Book covers...my novel...I just love saying those words! I'm getting closer, slowly but surely. For years I had a very clear picture in my head of what I wanted the cover art for Blue Sky Days to be. It was a scene from the book, and a place that the couple returns to often, but short of hiring models and taking the pictures myself (since I don't personally know anyone who looks like my fictional couple), or hiring a photographer to take the pictures for me (neither of which would work because I'm extremely poor), I didn't know how to go about getting that perfect image from my head to the book jacket.
During the revision process, I came up with a huge list of ideas for possible cover art and started searching through royalty free images online. I collected dozens of pictures that I want to use in my book trailer, and a few that were close to what I imagined for my cover, but nothing perfect.
The other day, I decided it was time to finally start work on the book trailer (something I'm equally looking forward to and dreading because I have no experience with Movie Maker), and I came across one of the pictures I'd saved and it just clicked that it was my cover art. It's simple but sweet and after playing around with it, I fell in love. I created what I thought was a pretty good possible cover and asked for suggestions on my FB writer's fan page, then finally on my own private FB page. I got tons of feedback, and from that feedback created more options. I'm getting so many conflicting opinions that my head is spinning, but it's also giving me an idea of what works and what doesn't, and helping me hammer out the final product.
Now I'd like your help - my fellow avid readers, book bloggers and writers. You guys are going to (hopefully) be my audience - the ones buying and reviewing my book, and despite what people say, I know a lot of people do choose books based on the cover, or at least it's a pretty big factor. I would be forever grateful to anyone who's willing to take a look at these and tell me what you think. Opinions from fellow book lovers really do matter to me, and it would mean so much.
You can find the album at my FB page, Marie Landry, Writer. And speaking of the whole grateful forever thing, that would extend to anyone who decided to 'like' my page while you're over there! lol ;-)
Good job on the cover. I like the font and the little swirls you did on the boarder. The transparency works well too. You might want to bump up the size of your name. The only other thing I wonder is the placement of the title. Have you tried moving it to the top to see how it looks?
ReplyDeleteI like the one with the semi-transparent title plate. I think my second choice is the one right under that, but that first is the most... erm... sky-ee? I like that.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover you came up with, especially the transparent one. I always judge a book by it's cover, it's the very first thing that attracts me to a book, sometimes no matter how good a book is if they have a terrible cover I won't get it. I want to imagine the book by what I see in the front and this one looks really good!
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