Yes, the cover has to still invite the viewer to “read me” even when it is an e-book. Just text might have worked when these things just started a few years ago, but now more is expected. My hubby was going to design the cover based on a schematic I drew. He is the computer savvy person of the family and thinks there is a program where he can “draw the cover”. We are getting down to the line here so I hope he is right.
He is starting with a program called Inkscape. Things were going swimmingly for a half an hour when it crashed. Now, we realize the autosave was not on, will save after every new addition. I am sure an easy way to have a good cover now a days is to use a digital photograph. That is great for memoirs, and personal fiction. What we are doing (a satire of a secret government organization) is so different from that so a picture of a mountain would not work. We are adapting pictures of government seals to make our own IDIOT seal. It will not be the most professional cover out there, but I hope it conveys what the book is about.
I guess this means I need to write a little synopsis for the “back cover” or as Amazon puts it their “Product Description”. Need to decide to adapt from other synopses or try again. Since these synopses did nothing to win a contest or attract an agent, I am opting to start over.
Sorry kids, but only a short blog today cause I gotta get back to editing and finishing this hopefully sweet cover.
Erin, just a thought.....you could have had a contest to design the cover, and had the winner get a signed, framed copy of your new cover. It wouldn't have cost much to buy a frame at Wal-Mart and have a digital copy of it printed there from a flash drive.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you guys have it all handled at this point, but it was just a cool sounding idea I had. (cool sounding to me, anyways, lol)
Can't wait to see what you came up with :-)
I guess you could say that my hubby won that contest a long time ago. If he gives up in frustration, then a contest may be in the works. Should you do that with your next book? It is your idea after all!
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