My grandfather did that back in the mid-seventies. When my grandmother passed in 2009 there were still sixty or so boxes left in the garage that of course went straight to the recycle bin due to an overwhelming public lack of interest. Now, on to my suggestions: I like the title that @Thornesque has. The simple Angel From The Streets really does it for me. It's at least enough to get me to pick it up and turn it over to read the back flap synopsis. I like this idea as well. Maybe like the top photo of a pile of snapshots on a coffee table in an attractively furnished living room. Just IMO, simplicity is key for making an attractive cover for a self-publish. My cover is on it's second draft using a stock photo I purchased online with edits done in Photoshop Cs6. Just a basic title plus the author name - nothing more. Subtitles, quotes, and all that jazz can go on the back cover.
The dog tag idea is cool....I really do like that one. That's a sharp idea. But there's something about a face....something irresistible about eyes. I think they could draw someone to look at that cover for more than a millisecond; maybe even long enough to read the title, maybe even long enough to click on the image..... Those are my instincts. By the way, mammamaia, I used your idea. Here's a beer from me. Well I seriously would buy you a beer if I could get it down the cable. I changed "Her" to "A Dog's", because I thought the word "dog" should go somewhere on the cover. But I appreciate those words. They were 8 words of genius. I made a new cover....(uh-oh, here we go again....)
Thank you auntiebetty. Yes it is a memoir. A "How a Dog Changed My Life" book. My idea so far is to get it on Amazon Kindle self publishing. I know the competition's fierce. It's free, so everyone who can type is writing books they hope to sell, and many won't sell. I know; but I prefer that option right now.
But the snapshot idea or the idea of photoshopping the photo to eliminate the background grass doesn't eliminate the face.
What I'd recommend is changing the fonts your using to a more professional font and manipulating the primary photo in photoshop. It looks too "raw" for lack of a better word; I'd recommend applying some filters in Photoshop, maybe add some gloss. If you want to send me the original photo or the .psd I'd be happen to mess around with it a little. Edit: I like the latest version two posts above better than the original. Better font and definitely a better cover, imo.
'called' doesn't work as well as 'named' to me... 'named' has a more personal feeling to it, makes it clear that someone loved her enough to actually give her a name, not that she was only 'called' that by strangers... and i'd accept daniel's offer, if i were you, sylvia... but i'd strongly advise not using an unserifed font... or at least not such a totally characterless one... and especially when you have a serifed font for the by line... consider the difference: [un-serifed] An Angel Named "Misty" [serifed] An Angel Named "Misty" An Angel Named "Misty" ...if you email me, i'll show you even more impactful fonts you can choose from... ...also, the tag line needs to be done correctly: Rescued from the streets, a dog's love outlives death. [it's not a title, so should not be capitalized like one... and a single line may look and read better] Rescued from the streets, a dog's love outlives death. color is also of great importance and red isn't a kind/gentle/loving color... neither is brown... i'd love to help you with the text, at least, since i can't do the graphics fiddling that daniel is so good at... perhaps between the 2 of us, we can get your cover up to professional levels... i can also help you with the text and make-up of the back cover and spine design... i can send you the printer's proof of my own books' covers, so you can see how it's done... hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
I had to get away from all this. I was going nuts! lol! I was dreaming about "grunge fonts". (actually a grunge font might convey some of the darker aspects of the story -as long as it was bold and legible on the kindle thumbnail image. Interesting dreams....) A good legible one, with just a touch of grunge is Londrina Solid. A zip file download from fontsquirrel is playing havoc with me right now for techie reasons, and I have to unzip it somehow. Thanks for not giving up on me guys. I had to get away, in order to come back and see my crap ideas! You're right -the last one's better, but it ain't there yet. There's the "true story" aspect too. In this genre (tales of rescue dogs plus dramas involved with rescue dogs, etc) there's always a point made in the subtitle about it being a true story. I made a new subtitle: A true-life rescue drama A dog's love beyond death I also checked on average subtitles in this genre, and some can be long-ish. Compared to a few, mine is short at 9-10 words. That's for books that are currently selling well. Many are print books, but have e-book options too. Mine is going to be an e-book for Amazon Kindle. That's why it has to look pretty simple with a bold title, which will give it a better chance to be legible in a thumbnail version. Also that's why I need the face. It has some kind of magnetism for dog-lovers, even as a thumbnail. The idea is if it's attractive enough to click on, it gives a better chance of the story's 'pitch' being read. Daniel, it is extremely generous of you to offer to fix my pic! If you still want to I'll happily send you the original picture, to play around with. If you have changed your mind at all by now -no problem. BTW....a new one has emerged. This is probably crap too. That was before I read your comment mammamaia -about brown/red text. I tried green, but it didn't look so good. I'll keep trying.
That one's starting to look good to me. You might want to check what it looks like in thumbnail size, as that's how most of us will first see it. I've had a hard time finding fonts that look OK at full size but are still readable in a thumbnail. Edit: duh, I just noticed the thumbnail at the side . That's at least readable there.
I don't know whether this is possible, can you do this yourself or pay someone (it wouldn't necessarily be expensive), but I'll tell you what I honestly think. White cover, fade, the fonts, all doesn't really look like a real book cover, it's still pamphlet-y. Since you want to definitely include Misty's picture, and I understand why, my suggestion would be to isolate her image from the rest of the picture in Photoshop or Gimp or similar, and do a nice photomanipulation with a completely different background. With careful blending and picture improvement, you can end up with a very professional image indeed. I do think that fonts need to be improved, both style, size, placement and colour, but you need the cover image first, and then it can be matched perfectly. Text is an art in itself, it can sometimes be the hardest part. Other than that, the way you have it right now, I don't think anything you do to it as it is will significantly depart from the pamphlet appearance. Even if you isolated Misty and left completely white background, so it looks like a studio shot, and carefully chose the font into something much less heavy and more elegant, it would look a lot better. People like to know they are not going to waste their time on amateurishly written books. Your book can be beautifully written, but if the cover is amateurish, it'll deter a lot of people, and that would be a shame.
what age do you consider to be the lower end of 'older'? and what reliable stats have you found to back up that 'always' claim?
Change "always" to "often" then, if you insist on being pedantic. It's just interesting how when you read about someone's "experience" it is more often than not the same kind of person having it. 1. Aged around 40+ 2. Female 3. Lost someone very close to them (parent, spouse, child... dog, in this case) 4. Very irrational and/or emotional I assume it's because they are more likely to misinterpret normal human emotions/responses.
Fairly rude to talk about this on her thread and what you said can be slightly offensive to her.. I'm pretty sure there is an afterlife discussion in the lounge already.
I find it funny that you labeled someone pedantic for calling you out on making a sweeping generalization. The women you stereotype aren't the irrational ones here...
Only if they were saying those things to make sweeping and potentially offensive generalizations about people within earshot. If you'd like to talk about this further, send me a message. Let's not derail this thread any more than we already have.
Agreed - not only to OP but really anyone on this thread who the same might apply to. There is a difference between generalised statements, and negative generalised statements about people. Can we all play nice?
I like the second cover you came up with. I'm not really sure why, the design just draws me in. Maybe its the surrounding white that draws attention to the colourful, centered image and text? I always find, when considering book covers, to look up books with similar genres and draw ideas or tips from how their author/publisher presented them, and then how popular and successful they were on the market. It's never a bad idea to to investigate what the public likes, especially if you want to attract lots of readers yourself. Good luck self publishing! Misty is a beautiful dog!
The problem is with the picture. To be blunt, it's awful. Now, I'm no graphical designer, but I took a higher quality picture off Google and slapped your title on it. You can see quite easily, that a decent picture will help you greatly: Get a professional to take a few snaps of your dog. But make sure you think about the composition of your cover. Ideally, you want a landscape portrait.
yes, okron, but since the dog was so beloved, i'm sure her owner has more than that one photo of her... and even a better cropping of the one she's used, with no fading out around the edges would have more impact on browsers... laze's example was a 100% improvement in both the photo and the title/by line's look and placement...
The responses you already have say quite a bit. From the artist's perspective, the negative space in the photo itself is a sign of education to the realistic use of picture space. From the reader's perspective, I have to agree, it is not professional. The reader needs to be hopelessly sucked right into the action. For that you need a bona fide artist's rendering. The title isn't a lasso. Perhaps "Street Survivor" or "Street Resurrection." It needs intrigue. I'm going to leave it at that. I'm sure the attention is spirit building and I think that's why those of us with novels we feel are ready to go look to forums for critique, hopefully able to take the destructive along with the constructive because many are great creators but poor critics. Like you, I'm new. As soon as I can manage to upload a few pics, I'll show off some artwork and perhaps I'll do what most artists I've discussed the issue with refuse to do: collaborate with no guarantees of pay. In the meantime best of luck with this. It looks like you're getting a lot of input.
