie wrote: "Hi all,

I have just finished preparing the cover art for my book and I am really proud of what my fiance and I have created. But looking at other art on Inkshares I can't help but feel it is a lit..."

Hi Jamie,

I'm the author of Soulblade: Forgotten Souls and I created my own book cover using an old version of adobe photoshop, It isn't professional, granted, but I'm proud of what I had managed to do. Originally, it was made for my book to go straight onto amazon but then decided to try out crowdfunding first and see where that leads.

I can't say that I've picked up many tricks, only that you should post your cover idea onto FB and see what other people think of it. I did this and most of the comments I had received were very positive!

Best and good luck!

Kirsty

Jamie wrote: "Hi all,

I have just finished preparing the cover art for my book and I am really proud of what my fiance and I have created. But looking at other art on Inkshares I can't help but feel it is a lit..."

Hey Jamie, welcome to Inkshares! It looks like your project page is doing that glitchy thing where it pastes the temporary title over the image you've uploaded, which already has a title on it. I had to go through the upload process several times to get it to stop glitching; if you can't get that title to disappear, contact Inkshares at hello@inkshares.com to get help.

Underneath the temporary title, I think your cover might be good? It's hard to tell at this point. :)

Cara wrote: "Jamie wrote: "Hi all,

I have just finished preparing the cover art for my book and I am really proud of what my fiance and I have created. But looking at other art on Inkshares I can't help but fe..."

I found that you have to click on settings on your project's page and make sure to have a resized photo to 450/600 and click the 'keep original title' off so that you will only see the cover art.

I hope that this helps!

Glitch? Isn't there an option where you can just turn the site-generated title off?

I need something like Photoshop, but free. MS Paint is ... kind of basic.

Thank you for the advice on the cover art everyone. I have asked on Facebook for people's opinions, thank you Kirsty.

It is a tick box which I have now sorted.

A nice piece of free kit is software called Gimp.

Christopher wrote: "Glitch? Isn't there an option where you can just turn the site-generated title off?

I need something like Photoshop, but free. MS Paint is ... kind of basic."

Yeah, it is just an option, but long ago when I started my project I had to re-upload my cover and check the check box off at least three times before it would actually turn the title off. Maybe they fixed it so it's not glitchy anymore.

Jamie wrote: "Hi all,

I have just finished preparing the cover art for my book and I am really proud of what my fiance and I have created. But looking at other art on Inkshares I can't help but feel it is a lit..."

Hey there, Jamie!
I'm the author of The Tulip Factory. I didn't do my own cover art so many kudos to you for doing your own! Very cool!

I do feel that the cover art is where it all begins, the relationship between a reader and a book. It should be instantaneous when the reader sees your cover (it helps, at least)...

I think it's a good idea to get reader and friend feedback! Post it on social media outlets and see what ya find out :)

I didn't see where you said it was posted. I would like to see it!

Good luck :)

Kacie wrote: "Jamie wrote: "Hi all,

I have just finished preparing the cover art for my book and I am really proud of what my fiance and I have created. But looking at other art on Inkshares I can't help but fe..."

Hi Kacie,

I love your front cover it is beautiful.

My front cover is on the introduction section, failing that here is a link to the Inkshares page which now has it included.

https://www.inkshares.com/books/tales...

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Regards

Jamie

Sarah Bryant I have a LOT of experience with cover and internal design (I used to run a small press in the UK), and have also done trailers for a couple of my commercially published books. I'd be willing to help with a few covers for free (if you pay for the stock images) in exchange for recommendations. You can see some of my work on www.sarahbryant.net and also find my contact info there. Good luck with your book!

Christopher wrote: "I need something like Photoshop, but free. MS Paint is ... kind of basic."

It's called Gimp, and you can get it here. It's what my Yearbook students use b/c it is free and does all the important PS stuff.

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

I used this to make our banner for the Drinkshares Twitter and Facebook banners.

Just FYI, I've used GIMP in the past and while it's great b/c it's free, it's definitely not as intuitive as something like Photoshop. I know Photoshop is insanely expensive, but I use Photoshop Elements which works great for things like cover design, and is less than $100. SO much easier to use than GIMP. It's a great investment if you plan to do a lot of this kind of thing, or if you like to do any kind of digital work on photos (restoration, etc.)

Well, it takes about one youtube video to learn the location of everything on Gimp. We've never had a problem with it in Yearbook class. And, once you know how to use it, intuitiveness isn't necessary. I never thought Photoshop was intuitive either.

I got GIMP and I'm finding it difficult to use ... but I think a lot of my difficulty comes from it being juuust similar enough to Photoshop that I keep expecting it to work the same way, and juuust different enough that I find it endlessly frustrating when it doesn't, in fact, work the same way.

I suspect that the real issue is simply that one gets used to one system and it's difficult to relearn things. I found GIMP difficult because I got started on Photoshop, and I imagine someone who started on GIMP would find Photoshop just as difficult.

Bekki wrote: "Well, it takes about one youtube video to learn the location of everything on Gimp. We've never had a problem with it in Yearbook class. And, once you know how to use it, intuitiveness isn't necess..."

Christopher wrote: "I got GIMP and I'm finding it difficult to use ... but I think a lot of my difficulty comes from it being juuust similar enough to Photoshop that I keep expecting it to work the same way, and juuus..."

Okay, I didn't mean to start a war! BTW Chris it's Sarah Bryant here and ready to help! :-) So, my take - I've used a lot of photo editing software in my time and honestly I've found GIMP the least user friendly (sorry Bekki, maybe just b/c I'm old as these things go - but my husband is a tech guy and he taught me to use GIMP b/c he didn't want to shell out for PS and he's hard core for free software, but still I found it hard!)

I think you could be right Chris re what you've learned on, but TBH when Colin (the tech hubby) bought me Photoshop Elements for my b-day a few years ago (to avoid me throwing the laptop at the wall) I just found it SO much easier. The things I'd learned from other programs kind of just fell into place and I didn't have to do many tutorials (a few, but not many, and I'd never used Photoshop, only cheap or free programs.) He bought it for his mom too and she knows NOTHING about photo editing software but picked it up really fast. In the end it probably depends on what kind of learner you are (me: hands on, visual, impatient!)

Don't get me wrong, I love that GIMP is out there - it just wasn't my weapon of choice in the end, and I do enough with it that the $70 was well worth it (plus the intact laptop!) But then again, I did all of my book trailers on free software, and that worked fine too, again for an intuitive learner...well anyway, you know my email address. Feel free to shoot GIMP questions my way, happy to help! I wish I was closer, could let you try my PS Elements...

No war was started, don't worry. Just stating that once you get the hang of it, it gets easier. I had to watch some videos, and have one of my students help me.

I hate PS; I thought it way too expensive and not great for beginners. But, that's kind of the thing, isn't it? These programs were not made for beginners- they are made for designers. If you want something a little less intense, you could always download Pixlr. It's more like a photo editor and less for digital design, but I made my first cover with it. I also use IrfanView- simple, cheap, but limited.

http://www.irfanview.com/

https://pixlr.com/

Hi,

I just thought to add that you can find older versions of Photoshop on their own website absolutely free! I'm using PS CS2 and it's image ready cousin and I can't really gripe when its free software!

That's cool. I did not know they had free versions of older stuff.

Yeah, I was just searching around on the internet and just bumped into it. If anyone is interested in free older versions of Adobe here's the link to the direct page: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suit...
You will be asked to create an account with them and that is all you need to do. They list all of the free products along with the product codes listed beside them.

I hope this helps for everyone!

Christopher wrote: "Glitch? Isn't there an option where you can just turn the site-generated title off?

I need something like Photoshop, but free. MS Paint is ... kind of basic."

You can get the older versions of photoshop from the Adobe website. All you need to do is register with them and then you can download older versions and suites, which they will give you the cd-keys for them.

use this link (hopefully it works) and you can choose which version you want once you have created a user account with them.

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/other-...

Hope this help you out and anyone else here out!