Hello everyone! I'm in need of some help. Some years ago I wrote my first book, Heroes of Justice. Finally I've got around to getting it ready to go up on Kindle, but for one small problem, the Cover. I understand that there is a service were you can for a low price ask for a cover to be made for you. That's great!
However, you still need to have some idea of what to ask for since the artist has more than likely never read your story.
So my question to all of those who has read my Heroes of Justice story, do you have any suggestions for the cover design. My own which I sweated blood and tears for got universal bad reviews from everyone I showed it to. "Looks too much like something for a game." I was told
Well, that was intentional since it is about a group of role-playing gamers who gets sucked into a game world. The twist here is that it is a superhero role-playing game and not your usual fantasy RPG.
For years I've been roadblocked by this so any ideas you have, please send them!
Hugs
Grover
PS: The story has been edited and polished from the original posted here at BC. Hopefully that makes it a better piece of writing. :)
Comments
Ok here goes
Assuming you've not changed things too much how about
A Laptop PC on a table.
On the screen is a picture of a neon pink VW beetle.
Across one edge of the keyboard a pair of red gloves.
Off to one side one or more D&D dice, 20 sided maybe ?
And a chocolate milkshake.
Simplicity is Best
Hi,
I always create my own covers. My guiding principles are always;
1. Thematic, something that hints at what the story is about
2. Simple
3. Eye catching
Of the examples posted on Kindle at present, 'Tips,' 'A Different Kind of Courage,' and 'Inconvenient Truths' all began as photos I took of staged items around my home that were mentioned in the story. I converted the photos into a Microsoft Word file and added the lettering.
Now here is the part that gives techno-geeks fits. Once I have the Word document the way I want it, I save it as a PDF. I then open it as a PDF and save it as a png or a jpeg, depending on what is call for. And presto, you have a book cover that can be used on Kindle.
For 'Grace' and 'Dance of the Baccha' I used a stock photo or image, pasted it to a Microsoft Word file and added the lettering and an appropriate background. I then save it using the same technique described above.
I do not know if this is of any help, but it works for me and it gives me covers that are uniquely mine, have the lettering I wish to use and fits the story.
I can show you other examples of upcoming book covers of mine which I created using the above technique if you contact me via PM since I cannot see to add them here. (The curse of being a Non-techie in a technological jungle).
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
I think the two suggestions
I think the two suggestions given here are probably the best. Use the idea from the first comment (sounds really well thought out, and most likely something that would give good ideas to what the contents are) and use the second comment's thoughts on how to make the cover.
If you are feeling more creative, there's ways you can take a photograph and turn it into a Watercolor, a pencil drawing, an ink rendering and more just using Photoshop. There's tutorials on the Internet that will tell you exactly how. Basically you take the original photo, do the manipulations to them (like if you were making it a watercolor) then save it as a JPG, put it into Word, add the text for the title, subtitle, blurb and your author name, then export that to a PDF. That locks it all down as a file, you import that into the PDF you are posting as the book, and then you have the whole thing.
Just upload and you are done.
Now, this is going to take some time. But it would be better if you could get your own "stamp" on the book rather than someone else's take on it.