for the cover i picked a scene in which the main character, a boy is fighting but the secondary character, a girl is doing nothing. basically my question is can i combine two different scenes into one in the cover illustration (so that they are both doing things. the girl would be fighting creatures from another scene where she was fighting)? do you know of any covers that feature two separate scenes in the cover illustration and portray it as if it is one? the boy would be doing something from one scene and the girl would be doing something from another, but on the cover it would look like one big scene. is that okay, to have two separate scenes on the cover? what if you could tell from the way it's drawn that the illustration is portraying two separate scenes? can i have two different scenes on the cover? hope im being clear thanks
Your publisher will be responsible for selecting an illustrator for the cover art, not you. Unless t is a very small publisher, your input will be minimal, if not entirely unwelcome. Concentrate on the writing. Cover art is part of the marketing, which is why publishers take control of it.
I have rarely seen a good one with a 'scene' on it like a movie poster, unless it's a children's book. It's almost always something that shows the mood, style, and genre... and often just the MC. I assume this is for self-publishing. So I wouldn't put any scene on it.
don't the harry potter books have scenes on them? in my case its just a picture of a boy with his sword drawn facing a mythical creature. is that okay for the cover?
You're not selling Harry Potter. Which is a children's book anyway, hence my note. And yes, that would be ok... if it's a children's book.
Whether it's a good idea depends entirely on how it's executed. The right artist (one hopefully familiar with marketing) can give you a very effective cover after discussing what you want to portray and who you want the book to appeal to.
like writing, anything can work well in cover art, if it's done well enough... and, also as with your writing, no one can tell you if your cover art idea is a good one, till we see it...
From what you've described, it sounds cheesy and rather generic, but as everyone else have said already, it depends entirely on how it's executed, and the skill of the artist, the style you go for etc. If you really want to have both MCs on the cover, why don't you just have them stand together? Your characters are alive outside of your scenes too, right? I'd try and capture instead the mood and theme of your novel, using your MCs if that's what you wish to do, but I wouldn't use a whole scene.
I think your worrying too much about the cover it's what's in between the front and back covers that counts. remember the old saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover"
what sounds cheesy and generic? the boy facing the mythical creature? this is a new creature that i invented just for the book, so i hope its not cheesy and generic....
To be honest, if I saw 'a boy with a sword drawn facing a mythical creature' in a shop I'd walk past it and the other five thousand. Whatever creature's on the cover, it's still done far too often. You want to make your book stand out: not blend in. Even if you go down the self-publishing route, get someone with some artistic/marketing experience to help you out, if only as an advisory. Their input will be invaluable, and the end product will probably be a lot more successful with their help than it would as the author's sole creation.
Book cover art is important - I would say even more so if you're self publishing because you a. haven't got the name yet, and b. haven't got the publisher to back the 'quality' ( I put that in brackets because some publishing companies have been known to produce rubbish - but we still trust them ) , and c. this is the first thing the reader is going see that represents your work. I'd research. Don't get locked into an idea or the novelty of showing your creature - sometimes allowing your reader to imagine it is better than anything you could come up with, sometimes the most effective covers are not an exact scene from the story - but a symbolic reference to a feeling the book can generate.
If you're self-publishing, cover art is the least of your marketing problems. However, if you insist on going that route, your best bet would be to hire an illustrator. I say that because you do not know how to proceed with your cover art, so therefore you are not a professional illustrator. Self publishing requires expertise in all aspects of publishing to be successful. Expertise in illustrating, expertise in typesetting, expertise in marketing, expertise in literary law, and of course expertise in writing. What skills you do not possess to an expert level, you need to purchase or lease. Is this really where you want to expend ypur resources (time/money), or do you prefer to concentrate on writing? Some feel compelled to have a ingefr in every pie. I'd much rather write.
You can't judge a book by it's cover, but that is how we choose them. Cover design is very important, which is why publishers are the best to handle it. They know ways to hook the right buyer with the cover art. You need to get people to pick it up, instead of the 6.546 billion other books in the shop or online.
Hi, Two different scenes on one cover - sounds complicated and potentially confusing. Remember a cover is the eye catcher part that will first make a reader want to take a look. It has to look good and be clear as it tells the reader what the book's about. The golden rule is that it should be clear even in thumbnail view, which is what most readers are going to see as they scroll through the lists of books. So yes, if you aren't confidant, use an artist. Cheers, Greg.
the YA market covers early teens to college age, so most YA books are aimed at either the high end or the low end of that age range...
look at some of the best selling books in recent history such as the Twilight Saga (love it or hate it it sold well and still does), Morganville Vampires, and the Hunger Games they all have very simple covers what were twilights covers an apple a feather a ribbon and a chess piece. and game of Thrones very simple covers they were a sword pommel a crown a helmet a shield a goblet another shield and the hilt of a sword. I guess sometimes less is more
