The Indie Bookshelf discussion

Where/How do authors get covers for their books? On several occasions I've seen books (from different authors) with the same cover. Or part of the cover is the same. I don't mean similar. The people on the cover are the same in the same pose, but the text is different (obviously) for the different books.

So, that begs the question....Where/How do authors get covers for their books?

There are different ways of creating book covers. Some book covers are photo manipulations. When the photos used are stock photos, this is where you are seeing books with the same cover. I did hire an artist to create an original cover for my book. It is more expensive, but it's what I really wanted. I did some research before I made a decision. I looked at a lot of book covers and had to contact more than one artist until I found the right one. I suppose it also depends on what kind of book you are writing. Mine is fantasy.

That's kind of what I thought but I wanted to be sure. Thank you for answering! :)

Lee: excellent question!!

Heidi: excellent response!

I love this group!!

It was a very good question, Lee. And Heidi answered it much more thoroughly than I would have been able to do, and, she did w/o any swearing—cover art is my nemesis and having to even think about it is my personal hell. ;-)

Jenn wrote: "It was a very good question, Lee. And Heidi answered it much more thoroughly than I would have been able to do, and, she did w/o any swearing—cover art is my nemesis and having to even think about ..."

Jenn, you continually make me snort!! ;)

I'm self-published, and for my first book I did a photo manipulation of a picture I'd taken. I used adobe photoshop and my tablet. For the book I'm about to launch, I just drew it all myself, because all my photo manipulations were horribly cheesy! You can see it here (http://hannahkollef.wordpress.com/pat...) if you're curious.

Hope that helps! I've noticed the similar cover phenomena as well. It's hard to get a nice/"professional" looking cover when you're self-published, lol

Hannah wrote: "I'm self-published, and for my first book I did a photo manipulation of a picture I'd taken. I used adobe photoshop and my tablet. For the book I'm about to launch, I just drew it all myself, becau..."

I love the cover! That looks nice.

The book looks interesting. I looked for it on GR to add to my TBR but it wasn't listed on GR! :(

I think a good cover can do so much to sell a book.

The only reason I read these two books is because friends told me they were good. If I saw these books in a book store, I wouldn't have even considered them.



The reverse is the case for this one. I read it because I liked the cover...well I didn't read it, I got half-way through before I was almost comatose with boredom.



Hannah, that's a great cover and proof that you don't need to spend a lot of money to get a cover that works. I'm no expert but IMO the things that work in a book cover are;

1. Keep the image simple. Too much happening detracts from the cover. The greatest photo on earth might make the worst book cover on earth.

2. Don't use fonts that are too flashy or glittery and fonts I have to struggle to read are annoying.

3. Make sure the cover tells me something about the book.

Lee *show me the smut* Anne wrote: The book looks interesting. I looked for it on GR to add to my TBR but it wasn't listed on GR! :(


It hasn't been published yet! I'm launching October 12th, and there's a website too :) Don't worry, I'm sure you'll see all sorts of annoying updates/blog tour stuff around goodreads closer to the time (thank you, goodreads, for making it so easy to interact with readers!).

--> Thanks Ian! I agree with you on the power of a good cover, and your three important cover points. Especially illegible fonts, that's one of my pet peeves.

I've definitely bought books based on their covers and later been disappointed, haha. It's too bad you thought "Etiquette..." was boring, I just looked at it and it sounded pretty good! I guess book summaries can be just as tricky as the covers.

Ian wrote: "I think a good cover can do so much to sell a book.

The only reason I read these two books is because friends told me they were good. If I saw these books in a book store, I wouldn't have even co..."

Ian, you continue to awe me. Wow...

I had a rough idea of what I wanted for a cover and worked with a friend who happens to be a web designer to make it happen. He was extremely patient with all of my tweaks with color, font, etc. Below is what we came up with!

William wrote: "I had a rough idea of what I wanted for a cover and worked with a friend who happens to be a web designer to make it happen. He was extremely patient with all of my tweaks with color, font, etc. Be..."

Very nice!

Lee *show me the smut* Anne wrote: "William wrote: "I had a rough idea of what I wanted for a cover and worked with a friend who happens to be a web designer to make it happen. He was extremely patient with all of my tweaks with colo..."

Thanks!!

All of your comments are great! I was lucky enough to have met someone through blogs who is going to do a cover for me. Any suggestions on manually adding my book to Goodreads before it is released?

It's fairly easy ... go to search... type in a name ... when no results, then click "manually add book." You may need to have either an author profile or be a librarian to do it, I'm not sure.

Setting it up in advance is an excellent way to get the word out. But I'd make sure you've at least got your blurb, a cover, and the expected release date ready to go before you put it up.

Thank you so much, Charles. That is what I was hoping someone would say!

I use stock photos, though I have a graphic designer friend who manipulated some of the images for me. I do have two I used straight from a stock photo site, but they were/are just so danged awesome I couldn't help it.

Hi, all. Just joined this group and found this discussion. For my self-pubbed novels, I used Gimp to manipulate some photos. For the first one, I used photos I and spouse had taken. For the second, I got a photo from a public domain photo site (it's credited on the copyright page). You can see both here:
Killer Protocols
Clean Coal Killers
Let me know what you think.