Category Archives: Book Covers

November 25, 2015 · 7:00 pm

Behind the Scenes – Requiem In Red

A cover for Barking Rain Press. This is the sequel to Eine Kleine Murder by Kaye George. (Note that the publisher’s version of the cover is slightly different, and I modeled the sequel cover’s border around the main image after their version). For this cover, the publisher wanted to convey the dark mood of the book, along with a hint at the musical themes involved. They provided a couple possible background images and ideas, which I then put together in a rough comp. I also found the music sheets (part of one larger image of multiple music sheets, which I cut-and-pasted, and then used Photoshop CS6’s warp tool in order to place them in varying positions). I also added the conductor’s baton in the hand of the statue, made it look like the baton was the same material as the statue, and added the directional shadow. The goal was to have everything fit together smoothly.

Afterwards, the publisher asked about adding a church in the background, behind the woman’s statue. So I placed the church (careful to get the size and placement in the image right so that it looked like it was in the background), blurred the background around the statue a bit for a focal effect, added more now to the steeple, and also played with the darker sky from the church image.

This is the result:

SBibb - Requiem In Red - Wrap-Around Book Cover
Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=101040352 – musical background

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=22681549 – graveyard

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=15224833 – baton

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=22723609 – music sheets

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-22681552/stock-photo-village-church-in-snow-czech-republic.html – church

Behind the Scenes – A Day Without a Night – Book Cover

This is a cover for Melange Books. We wanted to match this with the cover for the first book in the series (Note: I did not make the cover for the first book), so we kept the black background and the same styles and general placement of the text. The author had a few ideas for symbols that they wanted to use, so they found the corresponding stock images. After tinkering a bit with placement, this is the final result:

Stock images from 123RF and Dollar Photo Club.

https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=5187071 – sword
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=88389030 – background
http://www.123rf.com/search.php?word=29866867 – moon and sun emblem
http://www.123rf.com/search.php?word=10707247 – book

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Client Work

Tagged as A Day without a Night, book cover, book cover art, book cover design, book covers, cover art, cover design, designing a book cover, fantasy, JTAdeline, Melange Books, Stephanie Flint, stock art

November 11, 2015 · 5:25 pm

Behind the Scenes – Dark Spirits – Book Cover Remake

This is a cover for Rebekkah Ford. For this cover, we were revamping an older series of covers I did for her a few years ago. The goal was to more clearly give the books the paranormal romance aspect (rather than horror), and possibly center the books toward an older audience. (You can see the new cover for Beyond the Eyes here, and you can check out Rebekkah Ford’s website here).

Before:

After:

For the new covers, we chose models with visible faces, and we’ve been placing them in approximately the same position for each cover. We’ve also changed the text to be more straight-forward. The back covers are easier to read and now include an author bio and photograph. I also made the testimonials easier to spot. Overall, this should have a more professional look. (Not that the originals were bad, but my skills have improved, and book cover trends have changed).

Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=133833233 – man
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=237688516 – spooky entrance

1 Comment

Filed under Book Covers

Tagged as before and after, Beyond the Eyes, book cover design, book cover redesign, book cover remake, cover art, cover design, cover remakes, Dark Spirits, new adult, paranormal romance, Rebekkah Ford, revamping a book cover, Stephanie Flint, young adult

November 4, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Behind the Scenes – The Girl Who Flew Away

This is a cover for Barking Rain Press. The author had several ideas on their art form for how the cover might look, and they listed a few options for symbolism. After reading the form, I had an idea of the style I thought might work. I found the images (including the sketchy dragonflies, both the illustration and the creature referencing the book) and put together a mock-up. My initial mock-up had a different background, which included cliffs and a waterfall but didn’t really give the right feel in regards to setting. I sent another idea for the background, just the picture, along with the mock-up, and they asked to try it. This is the end result. 🙂

Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=94726207

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=171422249

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=116280835

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=146807903

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as adventure, backpacking, Barking Rain Press, book cover design, book covers, contemporary, cover art, mystery, photographic illustration, SBibb, Stephanie Flint, The Girl Who Flew Away, Val Muller, wrap-around cover, ya

October 14, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – Magic’s Stealing – The Paperback Proof Is In!

Today I’m going to interrupt my usual post with an announcement: I have received my paperback proof of Magic’s Stealing!

It came in a small, cardboard wrap (not quite a box, but not a bag, either), and was delivered to my front door. Upon opening the package, I took a few pictures. 😀

(( Please ignore the various HeroMachine pictures and cool artwork in the background… those aren’t our personal works (Though if you want a good way to organize the general look of your characters, HeroMachine is quite fun. There’s a whole row of pictures off the frame that we based on one of our campaigns). ))

Fancy Title Page

Anyway, this book has 158 pages of content, plus additional pages for the front and back matter, and it clocks in at 170 pages long. Here you can see the the title page (there’s a few pages before it), and further down this post are samples of a chapter page and a regular, full-text page. You can click the images to see them at a larger size.

I did all the formatting in Microsoft Word 2007, and I hope to do a post later on some of the fun tools you can use to add a professional touch to your books. Once I tested a few pages out on my printer for various fonts and sizes and line spacing, I saved this as a PDF, and checked it in the digital proofer on Createspace. Once that looked good, I ordered the print edition.

This particular book is 5.25 x 8 inches (based on a few of my favorite books with easy-to-read formatting), which uses the same dimensions as a 6 x 9, so the cover converted easily. Glossy cover and black-and-white, cream pages. I chose the “bleed” option so that I could use the full page image treatment (pulled from the background of the cover) for the chapter intros and title page.

Page Full of Text

I did notice that the words got a tad bit close to the gutter, so that’s something I’ll have to keep in mind for future series, but it’s still readable. Of course, I also justified the text.

This is the end result, and I’m now reading through the book to make sure the formatting is correct before I release the print edition (Amazon only, for now).

I’ve found a couple typos, which I’ve made note of, but if those are all I find, I will most likely let those slide for now so that I don’t potentially mess up the formatting right before ordering a large number of books. If I find a large number of typos, I may go ahead and do the initial revision now.

Though that one I’ve found may keep pestering me…

I don’t know. Maybe I’ll order a second proof, that way I can be sure the formatting looks right and that there are as few errors in the print book as possible.

Anyway, regardless of what I choose to do, I plan to go back and revisit both the print and ebook editions at some point for typos, but I’m considering doing that all at once, when more typos have inevitably been found.

In the meantime, look forward to the paperback edition, coming soon! 😀

Sorry, this photo got a little blurry…

I hope you’ve found this post helpful. 🙂

Have you had any experiences with proofing a print edition of your book? How do you decide when to update for typo corrections?

6 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Writing

Tagged as book proof, createspace, fantasy novella, Magic's Stealing, paperback, paperback edition, print edition, proof copy, proofing, publishing tips, self-publishing, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, unboxing

September 25, 2015 · 9:43 pm

Behind the Scenes – Beyond the Eyes – Cover Remake

This is a cover for Rebekkah Ford. For this cover, we redid a cover I created for her three years ago, back when I was trying to find willing authors to take a chance on me so I could build my portfolio (thank you!).

At the time, we came up with this:

The goal was to create something mysterious, with a bit of a taste of horror for her first YA paranormal. At the time, I took inspiration from the cover of Clockwork Angel, the cover art of which I adore.

However, this was an earlier cover of mine, so the font effects are a tad amateurish (and I hadn’t even justified the original back cover copy… which I later updated once I discovered that trick). Not only that, but the cover felt too much like a horror novel, and wasn’t attracting as many romance readers as it should (since this is definitely a paranormal romance).

So Rebekkah contacted me again a couple months ago to see about updating the covers for this series. She had a few stock images in mind, and after working through a few proofs and font placement, we came up with this remake for the first book:

(See how much better the back cover formatting looks after three more years of experience?)

The woman on the cover clearly resembles the main character, Paige, the shadow in the distance could easily be a sinister dark spirit (or a mysterious immortal), and the eerie forest distinctly fits a prominent setting of the story. I blurred the background to help make the model stand out, then flipped it for the back cover, and darkened the spine to make sure the words were readable. This cover should now attract paranormal romance readers. In addition, the straightforward text should attract a bit of an older audience (this series fits the upper YA/NA categories).

Personally, I like both covers, but having read the book, I suspect the new cover will attract more of the target audience.

You can find Beyond the Eyes on Goodreads.

Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=281147264

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=107037647

Read more from the author’s point of view:

http://rebekkahford.com/2015/09/25/two-mistakes-i-made-with-my-first-book-cover/

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as Beyond the Eyes, Beyond the Eyes trilogies, book covers, cover remakes, covers, doing a remake of a cover, haunting, NA book cover, new book covers, paranormal romance, photographic illustration, Rebekkah Ford, redoing a cover, Stephanie Flint

September 10, 2015 · 4:15 pm

Author Photo Results and Magic’s Stealing Cover Reveal

I am thrilled to announced that Magic’s Stealing is now available for pre-order!

Now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for…

The cover reveal!

For centuries, ribbons of magic have provided the kingdom of Cirena with light, healing, and protection. Then, in a span of minutes, those ribbons fly from their masters, stolen, save for the magic of a few chosen mages. One of these mages is Toranih, a young noblewoman who would rather have a sword in her hand than use her powers to heal or throw fireballs. As a result, her magic skills are lacking. But with former mages dying from magic withdrawal, and the looming threat of an army of shadows who are impervious to mortal weapons, she must either embrace the responsibilities of a mage or watch her home perish.

This is a 34,000-word novella. Book one of The Wishing Blade series.

Preview the first four (almost five!) chapters at Smashwords. 😀

Pre-order on Amazon US

Pre-order on Amazon UK

Pre-order on Smashwords

Add to Goodreads Shelf

* The Wishing Blade - Section Break - Magic Swirl *

In the meantime, you may have noticed that my author photo has changed across several of the sites I frequent. It’s time to reveal the author photo I chose!

The choice was between 1 and 4 (Read the post about author photos here):

Author Photo #1

Author Photo #4

It was a tough choice, but I ultimately chose #4, since that picture seemed to convey a quirky, adventurous feeling. You can see the three versions I’ve made for different social media uses. However, I plan to keep the first one around, since it has a nice, professional look to it. 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you like fantasy stories, please pick up a copy of Magic’s Stealing and share the news of its release (September 17, 2015) with your friends. 😀

9 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Writing

Tagged as author photo, fantasy, Kindle, Magic's Stealing, new release, novella, pre-orders, Smashwords, Stephanie Flint, The Wishing Blade, young adult novella

September 7, 2015 · 8:17 pm

Behind the Scenes – A Wolf Slayer Saga: Dragon Sword

This is a cover for Melange Books. Since we knew we had a sequel coming, we put a little more focus in setting up the basic structure of the cover… the wolf head at top, the series name on the side, and the placement of the title and author name. We also played with the mood, choosing the dark blue color for the forest and the red of the title to create a dramatic, dangerous tone. We chose a model with multiple poses, though I did a bit of photomanipulation to make him look more like how the character is described in the book. I also made both him and the wolf have a more noticeable scowl, and I played with the depth of field to put more of the emphasis on the model.

For the back cover I went with a simple leather texture to match the edge of the front cover with the series title. This is the end result:

SBibb - Dragon Sword - Back Cover

Stock images from The Dollar Photo Club:

https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/64831097 – leather texture
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/48895294 – wolf head
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/59929394 – swordsman
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/45294831 – snarling wolf
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/58438380 – winter forest
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/19521274 – wolf group

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration

Tagged as A Wolf Slayer Saga, cover creation, cover design, Dragon Sword, fantasy covers, Melange Books, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, Richard Dawes, SBibb, Stephanie Flint, Valka the Wolf Slayer

September 2, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Behind the Scenes – Sojourn: The Deadlands

This is a cover for Melange Books. For this cover, we chose to keep the theme similar to the first book in the series, Sojourn: The Wildlands. To do this, we kept a few key elements: the two characters walking with their backs to the reader, a desolate landscape, similar placement of the title treatment and author name, along with the late evening lighting. Though we tried a couple different proofs before this, we found this one to have the strongest appeal.

This is the end result:

SBibb - Sojourn: The Deadlands - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from The Dollar Photo Club:

6 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration

Tagged as BD Messick, cover art, cover design, Melange Books, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, post-apocalyptic, Sojourn: the Deadlands, Stephanie Flint, ya, young adult

August 12, 2015 · 8:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Oh Wicked Escort

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover, the author already had a pretty good idea of what they wanted it to look like, and they provided a mockup along with the art form.

My job, then, was to find the appropriate stock images, the right font, and position those images based on what they had. In addition, I added the gilded, embossed effects to enhance the feeling that the book came from the particular era. I was a little concerned about being able to find an actual omnibus, as they requested, but once I went to the idea of using the gilded effect, I searched through the stock site’s illustrations along with photos, and found something that worked. This is the end result: