Cover Art for Books

Being a publisher of my own books, one of my favorite parts is making the cover art for the books I write. Art is subjective I know, but that is also the fun part of it.

Since I love books so much, I am drawn to any store aisle with books, and I find one thing is prevalent: I find most book covers boring. I know that sounds harsh, and maybe it is my own bias at work, but I just find most book covers very drab.

I do love the process; taking the photos, putting multiple photos together to get the exact photo I want by using a graphics program, putting it on the cover with the title and my name as the author, laying out the spine, and of course the back cover blurb about the novel, my publishers trademark, and my author bio. I love it all, especially figuring out what to have for a front cover. It needs to be about the subject of the book, but have people on it too. I did one novel that was an artist rendering, but most are photographs.

It takes a lot of time and effort to get just the right book cover for me granted, but since it takes me on average, 3 months to write a novel, I also have 3 months to get the cover just right.

I have seen a few books in the stores with covers like mine, but at best, maybe 1%, as most seem to be artist renderings, and also quite dull.

Am I the only one that sees them that way?

I also wonder why that is?
Is it because of time and cost?

I think it varies depending on genre. I write fiction, and love making my own covers. It does take skill and work though.

My first covers weren't good, now I think they are as good or better than many covers I know authors have paid for. I also see many covers that are far, far better!

I continue to learn new skills and try new things, but my limiting factor is that I don't have access to Photoshop.

I have never bought a lot of books.

Years ago when I read books they were mostly given to me or I checked them out at the library.

I bought a box of books at a garage sale and picked out one book to read.  I am sure the cover was the reason I picked out that book.

Back then most covers were artist drawings.

I liked that book so well that I gave the rest of the books away and have read 200 books by the author of that one book.

The look of the covers might have something to do with whether the book is fiction or non-fiction.

Other than the older fiction books that I have most of my books are non-fiction.  

Many of the covers have the author's picture on them or something related to the content.

To me, the point of having a drawing or picture on a cover is to sell the book, especially if it is fiction by an author that is not well known like James Patterson or Louis Lamour.

Anne Miller wrote:To me, the point of having a drawing or picture on a cover is to sell the book, especially if it is fiction by an author that is not well known like James Patterson or Louis Lamour.

I agree totally, Anne! If authors want to reach readers, the cover's not a place for artistic self-expression but for an appealing cover that signals the book genre (if fiction) or content (if non-fiction).

Jane Mulberry wrote:I think it varies depending on genre. I write fiction, and love making my own covers. It does take skill and work though.

My first covers weren't good, now I think they are as good or better than many covers I know authors have paid for. I also see many covers that are far, far better!

I continue to learn new skills and try new things, but my limiting factor is that I don't have access to Photoshop.

Jane, I dislike the subscription based photoshop app too so I use PaintshopPro

It is only $80 for a one time purchase and does everything Photoshop does

For a book cover I will often graft 5 pictures or so into one, then use MS Word. They print out well using them.

Steve Zoma wrote:Being a publisher of my own books, one of my favorite parts is making the cover art for the books I write . . . .

I have seen a few books in the stores with covers like mine, but at best, maybe 1%, as most seem to be artist renderings, and also quite dull. . . . . . .

Am I the only one that sees them that way?

I also wonder why that is?
Is it because of time and cost?

I'm like you in that I love a thoughtful, appealing, well designed cover. For my self-published books, I designed all of my own covers. It was a lot of work, but it was fun work.

I'm guessing that Indies often choose for someone else to do the cover because they don't feel artistic enough. A pre-designed cover is a popular option on the self-publishing POD websites. Then too, most folks like to follow trends, and the current trend for covers is photograph-like artist rendition. Very popular right now, especially for fiction, but very few of us can draw or paint that well.

Jane Mulberry wrote:I agree totally, Anne! If authors want to reach readers, the cover's not a place for artistic self-expression but for an appealing cover that signals the book genre (if fiction) or content (if non-fiction).

I agree with Anne and Jane too. It seems to be true for fiction, where lovers embracing or guns a'blazing are common symbols of the contents.

I write non-fiction, so I like to include a variety of related photos on the covers. Feedback, however, has been mixed. I've been complimented on my covers but also told they are too busy. I don't reckon we can please everyone.

Jane Mulberry wrote:. . .my limiting factor is that I don't have access to Photoshop.

Jane, what program are you using? I don't have Photoshop either, but can do absolutely everything I want to with GIMP.

EDIT to add the web address of Gimp. https://www.gimp.org/
The download is free.

I do fiction too, mostly action type stories so sometimes I have guns a blazing, but often people too. My books almost always have a romantic element to them, because I mean, I minds well write about successful love even if it escapes me in my own life!

My readers tend to be ladies so I should put some strapping dude on the covers, but I struggle with that. I have put couples on the covers, but like anything, the more included the harder it is to get everything right. I use stock photos now, but I think soon I’ll gravitate to getting models so my book covers take less picture cutting and pasting.

Steve Zoma wrote:
Jane, I dislike the subscription based photoshop app too so I use PaintshopPro
It is only $80 for a one time purchase and does everything Photoshop does
For a book cover I will often graft 5 pictures or so into one, then use MS Word. They print out well using them.

I've been using PaintShop Pro for years and I love it.  I prefer owning programs that are resident in my own computer.  I had an old version of PaintShop Pro that I used until this year, when finally it stopped playing well with the latest version of Windows, so now I've got PSP 2022 in my computer.  

I like bouncing back and forth between MS Publisher and PSP to make my covers (I've done a few for other people as well as for my own stuff).  I'm using a 2007 version of Publisher that works just fine with Windows 11.

Leigh, I think your covers are perfect for your full-length books, which include such a diverse range of homestead related topics.  The single-image covers you use for the single-topic booklets wouldn't be a good fit for the big books. The only change I'd consider is making the section with the title and subtitle a little bigger, so it's more legible in Amazon search.

GIMP is fab and what I previously used. But my old Windows 7 laptop I used GIMP on died, and I won't spend the money needed to buy something that will run Windows 10 or 11. So I've been using a web-based app, Pixlr, which is waaaaaaaaay better than it used to be. They've put a lot of developer hours into completely redeveloping it and are turning it into something with some great capabilities, with different versions depending on how much work the image needs.

Problem is, the free version has ads, and the paid version is a yearly subscription model. Thankfully I was blessed to purchase a great $49 lifetime subscription deal as an early adopter when they first relaunched the new version and wanted to raise money fast. It's my current go-to for anything graphic, especially my ebook covers.

I also use Bookbrush, a different app designed for authors to make covers and promotional images, for specific things like book memes, paperback covers, and 3D cover images for sets, by importing my ebook cover and working from that. I got a good early adopter deal on that, too. It's a useful tool, but really best for fiction writers and I'm not sure I would subscribe it I needed to pay full price.

I don't claim my covers are anything amazing, especially when I know authors in my genre who are paying $$$ for their covers. But they look professional enough to pass muster and clearly show my genre. And I have fun making them. Cover design makes my pull my hair out screaming, at times, but it also makes me smile.

I can certainly relate to everyone on this. I cannot really explain it, except to say that I just know what I want my book cover to be, and get really frustrated if I cannot find a photo that really matches. It might take me weeks to find just the right photo. It is one of the reasons why I am thinking about taking my own photos. Sometimes what I envision as the perfect depiction, just is not out there... or the person has the wrong color hair. Or in the case of my latest novel that really needs a family on the cover... getting a family of four, with the right ages and genders for the two kids. Getting those pictures myself will have its own set of problems I know, but when I get the book cover just the way I want to... well... I would describe that glee as the same euphoria I felt as I stared at my newborn children! Yep; I created that. THAT!!! Oh, so proud.

But complete frustration when it does not work out. Like now. Grrrrrrrrr.....

Steve Zoma wrote:It is one of the reasons why I am thinking about taking my own photos. Sometimes what I envision as the perfect depiction, just is not out there... or the person has the wrong color hair. Or in the case of my latest novel that really needs a family on the cover... getting a family of four, with the right ages and genders for the two kids. Getting those pictures myself will have its own set of problems I know, but when I get the book cover just the way I want to...

That's what I ended up doing. It was another learning curve for me, but you're right about getting what you want. Plus, there are no issues about copyrights or fees.

Leigh Tate wrote:That's what I ended up doing. It was another learning curve for me, but you're right about getting what you want. Plus, there are no issues about copyrights or fees.

One great thing too about PaintshopPro is that it has artistic effects, so once you get your picture arranged as you want, you can use colored pencil, foil, or colored chalk effects to make the photo into an artist rendering. I did that on one of my book covers and it came out really nice.

As far as working with models, I have yet to do that with strangers, but know there are a few local models on Model Mayhem that I could use. It would have been nice on a trilogy I did, just because getting the three positions that I wanted, would have been great if one model had done all three. It worked, but some positioning was not quite what I wanted, but stock photos gave me a woman with blond hair and I needed a brunet. The blond worked well for one cover, but I could not find what I wanted for the other two. As I said, one model with the same color hair would have been so much easier.

I did try to retouch the blond's hair to brunet, but I could not make it as life-like as I wanted.

As I said, these things can be so frustrating sometimes (but also fun).

Jane Mulberry wrote:
I continue to learn new skills and try new things, but my limiting factor is that I don't have access to Photoshop.

There is a free, older version of photoshop! I've been using it since it was new, and just downloaded and installed it onto my new computer. It's Photoshop CS2. It's a little glitchy at times, and you sometimes have to click the menu bar to get your tools back, because it glitches. But, the small amount of glitchiness has always been something I could work around. (I've never registered or updated my photoshop, so maybe the glitches would resolve themselves with updates? Though I do believe photoshop no longer updates this version.)

Here's all the details for downloading it: https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3689-adobe-photoshop-cs2.html