Meeting Notes 10

It’s been a couple of months since my last Meeting Notes post. And to be honest, there haven’t been a ton of meetings lately, which for me is a good thing. Now, without further ado…

Sometimes I really have no idea what’s going to come out when I start doodling. I tend to like shading things and giving them a bit more of a 3D perspective, but I’ve always had an obsession with drawing eyes. I usually don’t doodle them, but this time I said what the poodoo, why not?

COMING SOON

Thanks to inspiration and a sort of reminder from Mayra, I’m going to work on presenting an editing series to go along with the How to Write a Novel Series and the How to Design a Book Cover series I’ve already featured here on the blog. I’m hoping all of you will add your own editing tips in the process.

I recently finished up another major edit session on SHADE and am going to tackle the query letter next. I have a decent one, but my mentor from Pitch Wars made some new suggestions, so I’m at it again. I think once I’ve got a copy we’re both happy with I might send it over to Janet Reid’s Query Shark blog and see what she has to say. It’s both frightening and thrilling at the same time.

I’m going to commit to writing the editing series for next week. You heard it here first. Look for the editing series next week. This will include advice on how to do it yourself, beta readers, writing groups, and when to seek a professional editor (yep, that’s a when). There’s a lot more resources available than you’d think, many of them free of charge—and they’ll improve your writing.

Anything you’re hoping to see coming out of the editing series? Anything you wish I would doodle while I was making my meeting notes? I’m up for requests or suggestions. Have you ever dared to submit to the Query Shark? Would you? Let me know below.

The Bottom Line

This is the final post in the How to Design a Book Cover series.

Helping Your Designer

This is the 4th post in the How to Design a Book Cover series.

Now that you’ve learned about all that goes into designing a fabulous cover for your novel, hopefully you’ve also realized hiring a professional to do it for you is exactly what must be done.

First and foremost, don’t just hire any designer.  When you’re looking for a designer, ask for samples of other work that they’ve done.  If they’re a professional, they should have a portfolio of work to share with you.  Be clear on the terms of how much it will cost you up front, including if they charge for any changes like typos or the wrong photo, etc.  Some professionals will charge a flat fee, some will do it per hour.  According to Scarlett Rugers, a book cover designer from Australia, if you want the kind of cover you see from the major publishing houses, you can expect to pay somewhere between $500 and $1200.

Why is it so pricy?  Often you’re getting unique materials, basically stuff you won’t see on other covers.  They won’t be using templates, your cover will be completely unique.  However, you can it done for a lot less, just remember the other adage: you get what you pay for.

If you are going to go the cheaper route, make sure you do ask for samples of previous work.  It also never hurts to Google their name to see if they’re legit, or at least see that no negative hits show up in your browser.  Get all the terms up front, and at the very least have them send you all this information including total cost in an email, then print it out for your records.

Having both worked with freelancers and worked freelance myself, I find it’s always a good idea in any sort of transaction.  Often in the graphic design world, this is called having them send you over their bid—although that’s usually with business professionals vs. freelancers.  But the point being, get it in writing before you surrender any of your $$$.

We’ve already discussed a few things you can do to help your designer help you, but let’s pull it altogether in one spot.  Your designer likely doesn’t have time and unless they’re a really good friend probably won’t read your entire book before designing your cover for you.  But they don’t necessarily have to.  This is where your own preparation will come in handy in getting you the cover you want.

Bright colors, swirling magical sky, lightning, and a bus. Appeals to the right age group while incorporating elements from the actual story.

One of the things you should have ready right away for your designer is the book blurb they’ll put on the back or that you’ll use to describe your book for the e-reading audience.  In addition to a book blurb, prepare a one-page summary that gives them an idea of what kind of story it is—not necessarily a synopsis, but something that helps them know what the book is about.  Imagine you’re telling them about one of your favorite books or movies they’ve never seen.  What kinds of things would you point out to them if they were designing a cover for that?  What kinds of things would you point out for them to design your cover with?

Bring your list of adjectives and any other descriptive words to give them an idea of the kind of mood you want to convey on the cover.  You’re a writer, so descriptions should be old hat for you. 😉

You might also consider finding covers you like or even art or advertisements and bring them as samples of what you’re hoping for.

If your book is a western, a picture like this could be great inspiration for cover design. They might use that leather look as a book border or to stylize the font, etc.

At the same time, don’t be afraid to ask them to contribute.  I worked with a videographer where I told him what we definitely needed for footage, but told him more of the kind of mood we were trying to convey and expressed I was totally open to him bringing his own artistry and creativity to the table.  He came up with shots that I wasn’t sure about at first, but looking at the footage later I realized were fantastic.

Graphic designers are creative people too with their own fabulous ideas.  Do your best to strike a balance between the two of you.  You don’t want to end up with a cover you don’t like because you didn’t say anything, but that can also happen because you were too controlling.  Again, it’s all about balance.

Remember that cheap and fast usually never equal great.  So if you must go the cheap route, expect that it could take a little longer than you’d like.

SUMMING UP

Do some preparation work so that you can clearly tell your designer what your story is about and the mood you want to convey. Bring the following to your designer:

• Book Blurb
• One-Page Book Summary
• List of Adjectives and Other Helpful Words
• Samples of the Look You Want

The difference in using a professional can be massive.  You’ve already seen what even the slightest bit of thought can do to improve a book cover in my previous post.  Remember Dark Midnight?

But do self-published authors really put that much effort into their covers?  Do they really go out and find a good designer?  Many I could find on the Twitterverse hadn’t and I was feeling a little discouraged for the self-publishing industry.  That was until I came across a book called Sempre by J.M. Darhower.

Ms. Darhower was kind enough to let me feature her cover here as what I think we can all call a success when it comes to book cover design.  Not only is it very appealing, but it tells us a lot about her story before we even read the book blurb.  The cover is white, probably to portray innocence.  Yet there’s a gun and a bloodied rose.  So we know there will be some kind of danger involved, likely life-threatening.  Then the bloodied rose… Since roses tend to symbolize romance, we infer there’s probably some kind of threatened or fading romance along with the loss of innocence.

I read her GoodReads book summary, and yep, pretty much her cover is spot on at giving us a sense of the story.  (And both the summary and the cover make it so tantalizing, don’t you think?  Grab it on Amazon here.)

She did it right.  So should you.

Tomorrow we finish up the series with the Bottom Line.  See you then!

Basic Cover Design: Do’s and Don’ts

If you intend to tackle the arduous task of making a tantalizing book cover there’s a few things I should tell you.  (How’s that for alliteration?)  I’m going to use my faux-story Swan Stake as an example.

I’ve alluded to Swan Stake in earlier post, but it’s basically a pre-teen space vampire ballet romance novel.

I’m going to base my bantha poodoo cover examples on those I’ve seen floating around the Twitterverse, but worry not, they’ll remain perfectly anonymous.  I just didn’t have the heart to criticize them publicly.  Writers aren’t typically designers, and that’s okay.

Most covers need at least 2 things on them:

1. The Title
2. Author Name

But this usually isn’t enough, as you can see.  Even if you add a color, you’ve still got little better than a Word document your 5-year-old could create.  And let’s face it, at least they’d draw something interesting with crayons.

I drawed this!

Most covers I’ve seen have at least enough sense to include some kind of image on the cover to draw some appeal.  But slapping any old image on there isn’t going to cut it.

In order to create something the least bit interesting I’m going to introduce you to the concept of dominant objects and lines for creating an interesting cover.

DOMINANT OBJECTS & LINES

This is to say that if everything on the surface is the same size, your brain will probably start at the top and read it like a page from a book.  No, not necessarily a bad thing.  But it’s problematic because your brain will treat all things as equal, which may translate to boring.

Using a dominant or larger object can help up the level of interesting as well as direct the eye of potential readers to the important information.  That’s often why the title is the largest text on the book.

You may be tempted to make your name larger than the title or as large, pointing to the likes of James Patterson and his covers for your examples, but here’s the thing: you’re not James Patterson.  Unless for some reason you’ve got fame and fortune (and I don’t know why you wouldn’t just have a publishing house take care of this for you) then your name is almost irrelevant.

That’s not to say it shouldn’t be on the front cover, but it should play a supporting role to your story, more like a Samwise Gamgee to your Frodo Baggins.  Sure, you’re the one who dragged Frodo into Mordor, but it’s Frodo we’re interested in until we know who you are.  So give Frodo the spotlight until you’re as well-known a name as Terry Brooks, J.K. Rowling, or Suzanne Collins.

For the sake of basics, keep your title at the top and your name at the bottom.  Since this is the way we usually read, your relevant information (the title) should come first.

Your title will probably end up being the foremost dominant object, but a close second will likely be the image you’ve chosen to place on the cover.  And often the image and title work together in dominance, but they don’t have to.

Let’s go back to Twilight and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  For Twilight the dominant object is actually not the title, but the image.  However, thanks to clever design we’re immediately directed to the title.  This is what I mean about lines.  With Twilight, because it’s a dark cover with muted colors, the first place your eyes go is the apple.  Then you follow the arms up, capturing the title in a kind of ‘V.’  It happens pretty quickly, but the cover is designed to take you right to the title.  Then once you’ve found the title, your eyes resume reading their natural way and you find the author’s name right below the big red spot.

I’ve always been very impressed with the cover design on this book because it’s so well done.  It’s simple but very sophisticated.  Anyone looking for this book who’s ever seen it before, isn’t actually looking for the title “Twilight” but this particular pattern of colors and shapes.

The rest of the covers aren’t as clever as this, but it really doesn’t matter because they look like this one so we automatically associate the rest with this first clever one.  Well done Gail Doobinin.

Now for Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  The bright red background serves as a nice contrast for the starkly white people of paper pasted on the front.  Which, if you’ll notice, is angled so that the top most edge of it is pointing at the title (it’s also the dominant object).  Wimpy Kid is also the largest text on the page so whether your eye goes to the white paper first or the words Wimpy Kid, your brain will register the title immediately.  The picture of the wimpy kid drawn in comic form tells you already what kind of story you can expect inside.  Because a diary is a familiar form, you probably noticed that it was a diary without reading the word diary directly at first.  And then please take note at how incredibly small the author’s name is at the bottom.  Why?  Because he’s trying to sell his story first and foremost!  Now that he’s made a name for himself, if he writes another series it can probably be a little bigger, though my guess is they’ll still probably try and sell it as “from the author who brought you Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”

Anyway, I hope you’re understanding more of the thought that goes into dominant objects and lines.

DO’S AND DON’TS EXAMPLES

I created these covers using inspiration from the Twitterverse.  These faux designs are based on actual covers, though with names, titles, and elements changed to protect the innocent.  First I’ll show you the don’ts and then covers closer to do’s.

JAE NOTE: I made this a graphic design game for myself, which turned out to be a great creativity challenge.  The rules I laid down for myself was take the existing elements, and make as generous an improvement as possible.  That means I couldn’t switch fonts or photos.  Tell me how I did in the comments below.

There were a lot more don’t examples than I care to name.  I’ve chosen three for our purposes here.  First up is Mysterious Switch.

What is it with you people and your love of Impact font?  Okay, it isn’t the worst font in the world, but it’s soooo overused and usually poorly used.  Next there’s a picture of the Washington Monument, which as far as I could gather is only on the cover because the author was from the area.  The awful green stroke too I didn’t understand.

The only points I can give them is kudos for the fog to portray mystery, but part of me wonders if that was done by accident.  Yes, all the relevant information is there, but the placement is uninteresting as is the use of the photo’s lines.

So what can we possibly do with this to make it any better?  Well, I’m not promising perfection, since I’m limited by the available elements, but, drum roll please!

I decided to make good use of the foggy sky.  And I put the font in all caps because it’s typically the only way I can stand Impact and I think it makes it look more suspenseful or intense somehow.

Obviously I would have preferred a graphic that actually had something to do with the story, and so should you.  Don’t just put a picture in because you have it or because you think it’s interesting.  Otherwise your readers will wonder when they’re going to read about the Washington Monument, or better still Washington D.C.

Next up we have Sugar Loose!

Sugar Loose is a story for kids.  Sugar is a cow, who isn’t actually a cow, but an ant.  I probably would have gone with an illustration myself, but instead we get this unfortunate photo.

When taking a photo of anything, unflattering rules for humans apply for animals.  Unless you’re trying to make a point, please don’t show us a picture with large focus on the animal’s behind.  There are soooo many more interesting ways to take a picture of a cow or whatever it is.  This is where that $19 or so would come in handy with a nice professional picture.  I also don’t really get the reverse italicization of the font…

To be fair I did notice there’s a new edition of this particular book.  The cover is about 10% improved.  We kind of have a point of interest for the relevant information.

I have to admit, I’m certainly more inclined to read this book than its preceding cover.  But this is a kid’s book isn’t it?  Shouldn’t there be bright colors or something?  This looks more like a self-help or deep thoughts of the universe book.  The mood I’m getting from this cover is not anything fun, adventurous, mysterious, etc.

This cover gave me a real headache with how I could possibly leave it improved.  These elements were the most limiting of all.

Again, I would have probably done an illustration of some kind.  The best I could come up with was to at least draw more attention to the title.  I really wasn’t sure what to do with this awful cow picture.

But I hope it serves as a good example of how choosing the right presentation in title and use of color can up the appeal.  It’s not what I’d ultimately want for this cover, but I think I’ve left it improved, so I’m going to call it good.

Best of luck to you, Sugar.  May your cow disguise carry you to places beyond your wildest dreams.

Last of all, and for me least appealing of all we have *cue spooky voice* Dark Midnight…

This was well-intentioned, but very poorly implemented. The font isn’t my favorite, but most appalling to me of all is that little black bar at the bottom. I think the intention was legibility, but whatever they were hoping to gain with the photo was lost. Plus it seemed a bit pixelated to me. Always use the highest quality photo when it comes to your cover.

So what can we do with a building/house/something that kind of looks scary because it’s run down or something? And that font, must we really stick to the rules and use what this poor cover maker left us to work with? It seems hopeless, but it’s amazing what a little tweaking can do.

I believe the original intention of this cover designer was to provide us with a spooky image to let us know the stories contained inside were of a more scary nature. I’ve always found the stark contrast of black and white helpful in achieving menacing. Maybe it’s the loss of color that serves as a reminder of death. Anyways, I desaturated the image, kicked up the contrast, and voila!

Seems a bit more foreboding now, doesn’t it? I added a hint of red around the edges to hint at the possibility of blood or murder. I don’t know that it necessarily fits with what the author had inside, but again, I could only work with the elements I had.

CONCLUSION

I hope this was as entertaining for you as it was for me, if not at least interesting and informative. And perhaps I’ve made a stronger case for those of you wanted to scrimp on the cover to shell out a little dough for some professionalism.

You’ve got to take so many things into consideration when designing: fonts, colors, image, tone, mood, lines, dominant objects, etc. etc. etc.

So tell me, what have you learned? Are you gaining some more knowledge about book cover design? Whether you’re self or traditional pub, are you going to design the book cover yourself or just let the pros handle it. Let me know in the comments.

Monday the fun continues with Helping Your Designer. See you then!

Colors, Fonts, and Photos

This is Part 2 in the How to Design a Book Cover series.

Some of the most important considerations in designing a book cover will be the colors, the fonts (or text) and photos (or images, sketches, etc.)  Designers are often very selective when it comes to these elements and how they’ll be used.  They may even create a specific color palette or list of fonts they won’t stray from in their design.

ABOUT COLOR

You don’t have to be an expert in design to understand the basics about color.  Every color has meaning.  Sometimes we consciously recognize their meanings, sometimes subconsciously.  But the color you choose for your book will impact what the cover says about the story, whether for good or bad.

There are some guides to the meanings of color that give you a good general concept of those meanings.  But as with anything, these are not hard and fast rules, especially if you know what you’re doing.  It begins with your story.  What do you want readers to first feel about your story when they see your cover?  Happy?  Sad?  Amused?  Creeped out?

What is the story about?  Is it dark and moody?  Light and happy?  Make a list of words that define your story, find a color wheel on the internet and see which colors make you feel the same way those words do.

Within colors there are a few other levels.  Do you want your colors bright and saturated?  More dull and muted?  Do you want cool colors or warm colors?  Pastel or dark?

If this is already too much information for you, no problem, you can still communicate these things to a designer without knowing all the terms.  Go to your story and find the words that describe it.  What industries are they like?  Is ice cream a symbol in your story?  You could say, maybe colors like you would find in an ice cream parlor.  Or is it about a military-style world?  Military-style colors then.  Does it take place in the woods?  Woodsy, earthen colors.

Trust me, the more descriptions like these you can give your designer, the more you’ll spark the creative centers of their brains.  (Just don’t go all auteuer on them.  We’ll discuss what that means later).

Summing up on color, be sure to identify:

• What emotions do I want to convey at first glance about my story?
• What kind of story is it? (Happy, pensive, moody, dark, comedic, etc.)
• Are there any thematic pieces or locations, etc. in my story I could use to describe the colors I want?

ABOUT FONTS

Fonts are the style of text you can use in design.  There’s a whole slew of cool fonts out there, but when selecting the one you want, make sure you glance at the copyrights usage.  Even if it says “free” it may not actually be free.

You can also just stick to the font package that came with the Adobe Suite or those that come standard with most computers.  When it comes to fonts the same thing applies.  Use a font that has something to do with your story.  Let it convey the emotion you want.

When it comes to your title, another possibility is to have your designer or an illustrator draw or create something original.  They can also just modify standard fonts to reflect your story.

Remember, your book cover is a complete package.  You may have the right colors, but if you use the wrong font you can immediately lose any professionalism you might have had on your cover.  This is why it’s better to hire a designer, even if it’s a kid making their way through school.  Offer to edit their papers for them or do some kind of exchange if you lack the money.

But if you still insist on doing it yourself (again unless you’re a graphic designer by trade I am strongly advising you against this), I’ll give you a few basic tips when choosing a font.

1. Go back to your story.  Does the font you’ve chosen reflect the mood you want to express about your story?
2. Compare fonts.  Try out the cover with different fonts, print out each version and compare them.  Have friends give feedback on which they liked best and why.
3. Look at a printed off copy of your cover from different distances.  Pretend you’re a potential buyer walking by a table or looking at the shelf in the distance.  Can you read the font you’ve chosen from a few paces away?  Does the font convey the mood you want from those different distances?

ABOUT PHOTOS

This category includes any kind of graphic you want to stick on the front, be it a sketch, illustration, photo—any kind of image.

Images are another big piece of the book cover puzzle.  If you choose unwisely, even if you have the right font and colors you can still collapse any sort of professionalism.  Examine the covers of the books that are like yours.  What sort of images did they choose?  Why do you think they chose those images and can they tell you anything about what image you should choose?

Consider what standards your genre may have established as well.  Romance novels are more likely to have a good-looking couple on the front, but you likely wouldn’t see that for a historical fiction World War 2 novel.

People tend to get complex with design, but you can always go simple and still look professional.  Maybe your novel is about high school, so your cover image is the front of a locker.  Or more specifically, the basketball team during high school, so you use an image of the hoop or the basketball.  Or perhaps your protagonist is troubled, so you have an image of his crumpled basketball jersey on the gym floor.  I hope you’re beginning to see where I’m going with this.

You may be tempted to take this picture yourself, and as always, I’ll advise you to let a professional do it for you.  Most of us in our repertoire of friends has someone who’s really good at taking photos.  Have them do it, and give them creds in your book (it’s always nice to say on the resume: my work has been featured as the cover this novel, etc.)  Bake them cookies if you need to sweeten the deal.

Or bake these babies. Recipe at Perry’s Plate. Mmm…

This is why networking tends to come in handy.  If you’re not to book cover designing stage yet, don’t hesitate to reach out to your group of friends and figure out who has what skill.  An engaging photo can take care of a lot of design effort all by itself.

So, when choosing an image for your cover:

• Consider what it is telling a potential reader about your book.  Is it sending them the message you want? Does it match the genre?  Is it engaging from a few paces away?  Across the room?
• Use professional images.  Have a friend take one, or use one of the stock image services online.  Shutterstock, for example, will let you purchase one of their images for $19.  You can use this image up to 250,000 times with a standard license (which means you can have 250,000 copies of your book out there).  Over 250,000 gets pricier, but if you’re making it into the 200,000 range, simply buy an extended license with all the money you’ve made from selling so many books. 😉  There are lots of different companies out there that sell royalty-free images.  Be sure to read their licenses so you know what you’re getting when you buy.  Download the largest size they offer.
• Whatever image you use, make sure it’s an extremely high resolution.  Standard web images are not typically the right resolution for printing.  If you are only ever planning to do an ebook, if there’s even the smallest possibility of hard copies, stick with a higher resolution.  You don’t want your cover to look fuzzy.  And the rule of thumb in images is you can always make it smaller, but you can’t typically go from small to large without losing quality.

SUM UP

You won’t learn everything you need to know from a few blog posts on cover design, but hopefully you understand the amount of thought that needs to go into designing that cover.

If you are working with a designer, you now have a basic idea of what runs through their head when they design.  Putting some thought into color, fonts, and photos will give you better words to use when telling them what kind of cover you want.  Instead of saying, “Make it cool,” you can use words like: “It’s kind of a dark, moody story, so maybe colors that are more subdued and dark.”  or “It’s a story about young woman who battles cancer with her positive attitude, so something that’s not too happy but hints of better things to come.  Nothing dark, maybe just muted or pastel colors—something that says feminine.”  etc. etc. etc.

Adjectives are helpful too: courageous, optimistic, hopeful.  Or for the darker story: Broody, mysterious, sinister, etc.

Now about this auteur stuff.  Remember one thing: trust in those with whom you’re collaborating.  What do I mean?  I mean if you like enough what the graphic designer did to hire them, trust that they’re good at what they do.  Make it a collaborative effort.  Your designer may have ideas you never would have thought of that will make you a fabulous cover—if you let them.  So give them an idea of what you’re looking for and let them have at it.  Don’t be a control freak over every little detail–that’s what I mean about not being an auteur.

Tomorrow the basic Do’s and Don’ts of book cover design.  Since I know some of you are going to attempt all of this on your own anyway, there are a few basic things you should understand before you do attempt it.  See you then!

One more thing.  If you have book covers you like that you feel utilize these principles well, feel free to link to them in the comments below.  And if you have any further questions on book cover design, include those as well.