Choosing a cover

The changes continue...
I changed my book cover from this:

 



to this:

 

 

 



The dimensions are supposed to be 300 DPI and a 1:6 ratio.  Mine is 72 DPI because that's what it turned into after I shrunk it down to 625x950.  I'm not really sure what all that means; it's just what I was able to glean from researching.

Anyway, I did everything myself---can you tell??!  My Pinterest addiction notwithstanding,  I am not a visual person.  I don't know how to Photoshop anything, and I barely know enough to create a collage.  So when I first thought about design covers I wanted something simple; something that would convey youth, and would let someone browsing the book know that this wasn't a chick-lit, YA, kind of read.  In what was a completely unoriginal, derivative process, I came up with the idea of using denim to represent a story about college students.  Hmm, kinda like using a tie to represent a bondage loving billionaire...

I also looked through several book illustrations in my genre and realized that you could always spot the book written by a newbie by the proverbial cover.  Usually, they included some kind of vector graphic, or an illustration that shouted "public domain!".  Or worse, hand drawn artwork by someone who clearly was not an artist.

In contrast, I saw how good covers were rich and multilayered.  Titles weren't in just one color, font, or size.  Pictures weren't static, but enhanced and cropped with other images, then layered with the text.  I tried to create this effect myself, but to no avail.  So, like someone who decides to go with a Little Black Dress when in doubt about what to wear, I went with a minimalist cover.  I would be invisible and forgettable, but at least I wouldn't be inappropriate.  The result was clearly amateur, but at least it didn't have some sketch of a crying girl looking out of a window.  Or a dude with a gun.

Cover finished, I moved on to the editing (!), the preparation to get it to CreateSpace, the marketing, and the obsessive checking of rank.  Every now and then I'd even start to think about the next book. 

But in the back of my mind, I kept wondering if the cover itself, rather than being the plain, neutral but non-offensive cover I wanted it to be, was causing me to lose sales.  Because, really, that cover said nothing about the plot, and it didn't even say anything about what kind of book it was.  Then one day, when I was lucky enough to have it be in the Top 100, I scrolled through the list, and there was "Fame", drab and stark, looking very out of place.

That was it.  I HAD to make a change.  First on my list:  a cover with at least one person on it.   I noticed that I always looked at a cover with a picture on it, and especially if there were actually people in the picture.  I think this is just one of those reflexes---we're curious about other people's photos.  It didn't even matter if  liked the cover or not; like a speed bump, I slowed down for a closer look.  So, I downloaded a photo of a blonde woman at a crossroads.  The story's conflict is not solely about the dilemma Jamie faces between two men, but ultimately, it was the best of what was available.   More importantly, this picture was of a young blonde woman like Jaime, so that was a bg plus.  I also liked that you couldn't see a face on the cover.  Better, I think, for the reader to project their own idea of what the character looked like than to have them think, "that's not what I imagined she  would look like at all!"   I spent a few days on Picassa, and mostly through trial and error, I came up with a cover that is eye catching and hopefully gives the reader a sense of what is inside.

The fact that the cover developed organically is the true lesson for me.  The picture, the colors, the fonts are very different from my sensibilities.  Surprisingly, though, it suits the book better than anything I could have envisioned before I started working on it, and that's how I know the cover has captured the essence of the story.