Novel Writing Made Less Impossible -- Think About That Book Cover
- Brian K. Morris
- Mar 28, 2018
- 5 min read
DISCLAIMER: I am not a very good artist. I had ambitions of becoming a comic book illustrator in my misspent youth. Well, it turned out I was also misinformed in thinking I had the discipline to accomplish this.
However, I learned enough about artwork, particularly in regards to book covers, that I feel partially confident in talking about it.
The cover is truly what initially captures the attention of the buyer. To me there are certain aspects that will grab me. THE TITLE. This includes the typeface used. Sure, a snappy title, with appropriate subtitle, is essential to make your book stand out from the rest. But using a rather pedestrian style, such as Times New Roman, while comfortable on the eyes, gives no sense of drama to the name of your book. Also, a relatively undramatic Courier font might work (it did for CONFLICT: A STUDY IN HEROIC CONTRASTS), but not for VULCANA: REBIRTH OF THE CHAMPION or STANTASTEIN.
Also, the title should stand out in contrasting color to the background upon which it rests. If your background is a warm color, such as the red-yellow range, make your title cooler with a green or blue. This contrast is very important when you reduce the cover image to a thumbnail (as in how your book will be displayed on a website such as Amazon, Walmart, Books-A-Million, etc.). THE ARTWORK: Ah, NOW we're talking about an area more suited to someone that understands design and what it takes to speak to the reader. Fortunately, I know enough to be able to art direct and give suggestions. I also know enough to be dangerous ... literally. There are certain conventions in book cover art that need to be addressed. For instance, do you go with a cover that details a scene inside the work, a dramatic moment that occurs and might draw readers into discovering how the protagonist found themselves in that pickle? Or do you go with a representational scene that conveys the overall mood of the work? And then there's the titillation factor, especially in the Romance genre. The more flesh the characters showed, the racier the book would be. Also, covers could reflect concerns of the current day. Imagine the sales on a book where the cover setting is a school and someone's wearing a long coat and carrying a gun. How much will you pander to the concerns of your audience, right?
THINK ABOUT YOUR COVER'S SUBJECT MATTER. I've found it's best to have an idea in your mind when you talk to your cover designer. It's equally important to be flexible if a better idea enters the discussion. For instance, I knew exactly what I wanted to see on my SANTASTEIN cover. However, my Art Sherpa Trevor Erick Hawkins (www.PopImages4U.com) came up with a better one so I ran with it. On the other hand, Trevor and I agreed on how the title character of VULCANA: REBIRTH OF THE CHAMPION should appear. However, I dug in my heels when he wanted to represent the scene in dark colors while I passionately wanted Vulcana to be framed in the brightest, warmest reds imaginable. And when Kim Lockman (www.kimlockman.com) designed a new look for the sequel's cover, I fell in love as she took my basic concept of an event inside the book and made it something unique. So how do you find an artist/designer? Same way you found your editors ... ASK! Go to your social media ... ask your writing peers ... do a search online (especially artist services like Fine Art America or DeviantArt) ... some sites will also sell you pre-designed covers where you can just add your own verbiage, which you should be good at.
In other news ... THE GHOSTLY TALES OF SPENCER SPOOK #1 - the Kickstarter campaign is more than halfway to its goal of $2,000 (in just seven days) and we have YOU to thank!The Golden Age comedy character, who pre-dates Casper by 6 months, is back in an ALL-NEW comic with art by Eric Hawkins and scripts by myself (with a story assist from Joe Gill and Ron Frantz).Also, we feature the never-before reprinted ORIGIN of Spencer. Plus, in addition to the ever-popular blank cover, there's all kinds of cool variant covers by Eric Hawkins, Scoot McMahon, Ken Wheaton, and Ty Templteon.So please check it out, if you haven't already!
Go to http://kck.st/2FZjqit for more details! NEXT WEDNESDAY: Cover Copy and Other Feats of Mental Agility
TOMORROW: Building Your Network of Allies
NEXT APPEARANCE: On April 1st, I will be at the INDYpendent Show inside the great Who's Yer Con, a great gaming show. We'll be at the Wyndham West Hotel & Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. A GREAT group of creators will be on hand to help you level up in your writing, art, marketing, crafts work, whatever! Did I mention it's FREE? For more information, go to www.indypendentshow.com and we fully expect to see you there!
SPECIAL NOTE: My newest book, The Haunting Scripts of Bachelors Grove, is currently on sale. It's part memoir, part grimoire. The first half deals with my entry into writing indie comics and joining Silver Phoenix Entertainment. I print four of my comic scripts for The Haunting Tales of Bachelors Grove, three of which have not been produced yet. Then I add four horror prose tales, three of which are NEW.All this behind a great cover by my Art Sherpa, Trevor Erick Hawkins, over 300 pages of terror and history for only $19.95 in paperback, $2.99 in e-book (FREE if you belong to Amazon Prime).
If you have any questions for me, write to me at Brian@RisingTide.pub. No attachments, please, for security reasons.
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to this blog. We're going to put out something every WEDNESDAY morning or you'll know the reason why. We plan to beef up our output to five times a week this year. Yeah, that's another goal and we've already included THURSDAYs now.
As if this isn't enough, I send out a monthly e-mail newsletter around the first week of every month. There's news, graphics (when I have them), personal appearance information, and the occasional cool money-saving offer. You can sign up HERE!
And of course, I'd love for you to purchase my books.I'm also on Twitter and Instagram.As long as you're at it, give a LIKE to my Facebook page for Vulcana.
And every Monday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, I host a live interactive broadcast entitled NEVERMIND THE FURTHERMORE (yes, it's all caps). You type in the comments, I read those comments, you type back, we have a conversation. Also, if you are present during the LIVE broadcast, you may post a link to your business/blog/website/creative endeavor/charity. Then we SHARE the show and get YOUR message out to MORE PEOPLE! Pretty cool, huh? See you tomorrow!
Comments