Meant to post this a couple weeks ago, but kept getting sidetracked. Anyways, here is the wrap-around cover of “Around Centralia Square,” an upcoming literary novel from Cave Hollow Press. 🙂
This was interesting to work with, since I got to sit in on one of the conversations regarding their plans for the book when I first approached them about doing the cover. ‘Twas neat to see the inner workings of a small press. 🙂
All photographs taken were my own. Photoshop CS6/Lightroom 4.0.
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Client Work, Photo Illustration
This is a wrap-around book cover I recently completed for Barking Rain Press. It’s for a mystery crime novel. It’s not yet released, but you can find out more about it here: [link]
Note: All of these images are from Shutterstock. Normally I’d use my own images, but in this case, stock images worked out best for what we wanted.
Photoshop CS6. 🙂
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Photo Illustration
Finally wrote out the synopsis for book three of the Distant Horizon storyline with Isaac (my husband), and afterwards, it left me wanting to create a picture representive of the ending. So here it is.
This time I didn’t try to make a book cover format, since I wanted more freedom for positioning.
Photoshop CS6 kept trying to shut down on me while I made this, but eventually (finally!) I just merged a bunch of layers and went from there. The authosave function did come in handy, though it was amusing seeing the file have recovered-recovered on it after shutting down the program twice.
Anyways, just some original art for the fun of it. 🙂
Meanwhile, “Ashes” is formatted, and I’m just waiting to hear back from my beta reader before I release it on Smashwords. 🙂
Filed under Book Covers, Personal Work, Photo Illustration, Writing
As I get closer to self-publishing “Ashes,” I thought it might be nice to do a cover reveal. So here it is, the cover to “Ashes.” It’s got some similar treatment done to it to resemble “Socks,” but it has a different color scheme to match the themes in the story itself. As an interesting little side note, I believe this is actually the same picture I used in “Socks,” but done differently enough that it shouldn’t be noticable. (Except that I pointed out, but anyway).
As a side note, I was debating on whether or not to include a blurb on the cover mentioning that it was a short story or prequel. After some discussion on Absolute Write, I decided not to include it. Why? Because the same information will be mentioned on the web page where it can be bought/downloaded. Also, because hopefully it will resemble the cover of “Socks” close enough that a connection will be made. Granted, this is experimentation on my part, but that’s kind of the point of doing this. 🙂
Without further ado, the new cover!
Also, as a quick note, I found this article and thought those of you interested in doing your own cover creation might like reading it. It’s about font choice. 🙂
http://clancytales.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/how-to-font-your-cover.html
Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration, Writing
It’s my pleasure to announce the latest completed book cover, “30 Days to the End of the World” for Diana Bocco (http://www.dianabocco.com)
Of course, once the final wrap-around cover is completed, I’ll reveal that and let you know when she expects her book to be available. 🙂
Meantime, I thought I’d mention something about promo materials. I’ve decide to plan on including promo materials in all but the most basic cover packages. This included an 8.5×11 flyer, a signature and avatar for those who want (such as if you’re on an online forum like Absolute Write), a thumbnail image, blog image, bookmark, business card, and post card. It’s up to the author whether they want to use them and how, but the idea is to make it easier for potential readers to remember your book.
Say you’re at a convention. Or maybe a book signing, and someone is debating whether or not to buy the book or doesn’t have money on hand. By providing them with a business card or bookmark, especially something that is a teaser, they’ll have something tangible to look back to if they want to look on Amazon for it later. Granted, everyone uses these differently, but I like for the option to be available for those who do. And with something like a bookmark, you could make a point to sign it. Or make notes on the back of a business card, if there’s something you’d talked about. The possibilities are endless, really.
But these are the promo materials I made for this cover, and I thought I’d share. 🙂
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Writing
I’m a day late in posting this, but I thought some of you might be interested. Yesterday Nichole Severn (Also Natascha Jaffa, from my most recent post) hosted a guest blog from me. It’s titled “The Importance of Cover Design and Genre.” If you’re at all considering designing your own cover or looking into hiring someone to design your cover, it might be helpful. At least, I hope it is. 🙂
So take a peak: http://www.nicholesevern.blogspot.com/2012/05/importance-of-cover-design-and-genre.html
Filed under Book Covers, Writing
Another update, as the due date for completing this project draws closer…
I have removed Snow Witch from Kindle (though it may still show as the system processes this), and made it free on Smashwords. There have been two additional downloads since then. It did recieve one review on Smashwords, which was two stars, but said it was worth the read.
The Carrier has 64 downloads since I uploaded it. There have not been any reviews as of this time.
I have just now uploaded the next short story, Shafted Dreams. Unlike the other short stories, it is a political commentary, and more on the literary side of genres. It is also told in three short points of view. I’m curious to see if it gets downloaded more or less, or has a difference in tendency to be reviewed. It is also a story I feel has a stronger cover, so I’m curious to see how that goes. Of course, I have uploaded it as free.
As a side note, I am noticing a theme starting to develop in this project, loosely themed around family. With that in mind, I’ll pay attention to that in other stories. 🙂
Anyways, the statistics of the project is as follows:
3 Stories completed.
4 Stories written but not edited.
3 Stories still need to be written.
5 Book Covers completed.
1 Book Cover nearing completion.
4 Book Covers still need to be designed.
Anthology Cover still needs to be designed.
Let me know if you guys have any questions or anything you want me to go into more detail about with this project. 🙂
Shafted Dreams: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/151067
Filed under Book Covers, Writing
One of my interests with photography is to create book covers, so my initial thought is to cater to those who are self-publishing or e-publishing. I commonly frequent the writer’s forum Absolute Write (since I’m writing young adult novels myself), and I offered to do a free book cover for someone as practice, and to get a better idea of the process. Today I completed the book cover for Rebekkah, for her upcoming book, Beyond the Eyes. I still need to format it for various uses through e-publishing and promotions, but this is the resulting image. 🙂
You can find her blog here: http://themusingwriter.blogspot.com/
Filed under Book Covers
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 