I had a comment on my websites asking people who wanted to know when my book was available to send me a comment and then I emailed them when the book was published. That may be an option rather than a pre-order button.
You can do it with the clone stamp tool and the healing brush in photoshop (or their equivalent in GIMP) but as catrin says its not legal, and its a good way to get sued for IP violation (also there's the moral point that as creatives we should respect the copyright of others) ... microstock is cheap, just pay for it
I know. Just putting it out there is all. Not as something to be condoned. Otherwise more people would do it.
The thing is if the watermark placer knows his stuff it will be so time consuming to remove it would be cheaper (if you cost time spent) to just buy the image
OK, first of all, I'm an idiot. I have to be someplace in less than four hours for mandatory continuing ed and here I am, up all night working on my book cover. I figure if I post what I have so far for crit it'll make me stop messing with it and get a couple hours sleep. It's coming along, I think, but I'm not 100% sure.
Go to sleep, woman! My impressions: The cover says to me that this is a thriller/suspense, probably with a romance mixed in (because there's a man and a woman and in books, that usually means one thing). It could possibly be sci-fi. On first glance I like the images and the title, but the 'Catrin Lewis' font is wrong and also the wrong colour. I don't like the tagline at the top because it doesn't draw me in or suggest anything about the book. On closer inspection I'm confused by the bottom image, because it looks like construction plans for a large industrial plant and a book about constructing an industrial plant doesn't sound very exciting.
Looks good, see the watermark is gone as it was in the thumbnails of an earlier post. Though I agree with @Tenderiser on the tagline at the top. Though I am unsure of what genre(s) it is. Though for me it seems on visual to be a little Sci-Fi/Thriller/ Romance. And I am thinking the construction image on the bottom part is a metaphorical representation of something in the story itself. Though a bit of a clue would be helpful. Though the 3 fonts seems odd to me. I usually only see like 1 or 2, not including raves from editors and such. Then again IDK, when it comes to style on that end. While your name at the bottom is fine in color (IMO), I think it looks a little thin and would suggest a little bit bolder of a font. I would say change it to white but it would get lost in the white of the image, but that is the preferred color on a blue field/background that I see most often. Still better than mine though. Good luck Lady.
Hey, look, I managed not to oversleep! Much. Anyway, yes, you're right: Romantic suspense/thriller. As for the author font, are your doubts about that Corbel font in particular or about the sans-serif font family as a whole? @Cave Troll suggests it should be bolder; yeah, I can see that. I've got it in bold already, so even if I stay with a sans-serif font (and I think I ought), maybe I should pick one with more presence. What color do you think would read better? The bottom image isn't an industrial plant, but a city under construction. (The MC's are both architects and the motif of designing cities from scratch is big in the story.) If it's not reading from all the cranes, I can push the image up to make it clear we're looking at skyscrapers and not a Shell Oil cracker plant. The tag line? I'm going back and forth on whether I "ought" to have one or not. I haven't got the wording right yet. Trying to give a hint on what the title is about . . . Thanks for the input.
Looks good. Agree about the fonts and color, though I have nothing to offer in way of suggestion there. I would definitely lose/reword the tagline, though. I found it more confusing than anything else. Focus on what? I can think of several things where a loss of focus would result in death (driving, flying, laying power lines, war). "Focus" here sounds like a weak place holding word for something that should be interesting. I don't think using it by itself will cut it in a life/death context. Too open ended. I'm just guessing that it has something to do with eyes here (from the title).... even something like "Don't Blink!" would be more compelling.
Whoop! That's the most important thing IMO - that it represents the genre - so yay you. I don't have a clue. I know when something looks right or wrong to me, but I can't explain why or how to fix it. When I'm InDesigning stuff I scroll through the fonts until it looks right. Same as above - I would have to try different colours until one worked. Maybe a really dark blue? *flounders* FWIW, with my very limited design knowledge, red is one of the hardest colours to work with. And there's probably a reason it's very rarely seen on book covers in any genre. It just doesn't look book-y to me but I do work in construction, so it might just be that I associate images like that with work and not fiction. See what others say. I think a tag line is a great idea if you have a high concept book. Although for this genre, I would focus it on the romance rather than the suspense side - that seems to appeal more to readers.
I actually like the tag line at the top, which makes me intrigued about the story ...which the picture alone wouldn't do. However, I agree about the colour, font AND placement of your name at the bottom. It's just ...clunky. First of all, I'd pick a colour that doesn't clash with the rest of the design, and choose a font that is more compatible with your title font. Then experiment a bit with placement. Maybe check out other book covers for those issues, and see how other people have done them.
What does the tagline actually mean though ?- its not one that would make me look inside Also the cover doesn't really suggest action adventure/thriller to me - two people and some cranes.... is it a romance set on a building site ? Also the man has a really stupid beard which makes me think of whats his chops out of the hunger games (the guy who gets executed at the end of the first book)
The title looks great. I wonder if you could resize/jiggle your images so you could set your name against a similar ragged-edged blank background. The tagline gave me a thriller/suspense vibe but the wording doesn't seem quite there, I reckon it needs to be a touch snappier. Have to agree with the moose about that beard though
Because I think giving opinion on covers is fun, not that I'm an expert or anything: I like the blue sepia (?) and the yellow ribbon. I agree with what everyone said about the author's name. It should be in bolder font and different colour. For the life of me, I don't undertsand what that bottom picture is about. First thing I thought was oil drilling. I don't know what to think of the tag line considering the oil drilling (in my head). Maybe an accident? A murder committed in such a work environment? I can see how the genre is thriller/romance, so that part is good.
as far as i recall boyfriend is an architect who gets kidnapped to do some work for a meglomaniac/terrorist, girl freind has to rescue him .... i'm not getting any of that from the cover I suppose Cranes = architect but its pretty tenuous and where 'focus' comes in is anyone's guess
As someone indicated earlier I think 'focus' plays off the 'eye' in the title. I read the tagline as meaning if these guys don't keep their wits about them they're in deep shit trouble.
"The difference between life and death" is a bit of a cliche... it'd be nice to avoid that. And I agree that the "focus" part is a bit vague. I see the connection to the single eye, but what are they focusing on? I looked at Amazon, and quite a few Romantic Suspense novels don't seem to have taglines; others use the tagline space to clarify the classification of the novel, like "Contemporary Romantic Suspense" or to print a quote from a reviewer. You can skim the lists at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6487839011/?tag=writingfor07a-20 or https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1176465101/?tag=writingfor07a-20 Remember that most self-published sales are digital, and that small font won't be legible, or maybe even visible, at thumbnail size.
I'm not really clear on how the title relates to the plot either... but then I've only seen excerpts in the workshop...
slight OT where do we draw the line between the Romantic Suspense novel, and the Thriller with some 'romance' ? I mean your ( @BayView ) work is clearly branded as romance despite having action/ suspense elements, wheras something like say the first Jack Reacher book (killing floor) has some romantic action between Reacher and Roscoe but is branded as an action thriller. I'm just wondering where the line lies and on which side of it "the single eye" sits , as that to an extent would inform cover design
If the romance is the main driver, it's romantic suspense. If the suspense is the main driver, it's a suspense with a romance. And, of course, the former has to have a happy ending for the couple whereas the latter can have happy or sad.
I'm probably old-fashioned in that I like a tag line on a book. However, BayView is right ...the difference between life and death is a tad melodramatic and unspecific. I'd keep "a" tag line in there, but maybe review it to make it less of a cliché and more specific, if you can? Or drop it altogether, if this is too old-fashioned. I don't know. I don't think a good tag line hurts, but a bad one might.
Okay, after several intermediate stages (which I won't inflict on anyone here), this is what I have: Sorry to those who don't like it, but the beard stays. We're not going Duck Dynasty here, and my early-1980s hero is not sporting one of those half-assed two-day-old stubble jobs claiming to be a beard.
I like the new author font and colour! Not convinced on the tag line still. I think having one is fine if you have the right kind of high concept book. But I also think a bad tag line is worse than no tag line, and having a tag line that's more suspense than romance will be a problem for you in this genre, IMO.
Can you post it at thumbnail size as well? that's the size most people will first see it. Re. the tagline - is there some way to make it about them working together to solve whatever the problem is? Bitter rivals fight to save their own lives, and each other or whatever. Still cliche, but if you make it more specific to your setting/characters it may balance the romantic and the suspense a bit?
