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Wednesday 6 March 2013

Don't use Times New Roman on your book cover - ever

Covers are probably THE most important selling tool for your book, because we are all more influenced by presentation than we think. As a designer, I'm well aware of this, but I still remember when my daughter was four coming across a delightful photo in the Mothercare catalogue of a small girl on a beach wearing a banana-yellow tracksuit. I knew there was nothing exceptional about the garment, I knew I was being seduced by the image - but I ordered the tracksuit just the same.

A browsing reader will first be attracted by your cover; will then read the blurb, the reviews and the sample. If these all pass muster, you've got a sale.

I've always designed my own covers because it's fun, and boy, were the first ones bad. As I've got my eye in and developed my Photoshop skills they've improved (I was thrilled when Joel Friedlander approved Ice Diaries' cover). I'm not sure I've mastered making the genre clear - but then my novels are cross-genre which makes them trickier. My earliest efforts weren't for publication, but for the peer review sites, YouWriteOn and Authonomy, so perhaps their poor quality is forgiveable. I'd have posted an example, embarrassing though they are, but seem to have deleted the early ones. I reckon I've made every newbie mistake going; red on black lettering, saving in jpeg (why has it gone all fuzzy?) and using Times New Roman as my title font. TNR over a muddy photograph or a DIY drawing screams indie, and not in a good way.

I'm all for doing everything you can yourself when you self-publish. You will move into profit more quickly, learn a lot, and often do a better job than paid professionals simply because you care more. But if you have no design background and don't find it interesting, then you are ill-advised to design your own cover. A well-meaning friend may offer to have a go, but do not accept unless you feel a) you can ask him/her for alterations if it's not quite right, and b) you won't feel obliged to use it if it's dire. 

22 comments:

  1. Never a fan of TNR - and I now that I see how it looks like on a front cover, I'm even less of a fan than ever!

    Take care
    x

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  2. I like TNR for Word, Kitty - but text is quite different.

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  3. My covers are about the most expensive part of the book. I get a design company I used to use at work to do them. They cost but for the quality it's not so much... and they seem to be able to practically step inside my head with me and draw what they see...

    So yeh, I second that, a good cover design. Seriously important.

    Cheers

    MTM

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  4. My covers are about the most expensive part of the book. I get a design company I used to use at work to do them. They cost but for the quality it's not so much... and they seem to be able to practically step inside my head with me and draw what they see...

    So yeh, I second that, a good cover design. Seriously important.

    Cheers

    MTM

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  5. Sorry about the echo, I have no idea how I did that.

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  6. MT, I'm now tempted to delete one of your comments and say, "Echo? What echo?" Like in that film, Gaslight, where the baddie tries to make the heroine think she is losing her mind...

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  7. I beg to differ on the importance of the cover for e-books. It is usually the title that catches my eye and so often the cover graphics are like examples of my early attempts at photography with important body parts missing or out of focus.

    For example Lisa Kleypas is one of my auto-buy authors and a celebrated NYT best selling author, yet so many of her covers illustrate my point. 'Worth any Price' is a fabulous novel but take a look at the cover:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Worth-Any-Price-Street-ebook/dp/B008HKGL9Y/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1362644698&sr=1-2

    See what I mean? LOL

    It's the author's reputation and the title that made me buy the book!

    PS I think your covers are beautiful Lexi. You seem to have the knack of designing a cover that complements the title. It's still the title that catches my eye first but then your covers make the package just too enticing to miss. Many publishing houses would do well to check out your books IMHO!

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  8. Q, there are two possibilities here: either you only think you are not swayed by covers, or more likely, you are an exception to the rule.

    Re Worth Any Price, I'm not keen on book covers with people's heads cut off. It's a fad that is on its way out, I think. And that lettering looks suspiciously like TNR...

    I quite agree about publishing houses. It's a mystery that they aren't queuing outside my door - not only to ask my advice, but to beg me to accept a lucrative advance or two.

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  9. Covers? Oh dear. I think, but am not sure, that I'm someone who knows a good thing when I see it, but cannot visualise anything before.

    Good business practice is to outsource one's weaknesses.

    Lexi - you are multi-talented.

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  10. Hide in Time has a splendid cover, Anna ;o)

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  11. As I didn't design it, I hope you won't mind my saying that I think it's very clever the way a clue to the disappearances is hiding behind the timepieces.

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  12. I meant to say that whereas a good cover attracts and holds the eye, many a bad cover has had me scrolling faster than a rocket to the moon.


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  13. The cover style can tell an audience in a second what market it is geared to.

    An almost infamous example of poor book cover targeting is Connie Willis' Dooms Day Book original cover:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/snarkel/3730658343/

    It is hard science fiction time travel with a mistaken arrival back to the black plague infested England. The cover looks like a misty eyed romance.

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  14. Agreed, Russell - the hunky hero on a horse, the lipsticked heroine. But what worries me most is the hand with the bendy thumb holding the book. SO not the hand of a hand model...

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  15. Hi Lexi, what a lovely skill to have. I'd love to be able to create my own cover but I think my attempts, fun though they were to do, are far from professional looking! If I ever do self-publish I will be leaving the artwork to the professionals!
    Fiona

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  16. Aha, Fiona, I note from your blog this will not be necessary, as you have signed with a publisher for IT Girl. Congratulations!

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  17. I agree the TNR font can kill an otherwise nice cover. I am glad I am not the only person who does not like the trend to cut off people’s heads on book covers.

    I made the cover for my book, and although I am the first to admit it is not perfect, I think it does convey the genre to the reader fairly accurately. I commissioned the drawing of the house and used a program to design the girl, so I didn’t actually draw anything. I have several images inside my book as well. I have been putting images together using Paint Shop Pro since 2000, when I got it on sale. I know there are upgrades and/or better software out there, but I know how to use PSP as the amateur that I am. I change computers and just keep installing the same old program.

    I also really like the cover for Hide in Time, since that cover was mention here. It looks very professional.

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  18. I also meant to say that I really like your cover on your book, Replica. I had gotten that book about a month ago and just realized I have it, so I plan to read it next.

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  19. Hi Aslaug - sorry not to respond to your earlier comment - for some reason I missed the alert.

    I did my first covers with Paint, and found it hard to adapt to Adobe. Layers? It took me months to see the point. Now I love the flexibility layers give.

    I hope you enjoy Replica :o)

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  20. That's ok.

    I have not used Paint for over 10 years, almost forgot it exists. I learned about layers in Paint Shop Pro and I probably overuse them, but I am always making mistakes and its just easier with layers to make corrections. My son has been wanting me to "upgrade" to Photoshop for several years, but that would require I invest a whole lot of time re-learning where everything is, although the concepts are probably the same. I cling stubbornly to my old program. Someday, I will probably have to learn to use Photoshop. The house on the cover of my book was done in Photoshop, but not by me. Too much detail work. I think he had 132 layers by the time he was done.

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  21. You may be sensible to stick to what you know. Photoshop is hard to teach yourself, and the instructions might as well be written in Mandarin Chinese. Luckily there are lots of tutorials on Youtube which show you step by step, and I do enjoy the learning process. I'm tempted by the newer versions, but they are expensive and I haven't yet mastered 7.0.

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