I've been thinking today about book covers, after a surreptitious visit to Barnes & Noble to attempt to drop a few business cards in the romance section. (Success level: Fair. Too many bored employees asking me if I needed help. Business cards had to be snuck back into pocket.)
Print book covers make me a little jealous. There's a lot that is present in them that isn't present in ebook cover imagery. I mean, those of us who publish electronically get a jpeg image. There's no shot at cool things like texture, raised lettering. Maybe something glittery, if you're into that kind of thing. Personally, I'm a sucker for covers with a little texture. I don't know why, to be honest.
Ebook cover art can be a little suspect, at times. Artists may have their hearts in the right place, but still produce a cover that leaves you scratching your head in confusion over the final result. My biggest moment of confusion? Trying to figure out why anyone in their right mind would slap a golden retriever tail on a girl on the cover of a paranormal book I viewed online once.
So, I thought it would be a little fun to have a Cover Art Bonanza here on The Project. What do you think? Let's discuss some of those small-press and indie eRomance covers.
Authors, email us your ebook cover art, and tell us why you love it, and why it suits your story. Email an image and purchase links and include a paragraph about why you stamped your seal of approval on that cover, and we'll share it on a future post. Contact us at onehundredromances (at) gmail (dot) com and use a subject line of Cover Art Bonanza!
Until the covers start to come in, a little question to discuss in the comments below:
Readers, ever find a small-press or indie eRomance online that had cover art that stopped you in your tracks? What was it about the cover art that ultimately drew you to the story?
Also, what elements of ebook cover design might negatively affect your decision to purchase an ebook? (Let's keep this portion to general commentary and not single out any particular book/author out by name or title. I know I'd cry if someone blasted my own ebook cover art on a blog.)
I like many e-book covers. There are some publishers who hire unprofessional cover artist and the covers look they were made by a ten-year-old, but there are also many publishers who have very talented cover artist and their covers are amazing. I think some e-books have better covers then some traditionally published books. Some of the best e-book covers are made by Evernight Publishing and Carina Press. I just LOVE all of their covers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Angelina. I've seen some very lovely covers from both publishers. My own publisher has been putting out some great covers, I'm continually pleased by what I see for our authors. It helps having a publisher who listens to the author's vision, I believe.
ReplyDeleteE-book covers run the gamut from hokey jpegs to really well done professional looking covers. Two that come to mind are any by Kait Nolan, and India Drummond's Ordinary Angels - very well done covers! Actually, wait, Ordinary Angels is traditionally published.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I think any self-published author's goal should be to make it look as glossy as possible, and not like an image that's been put together in PowerPoint or something :-)
I sympathise, though. I'm not a graphic design person by any means, and if I went the self-publishing route, would have to hire an artist or designer, for sure.
I am so fussy about book covers, I won't buy a story that sounds great if I don't love the cover. I see too many dodgy covers out there that look like people wizzed up in photoshop in under an hour. But, on the flip side, I see some amazing ones too. It's worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteWagging Tales - Blog for Writers
The ones that drive me bonkers are ones featuring couples that were created in some program that makes them look like Sims characters. Spring for stock photos or don't use them, that's my thinking.
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