Perpetual (Pro)motion discussion

Does anyone have knowledge of, experience with, or strong feelings about doing their own cover art?

I was happy with mine at first, but I'm starting to dislike it. It looks clumsily executed and generally amateurish . . . probably because I have neither experience nor schooling in design. I would like to continue to do my own cover art because I enjoyed the process and I like the idea of coming up with a visual representation for each of my future books, but I would like to be better at it.

Here's what I have now: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Any advice or insight would be welcome.
Thanks.

I am definitely not the right person to give advice in this field! I hope one of the other members can assist.

Cover art. Apparently I am useful as an anti-opinion: if I like it, maybe no one else will. My son has made my book covers which I think are wonderful but they aren't "traditional" and maybe I am hurting sales by not pursuing pro covers.

All that said as a warning, because: I like your cover! When I reviewed your book I looked at it more than once. I like the simplicity and the way it evokes the feel of the book. The text probably needs to be bigger to show up in thumbnail. (And it might be worth experimenting with putting some headlights in the distance, to put the apple in danger.)

There are (of course) numerous places on-line where you can get advice and feedback. I've submitted a couple covers to a place called "Covercritics.com" where cover designers critique submitted covers. I found it helpful to read their comments on other covers, too. Storyfinds has a weekly cover contest where readers vote on which cover they prefer. I've happened upon GR discussion threads about cover art... somewhere ....

The advice that resonates with me is that the cover needs to show up well in thumbnail and it needs to capture the book without requiring somebody to read the book to know how it relates.

To complete my two cents, if you enjoy doing it I encourage you to keep at it, but expect to invest time into researching it.

P.S. What software do you use? I need to start making promo art (for twitter and blog posts) and am so rusty with Photoshop and Illustrator I would have to start from scratch learning them...

Hey, I like the idea of the headlights, Sue :)

Sorry I can't help (I'm useless at that stuff). I do like the cover though.

Thanks for the ideas, guys.
I think you're right about the thumbnail, Sue. The text doesn't show up as well as it should. . . Maybe I could make the apple smaller and the text bigger? The headlights suggestion is something I hadn't thought of . . . Hmm, that could also make it a reference to the MC teaching her son to drive. That kind of double meaning plays up the ambiguity of the book, but only people who've read it would get that. . . That's a good idea, Sue!
I'm glad people seem to like it. I've been staring at it for so long, I'm starting to second guess myself.

I used free software called GIMP. It's a great program with more features than I can describe, but since it's *free*, its provenance is murky. I suspect it came with a few bugs. I'm not sure I'll use it again (I uninstalled it out of suspicion that may or may not have been founded).

I like the second cover much better too! When I first looked at your 1st cover, what came to mind was a mottled sheepskin, finally I realized it was a charred piece of parchment. The second hook looms larger and is much more menacing. Nice improvement.

Elizabeth wrote: "Thanks for the ideas, guys.
I think you're right about the thumbnail, Sue. The text doesn't show up as well as it should. . . Maybe I could make the apple smaller and the text bigger? The headligh..."

I think the apple is the right size now.

Gimp is well-known share-ware, and I wouldn't worry about it. I use it for certain things myself, although I prefer my old, out-of-date PhotoImpact program for others. Gimp does have a few bugs, but it's great for removing something from its background easily and a few other things. Not the most intuitive program, though.

I like the cover, myself. Perhaps something could be done with the text to make it stand out more and have more depth? Shadowing in a light color or something? Not sure - or, in order to make it bigger, you could re-arrange it down the left side with your name on the right or vie-versa.

And/or the title could be multiple lines, ex.
Lost (really big font size)
in Apple Grove

Elizabeth wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Does anyone have knowledge of, experience with, or strong feelings about doing their own cover art?

I was happy with mine at first, but I'm starting to dislike it. It looks clums..."

I agree with you and Phil - the 2nd cover is a huge improvement.

Thanks for the video link. I think of Alzheimer's as a thief - it steals your life, and your close family's too.

K.A. wrote: "Gimp is well-known share-ware, and I wouldn't worry about it. I use it for certain things myself, although I prefer my old, out-of-date PhotoImpact program for others. Gimp does have a few bugs, bu..."

I won a photo competition in our local show once by using GIMP. I took a photo of my dearly beloved looking into a big mirror and turned the reflection black and white. It looked really spooky.

I had to keep referring back to the GIMP tutorials as it is not the easiest bit of s/w to learn your way around. I also found it hard to remember what the process was, so every time I went to use it again I had to relearn how.

Yep, same thing for me - I have to refer to the tutorials. That's why I still revert back to using PhotoImpact for many things.

Speaking of covers, I would greatly appreciate it if ya'all would click over to http://storyfinds.com/section/cover_poll and vote for my son's cover for Scar Jewelry