Skip to main content

We've Got You Covered

By Dani Greer/Chief Red Pencil

Welcome to the Blood-Red Pencil blog, readers. How's the year going for you so far?

We have exciting news from Kathryn Craft this month about her new book, which she's been blogging about here, and it ties right into one of our new monthly features: Cover Reveal!

Good cover art is so important to the success of your book, and you've probably noticed with e-books that a bad cover can sometimes keep you from buying, or even downloading a free book. I know I'm that way. But it's a lot easier to "re-cover" from a bad art choice with e-books than with a print version, and long-time BRP blogger, Helen Ginger, will share her before and after re-covery of Angel Sometimes later in the month. (I think that joke now qualifies as a "darling", don't you? Let's kill it and hope it never recovers.)

I've kept my eyes open for good book cover artists over the past few years, and have noticed someone lately who makes a good impression on me. He just happens to be Morgan Mandel's cover artist, and she'll interview him this month. Here's her book cover from the latest title.

We look forward to seeing more of this artist's work in the interview and maybe even some hints about pricing. I hope it generates many comments and referrals about other excellent and affordable book designers and cover artists.

Please join us each and every day for lots more about writing, editing, designing, publishing, and promoting books! If you're visiting the blog for the first time, do say hello in the comments and give us your book title.

Comments

  1. Thanks for including the cover for Her Handyman in your blog today, Dani!

    Yes, I'm very happy with my book cover designer and will be sharing his interview here on February 5. By the way, he's also the designer for a very popular mystery author.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://www.morganmandel.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Covers and titles ... maybe two of the biggest things to improving book sales ... and two things I can't seem to get right. I might be able to excuse the cover thing, because I'm not an artist and I'm poor ... but no excuse with the title thing ... why couldn't I have come up with 'Snakes on a Plane'?

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a great idea ... sharing cover stories and celebrating the folks that design them.

    So far, I've used 'canned covers' at CreateSpace, but have tinkered with some before publishing ... adding a personal photo, changing colors (made very easy by their software,) and altering font size and location.

    I think my favorite cover is my simplest one, on my book titled Multiple Sclerosis, an Enigma. It is a very quiet aqua/teal color, with light purple font in a script style, underneath a moderately sized photograph of two holding hands (just the hands show.) It is just what I wanted to show my husband's commitment to my self-advocacy. You can see the cover at Amazon or CreateSpace by searching the title, or by going to my Facebook Page for the book.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Morgan, I think that's a great cover! It's eye-catching and says a lot about the book and the genre.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's funny—I get so used to Facebook that I go through these comments looking for all the like buttons. I like all the comments today! And you're right, Chris—Snakes on a Plane was an awesome title!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's that second chance/first impression thing — we don't get a second chance to make to make that first impression. Exception: we get a new cover and re-issue our book, which can be very pricey if we're paying for our own printing. How sad to have done everyting right to produce a fantastic story only to blow it with a lousy book cover! Excellent post, Dani.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

The Blood-Red Pencil is a blog focusing on editing and writing advice. If a glitch is preventing you from commenting, visit our Facebook page and drop your wise words there: Blood-Red Pencil on Facebook