Editio Self-Publishing discussion

Here is our newest article about making a great book cover.
http://editioselfpublishing.com/book-...
Remember, if you like the article feel free to let the author know by commenting under the article on the web site, then form a discussion here.

Thanks for an interesting article with some great advice & links.

Julia

Covers are very doable on your own. Getty images is an amazing resource. Almost any photo manipulating program will show you how to add copy, etc. I had a pro look over my first attempt and all she wanted to do was blur a line between two areas. I have received compliments on it and it was fun. I worried about it for weeks beforehand. Mess around.

Finally. I see so many articles recommending authors to hire someone to make a cover for them. Why not at least try and do it yourself? It only has to look good.

It's good business sense, too. Do everything yourself until enough money is being generated to hire stuff out.

Virginia, which book cover did you use the photo for? I'd love to check it out!

You might be interested in a series I've been running on my blog for DIY e-book authors. Every month we give an award for the best fiction and nonfiction covers, and make comments on many of the other covers that have been entered. Yesterday the October version was published with 92 e-book covers.

One of the neat things about these posts is that you can see the work of many designers in one place, and each designer is credited. That means that if you see someone's work you like, you can Google them and check out their portfolio and pricing.

But even if you intend, Like Anthony or Virginia, to do it yourself, you can't help but get some ideas. The September post had over 220 covers in it.

Here's a link if you want to check it out:

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/?p=17205

While I am certainly a DIY fan, there's something a lot of authors need to remember, not all of us are graphic designers or would know a good cover if it walked up and bit us.

You really need to know if you can do this for yourself. Yes stock photos make things easier, but not fool proof. I'm sure we've all seen bad photo manipulations by people looking to save some money.

Also, Virginia, by stole you mean, contacted the owner and got the rights to the image, right? Images online are copyright protected, too.

It's true that not everybody has the skills to do graphic design or the confidence or time to learn how to do it, but it's nice to have the resources out there for people who do want to attempt it! I think nothing turns me off a book faster than a bad cover. And I see soooo many bad covers in indie/self-pub. :(

I started looking at stock photos but there are some amazing artists and resources on deviantart.com. All you have to do is message the artist and ask if you can use one of their pieces for your cover art and many of them are completely fine with it.

I've been using a free trial of photoshop to do my first e-book cover but does anyone know of a cheap alternative photo editing software that I could use once my trial runs out?

Also where do you get your inspiration for your cover designs?? I love looking at a website called The Book Cover Archive.

I had a self made cover at first. Friend of mine helped and created - what I think is- an amazing cover. I don't want people on the cover - it influences what you think they look like! I want the author (me) to describe them well enough that you form your OWN picture.

Laekan wrote: "I've been using a free trial of photoshop to do my first e-book cover but does anyone know of a cheap alternative photo editing software that I could use once my trial runs out?"

I use Gimp, which is free. I found it a little daunting at first, but if you search the web, there are loads of tutorials for Gimp. Also, it can use Photoshop brushes directly.

I've used paint.net and photoshop. Paint.net is also a free download, and has a very similar work flow/interface to photoshop.

I like photoshop better than paint.net, more cool bells and whistles with photoshop.

Ebay is a good place to look if you want an inexpensive new or used copy of photoshop.

paint.net certainly does the basics and is much faster to load up than Gimp. I often find I need to change the size, resolution or file type for finished artwork. I use paint.net for that.

Oh... To upload your cover to CreateSpace it needs to be a pdf. Paint.net doesn't save to PDF. That's a major drawback if you want print versions.

I've found that it helps me to put my (self made) book covers on Facebook and encourage my friends to give me their honest feed back.

I agree about deviantart.com, I commissioned an artist to draw the covers and insert art work for two of my books and it was well worth the money spent.

http://candra.deviantart.com/

Do these design programmes have a steep learning curve? I've seen tutorials for photoshop that make my brain run screaming in terror.

James T wrote: "Do these design programmes have a steep learning curve? I've seen tutorials for photoshop that make my brain run screaming in terror."

In a nutshell: YES

Basically if you want the control to really mess with your images, you need to learn how an image works. And a whole lot of things go into a good image. So you've got to learn a whole lot of controls to work with that.

If all you want to do is slap a title on a stock photo, then it'll take about ten minutes to learn how to do that.

If you want to really get into image manipulations, then yes, it's going to take some brain sweat.

Thanks for your honesty, Keryl! I think I'd need to do a littlso manipulation, although I'd be working with original artwork so nothing major. Still, perhaps I should send Igor out to find me a brain...

Well, maybe not an entire new brain. I've found watching the YouTube how to videos helpful. Yes there is that OMG! I don't even know where these controls are, thing, but after a while your brain starts to put it together.

I had photoshop for six years, during which I learned how to do basically nothing but move text around. After a few weeks of the videos, my skills have gotten a lot better. Most of it is just knowing what can be done, and also knowing what's involved in making a good image.

Before and after shots, where you can see how things improve, are really useful.

I dunno, same days it feels like I need a new one anyway. Thanks, Keryl, I'll have a look at some of the videos and see what's what.

Virginia, I have to ask: are you sure the book wasn't about a pig in a swimming cap? :-)

Few people can look objectively at their own creative output (authors definitely included!) when it comes to covers. I've seen some real doozies out there too. Some is in the beholder's eye of course, but there is something to be said for professional design too.

Is it odd that I now want to track this book down and see what it's actually about?

In many cases, professional design can make the difference. But the other side of that coin is that there are too many times that professional designers are far too conservative and play too much to the milquetoast sameness of what's already out there.

For many readers, that can be comforting. For others, not so such.

@Laekan, @TimTim wrote: "Laekan wrote: "I've been using a free trial of photoshop to do my first e-book cover but does anyone know of a cheap alternative photo editing software that I could use once my trial runs out?"

I ..."

GIMP is probably the best Open Source package out there, but the learning curve is a little steep. The key challenge about most OS software (and I use a lot of it) is the documentation is often lacking. The projects are supported and enhanced by people who love the challenges of design and coding, not so much creating user documentation (WordPress is a major exception). There are a number of GIMP tutorials out there (just plug GIMP Tutorials into your favorite search engine) but I have no personal experience with them.

I've been using Corel PaintShop Pro Photo for six or seven years now, and update it about once a year. The Christmas holiday season brings amazing discounts. It's also a good time of the year to pic up more basic programs like PhotoShop Elements at steep discounts.

Virginia wrote: "Slapping a title on a stock image works for me. I've even gotten a compliment or two. I saw the most hideous self done cover yesterday with original art that was signed that the fairy girl looked..."


Hey! Hey! I'm right here. Kidding

For mine I used some stock art work in public domain. There were a series of paintings for a series of books. I lifted some color for the back ground and added the text.




I would entertain some comment or criticisms??

Virginia wrote: "Very classic looking. The chapter number thing needs to be more subtle maybe? Different font different color at bottom of page? But a small point. Is this the same guy that painted the one wher..."

Bierstadt is the painters name. He painted a LOT. I lifted what I needed from the landscapes. If he painted other topics I didn't linger much.

I don't think there is really much reason or justification for "lifting" anymore. Most stock photo companies charge about the same for a royalty-free image for a book cover as they do for a website image ($2.00 or less).

What if someone "lifted" your book?
B^)

I do agree that stock photos are the way to go most of the time if you can't afford a really good cover artist. I've seen too many covers where the art looked amateurish, and to me it suggests that the writer might have been just as careless in writing the book as they were in choosing cover art. On the other hand, I've seen some really stunning covers that were photo-shopped instead, and I agree with those who say that stock photos are cheap, so why not buy them?

For my own cover, we started out with a photo taken by my husband (we had a friend pose) and then darkened it out to a silhouette. I think the effect is striking, and several people have told me it's a handsome cover. Of course it's easy for people to say that. I'll have to wait and see if it helps me sell a lot of books.

Virginia wrote: "I am doing a give away now and there are 939 downloads just from the Barnes and Noble catalog. So I guess you could say I am encouraging "lifting". I am just glad my book is on their ereader. I ..."

90-95% of my current stocks are coming from BigStockPhoto.com (I use between 75 and 100 per year). I'm just looking in to Fotolia.com , they seem to have a broad range and a lot of extras like vector graphics, and every license allows unlimited print runs. I'll be using several of theirs within the next week to ten days.

The thing I like about BigStockPhoto is that they list the number of times each photo has been downloaded. I like to try and find appropriate image that haven't been used before.

Ron wrote: "Virginia wrote: "I am doing a give away now and there are 939 downloads just from the Barnes and Noble catalog. So I guess you could say I am encouraging "lifting". I am just glad my book is on ..."
"I like to try and find appropriate image that haven't been used before."

Just being devil's advocate but it seems if you use a popular picture, the buyer's eye might be drawn to it when browsing a list of covers. Like the pic, buy the book.

Virginia wrote: "..books being put on Torrent sites and that some people are even collecting royalties for it. "

OK, I'm afraid to ask, what are Torrent sites?

I haven't used BigStock for cover images, Ron, but it's been very useful in putting together my book trailers. I find it an excellent resource.

But I agree with Ken that using a familiar picture might be a good way to draw the reader's eye. I'm not sure, though, that any of the stock photo sites are likely to provide anything familiar enough for that to work.

@Ken and Virginia - the basic concept of Torrents was that if huge volumes of people (a torrent) downloaded billions of data bytes (another torrent) that the whole idea of copyright would be nullified. Many people, unfortunately, believe that all music, art, literature, etc. should be free. Yet those same people don't have a problem paying ridiculous prices for goods to support CEO bonuses, broker and bank charges, and attorney's fees... all of which CREATE absolutely nothing.

Ron wrote: "@Ken and Virginia - the basic concept of Torrents was that if huge volumes of people (a torrent) downloaded billions of data bytes (another torrent) that the whole idea of copyright would be nullif..."

Small hijack. I read yesterday that theft from retail stores in the US is estimated at $32 billion a year. That's a whole lot of negative production. Theft is probably from the same ilk that think intellectual property is free for all.

Ken wrote: "Ron wrote: "Virginia wrote: "I am doing a give away now and there are 939 downloads just from the Barnes and Noble catalog. So I guess you could say I am encouraging "lifting". I am just glad my..."

There's a point to that, Ken. But you also lose a lot if your cover is indistinguishable from a dozen others on the screen. Plus, you want to be sure that you don't use a picture that's been used to advertise another product or service that might run counter to your work.

However, I'm sure that in publishing like any other business, there are some who would happily get as close as possible to the cover of a successful book in hopes that a busy shopper would just grab it up instead. There is a horrid movie company that does fast, cheap knock-offs of studio pictures with similar titles and releases them on DVD right before the release of the 'real' film.

@Ken. I visit the site Mises.org frequently. I get good response in blog hits from them for some reason and it is fun to get into the fray with them sometimes. They go on and on arguing intellectual property rights. It can get interesting, also boring. I never studied economics but their philosophy is polar opposite of Keynes. I give books away for readership, not kindness, tho.