# Cover Design



## K.S. Crooks (Mar 24, 2017)

This is the working cover I've created for my new novel. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.


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## The Fantastical (Mar 25, 2017)

One of the biggest issues that people have with with making their own covers is that they don't have readable fonts or colours in relation to the background. I am sorry to say that can't read the last word in your title, The Breath of... is all I get. 

The other big thing is that they forget that this is in fact a work of art, the whole needs to balance and complement the other to create something pleasing to look at. This is after all eye candy to get your readers to buy the book!  So... Take away the banner graphic, it is to loud and just doesn't it separates the titles to much and draws more attention to it than the important title, that actual title of the book. You could emlarg it to include the title of the book... try and find a unified colour for all of your text, use size and placement rather to denote importance of the titles rather than colour and always try and put the series below the title. 

You don't need your coat of arms up there, it disturbeds the balance of the image and draws the lookers eye away from the title and the main cover. The font is good and your name stands out nicely. So I would look at seeing if red would work at the top.  Also is this an ebook cover? Because there are very specific specifications required for E-Book covers - 



> "Requirements for the size of your cover art have an ideal height/width ratio of 1.6, this means a minimum of 625 pixels on the shortest side and 1000 pixels on the longest side. For best quality, your image would be 1563 pixels on the shortest side and 2500 pixels on the longest side."



If it is an audio book cover - 



> For the audiobook cover, the design had to be adapted to fit the new size of 2400 x 2400 pixels. Other ACX Audiobook Requirements: Images must contain both the name of the title and author(s) The resolution of these images can be no smaller than 72 dpi.



However this get more complex when dealing with real printed books - 

https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/09/self-publishing-basics-how-to-pick-the-size-of-your-book/

Hope that these help.


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## K.S. Crooks (Mar 25, 2017)

This is a smaller version of the cover, as to make sure it could be uploaded. The original image is 3600 x 3600 and over 12 Mb in size. I'll try other font for the sub-title. This is the second book in my Guilds of Galyndor series, thus the banner title is the main one. The shield represents the four Guilds and is on the cover of book one. I could make a version with the shield in a different location or without the shield and see how it looks. Thanks for the suggestions.


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## Ariel (Mar 25, 2017)

I can also see the background through the wolves' heads. Sorry to say but the series' title always goes after the book's title if it is included at all.


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## aj47 (Mar 25, 2017)

I am viewing this on my phone.   I cannot tell the name of the book or the author.  try thumbnails of your ideas to see what people will see on searches.


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## The Fantastical (Mar 25, 2017)

K.S. Crooks said:


> This is a smaller version of the cover, as to make sure it could be uploaded. The original image is 3600 x 3600 and over 12 Mb in size. I'll try other font for the sub-title. This is the second book in my Guilds of Galyndor series, thus the banner title is the main one. The shield represents the four Guilds and is on the cover of book one. I could make a version with the shield in a different location or without the shield and see how it looks. Thanks for the suggestions.



I am afraid that you will still need to resize your cover though as it needs to be have an exact 1.6 ratio to come out nicely on an ebook. If it is square or any other size... then it covers more than one page and is often in four portions. 

Try putting it (the coat of arms) on the title page (inside) of the book. It would be a bit different, make the page more interesting, and still includes it. 

Ariel is right, series title always come after the main title and is always in a smaller font size, or another font entirely. It takes second precedents to the books title and third to the authors name.


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## K.S. Crooks (Mar 31, 2017)

Thank you for the tips. The image size isn't an issue as I've made it extra large to play around with the arrangements and trim the sides after. There are books that have the series title first such as Witch & Wizard series by James Patterson- An option could be to have the title then somewhere below state "A Guilds of Galyndor Book"

The wolves have the ability to ghost a part of their body, thus being able to see through a section. Placing the coat of arms on the title page may be the way I go. I'll play with another mock up and perhaps add an update. Thank you very much to all who gave suggestions.


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## The Fantastical (Apr 1, 2017)

K.S. Crooks said:


> Thank you for the tips. The image size isn't an issue as I've made it extra large to play around with the arrangements and trim the sides after. There are books that have the series title first such as Witch & Wizard series by James Patterson- An option could be to have the title then somewhere below state "A Guilds of Galyndor Book"
> 
> The wolves have the ability to ghost a part of their body, thus being able to see through a section. Placing the coat of arms on the title page may be the way I go. I'll play with another mock up and perhaps add an update. Thank you very much to all who gave suggestions.



If you look at the James Patterson books, yes the series title is first, but firstly it is smaller than the main title and secondly it stands out less than the main title. Your series title stands out more than you main title, this is wrong, your main title must ALWAYS stand out more than the series title regardless of where you put it.


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## Elana91 (Apr 6, 2017)

The Fantastical said:


> One of the biggest issues that people have with with making their own covers is that they don't have readable fonts or colours in relation to the background. I am sorry to say that can't read the last word in your title, The Breath of... is all I get.
> 
> The other big thing is that they forget that this is in fact a work of art, the whole needs to balance and complement the other to create something pleasing to look at. This is after all eye candy to get your readers to buy the book!  So... Take away the banner graphic, it is to loud and just doesn't it separates the titles to much and draws more attention to it than the important title, that actual title of the book. You could emlarg it to include the title of the book... try and find a unified colour for all of your text, use size and placement rather to denote importance of the titles rather than colour and always try and put the series below the title.
> 
> ...



I agree that last word is fussy...


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## The Fantastical (Apr 6, 2017)

Elana91 said:


> I agree that last word is fussy...



Me or the cover requirements? What you mean is a little unclear.


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## SilverMoon (Apr 7, 2017)

Hi there, Crooks. First, congratulations on finishing your novel! Now, I do agree with all of Fantasical's suggestions and do have one of my own. I've viewed it several times and see that the entirety of the cover is in dark tones except for the light blue behind the trees (which is very effective). The woman's garb is quite dark, so she kind of blends into the woods. So, I'd lighten up some colours here and there.

Is it necessary to have two wolves? Two of most any image in this context throws the balance off. Go for one or three.

The first thing I learned about typesetting is to never use all serifs or sans serifs.  Here, you have 3 serifs going on. Try alternating them. Just experiment and you'll see a cleaner visual. 

All the best, Silver


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## Chester Stark (May 29, 2017)

Loving the coat of arms you've got!
One suggestion I would make is that the aspect ratio of the cover is wrong I think,  for an ebook or print book. I think they're meant to be more oblong...


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## Terry D (Aug 3, 2017)

*The 34*

64e


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