First things first: no matter how many entries are to the Silver Shark contest, you will have one in 25 chance of winning. We will be giving away two files per each page of (50) comments. 
So additional people entering do not affect your chance of winning.
That said, you guys are kind of crazy and I mean it in the best possible way.
P. writes:
I a huge fan of your Magic series and an avid reader of your blog. I’m also an aspiring writer and former front-end web developer. A couple of my published author friends have asked if I could help them create covers for their self-pubbed e-books. I told them “maybe,” since I was always more coder girl than art geek. I was wondering how you learned to create your amazing covers. Were you a graphic designer in a previous life? Could you point me to a link or two that you like for cover-creation techniques?
I am not in any way an authority on cover making. I am self-taught and my work is often sub-par. With that in mind, there are a few things to be aware of when you are making a cover for an ebook. These are just some common sense things, learned through trial and error.
I think the best strategy is to find a cover artist you like and pull their covers apart. I go to deviant art and look at cover artists there.
Whatever you make will be shrunk.
Covers exists to snare readers. They are especially important for a debut author. Someone with visibility can theoretically just put their name on a colored rectangle and their fans will purchase the book anyway on the strength of the name. Which is likely the thinking behind Penguin’s e-Specials.
From obsessive watching of sales ranking, I can tell you that covers make a difference. A book can be available for preorder for weeks, but when the cover hits Amazon, the preorders rise, often sharply. When people browse, they tend to gloss over blank covers. We can’t help it. We’re hard-wired to note bright colors because they might be good to eat or poisonous.
Print covers have the benefit of being larger. They offer choice for additional styling, such as metallic foil or raised font. E-covers do not. Most often Amazon will account for the majority of the e-author’s sales – this is a fact proven by years of my royalty statements – and Amazon shrinks the cover first to 245 pixels in height on the book’s page and then to approximately 192 pixels when viewed as a list of search results.
How does this affect the covers? This is how:
What is on that cover? What’s the author’s name? What is that a picture of?
Too complicated.
Looks better, doesn’t it? A simple strong image is better than a really complicated beautiful piece of art.
Good contrast is a must. Also legible font helps.
Keep it simple, keep it clean, make sure the contrast is good and the font is readable.
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Small font wisdom I have learned from making covers and having results that are less than satisfactory: let go of gradients. They rarely look good when .jpeg loses quality or when it’s shrunk. Drop shadow and stroke is your friend. It’s a hard lesson to learn for me because I luurve gradients. (Curran 2 cover, cough-cough)
This screams self-pub. Also the font is called Bleeding Cowboy, so why would one use it on a UF cover?
Much better. You can try contrasting colors to see which one stands out more. Ilona on top has a 3 pixels black stroke, a drop shadow, and I also did a black outer glow and set it to Multiply.
Branding
I had a chance to produce a number of mockup covers for an author I greatly admire. This was one of the mock-ups I made:
I thought it was decent. It was a regency. It had good contrast. Our agent, who was facilitating the cover, looked at it and said, “Phyllis A Whitney.” Or how about this one:
Can you say Johanna Lindsey?
The branding of this particular author featured woman with her back to the reader. This was the final cover image:
Branding is important. The best thing is to pick a single look or element and stick with it. Twilight series covers, for example.
Black-white-red.
You’ve seen Silver Shark cover. Anything featured in this world – if we return to it – will have similar word-across-the-cover treatment. That will the be the branding for that series. For Kate, it’s girl and a lion. For Edge, it’s girl with weapon and shiny and a disembodied dude.
So to reiterate:
1) Single strong element.
2) High resolution large image (don’t buy cheaper small size; it will look awful.)
3) Legible font.
4) Decent contrast.
5) Branding.
6) If you don’t know how to do something, google for photoshop tutorials.
You can do it. If I can do it, pretty much anybody can.
You rock! Thanks so much!
Is it weird that I think the girl in example 10, standing in front of the mansion, looks like Kristen Wig? And what the hell is that on her fore arms, did she need to have curly hair extensions on them?
Can’t see it that clearly but it could be a muff out of lambswool…which could explain the hairy arm.
O-O.
Muff (handwarmer), a fashion accessory, usually of fur, for keeping the hands warm.
ROFLMAO! Didn’t even think of the *ahem* alternative meaning when I replied. Now I can’t even tell anyone why I am giggling.
Thanks Wont!
I think it’s the sleeve of her dramatic cape. Every cover needs a cape, especially one that generates its own breeze so it billows dramatically.
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Oh good… I’m not the only one that thought something was off with her arm. Is something eater her? New fad jewelry? A growth?
it a dark brown suede shawl. One that probably has velcro holding it in place n her arm. It’s very hard to tell from the shadows unless you zoom in and get a closer look at them.
Thanks for the tips!
Also, the number of entries for the Silver Shark contest made me go O.o but I’m not sure why, because you guys are awesome and I’m glad lots of people are starting to recognize that!
Wow. The thought and detail that goes into the cover is amazing.
You know there is an entire psychology of book covers but you did a brilliant job of making it understandable and giving good examples.
My favorite rule was for a gothic romance novel , if there was a light in the window of the castle, it would sell at least 5% more copies than a cover without a light.
These were the covers with woman in nightgown fleeing in the dark with a building in the background.
That is so interesting. Is that because light meant hope?
I will freely admit that I maker my own covers because I am cheap and I like doing it. It cost us roughly $520 to bring Silver Shark to publication, and only $15 of it was spent on the cover, the fact I am very happy with. Do I know what I am doing? Nope.
I am just trying to make sure it doesn’t look bad, and some mistakes are easily avoidable.
There is nothing wrong about being cheap and creating your own covers. It’s actually quite admiring. You were right about having a ‘right cover’ sells books. I love simplicity, that’s what attracted me to Kate Daniels and The Edge series in the first place.
Book covers DO make a difference. Although the title for Magic Bites made me look & buy it, the same could be said for Moira Moore’s “Resenting The Hero”. Although the cover for that guaranteed I would buy it, LOL
This is funny, because I think the covers for Moira Moore’s books are the absolute WORST EVER! The early ones, especially, are so cartoonish and hideous. They don’t represent the storylines, characters, or tone at all. I only bought the books because an Amazon reviewer said, essentially, please buy these books despite the heinous covers.
After the first 3 books (I think), the design changed, but they still suk. All goopy elves/wizard/fantasy-looking and again don’t suit the characters or the stories.
I’ve wondered if someone at the publisher really hates poor Ms. Moore!
That said, now that most of my purchases are ebooks, I don’t pay nearly as much mind to cover art–good or bad.
It’s funny you should mention MM’s publisher. She has been less than thrilled with some of her covers (they have Taro and a sword, yet he never has one in any of the books) and recently she stated in her blog that the publisher isn’t going to publish the rest of the series. It’s really too bad. I liked the series, but I agree that the covers seem unrelated to the stories or characters.
Noooo. I’m so sorry to hear this. I really like this series and want to find out more of what happens. It wasn’t anything like I had thought it would be, and far exceeded my expectations. If I have any complaint, it’s that I think the storyline should be more focused/have better direction. I think it lost its way a couple of times, especially with Heroes Return, but really rebounded w/ Heroes at Odds.
I don’t think Ace (sorry, know they pub Ilona Andrews’s books, too) did any favors to Ms. Moore w/ the crappy covers and promo. Hope she finds a new publisher.
So far she is is planning to release them on her LJ. We’re trying to make her consider e-publishing them herself. She already has put up several short snippets of things happening in previous books from different perspectives. Her LJ is mirrored as her GoodReads blog, or you could go directly go to the source – because I don’t think she’s a GoodReads author.
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If you don’t mind my asking, how much would it have cost to have someone design a cover? Or what do you feel would have been a good amount to pay someone to design a cover? I think you did an amazing job, I just have a friend that is trying to break into the graphic design world and I thought designing covers could be a good freelance job for him. I want a little more information before presenting this as an option to him. Thanks!
At a bare minimum, I’d say $200-$500 range, if your friend is good. If the writer is buying Book Rights Only, which means that your friend retains all right to the image, but nobody except the said writer can display it on their book cover, the price is lighter. If the writer wants to own all rights to the image, the price is higher.
Here are some artists/writers who make ebook covers and their rates: http://www.tigerbrightstudios.com/rates/
http://typeflow.wordpress.com/ebooks/
Thanks! I’ll pass along the info!
Very cool info. I’ll let my kiddo read this–he puts some of his art up on Deviant. *S*
I like how you can tell when the book was published simply by the style of the cover. The new single image covers vs. the sweeping art based images of the old school crew. I did so love those old Pern images. Or the Belgariad series.
But again it shows the age. Back then digital interpretation was… nonexistent? (Say 20 years ago) And now authors make their own rather than begging an artist. Does this mean artists will now starve?
Wait… they were already starving. Nevermind!
I liked the older style covers better than all these new digital enhanced men (For some reason most urban fantasy books feature men on the front). It just makes me annoyed because I know they don’t exist. Besides, the drawn covers always seem more mystical and fantasy like and they don’t usually feature a proper picture of the characters, leaving up the the imagination. I loved Belgariad series! I also love the english covers for Nalini Singh guild hunter series. It’s surprising how much effort goes into making covers – I thought that was the fun part of making a book
I love seeing how covers come together, the different details (sometimes seemingly minute) that make so much difference.
Awesome that so many readers want Silver Shark.
kindle-aholic recently posted..Sci Fi Romance Novellas
I found this really interesting and I think you are a lot more artistic than you admit, as I love your covers.
Just to let you know (in case you are unaware) that Rob Thurman, another great author, whose cover you show was in a car accident and was badly injured, but is fortunately now on the road to recovery and has just gone home.
I would strongly recommend her books to all your readers, especially now when she probably needs as much cash as possible.
I did not realize that Rob was a female writer, and also thanks for the PSA! She’s one of my favorites as well. *goes to amazon and browses for *her books to download.
That’s actually a rather useful PSA because I rarely buy romance written by a man and sometimes I’ll skew towards Urban Fantasy written by women.
I had seen the Rob Thurman covers and wondered about gender.
One example of Urban Fantasy written by a man is T.A. Pratt’s Marla Mason series. I thought it was a clever use of initials to not alienate either author gender preferences among Scifi/UF readers.
One of the most beautiful covers I have run across lately is for the book Fallen by Lauren Kate. I bought the book because of the cover. One of the few times I ever did that. What a big mistake. I hated the book with a fiery passion. So from now on I don’t take covers that seriously. Although they look nice on your Ipad, be it on the Ibooks, Kindle or Stanza apps. The content is what really matter anyway and in that regard you guys can do no wrong.
That’s my 2 cents anyway.
I used to pay attention to covers before the twilight series came out. My thinking was that if the publishers/authors put effort/money into making a decent cover, then they must have put a lot more effort into the book. But then twilight series came out (i think that book was so sucessful partly because the amazing cover) and suddenly ALL books got this new ‘gothic’ style facelift. I used to pick up books I’ve already read becase they look so different :/
If you guys had a blank cover or one that just said Book Inside, I’d still pre-order it, count the days and buy it at midnight release day gleefully.
Phyllis A. Whitney! A blast from my distant past…and so true about that cover!
Great tips. I am scared of all things design. I get an idea in my head and I can never make it look like what I pictured. That’s true for everything, even decorating a house.
I love that you do your own covers, and thanks for the explanations on why and what. I always thought that publishers had control over covers, but you do even the Kate ones? How did you manage that?
No, Michael Chad Ward does Kate covers.
It was just a mock-up I was playing with.
Great, can’t remember if you already said what program you use or prefer
I think most people use Photoshop. It’s one of the most popular choices out there and it’s quite expensive to purchase too. However, it’s a good investment.
I sue photoshop, but the same results can be achieved with Gimp, which is free.
Wait, it’s free to sue gimp but not photoshop. Are you picking on the disabled now? I find that offensive ma’am.
Use! I typoed.
teeheehee
Peeing myself laughing!!
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Snorted my tea on that one.
Another good free program to look at is inkscape, I use that and gimp for all my graphics design.
inkscape is for vector based graphics, this is good for creating text, and special effects, i.e. things like the liking you put on the sword in Bayou moon.
gimp is for layered bitmap images, this is what you would make the final design, using images from the web, photos, and your vector components, from inkscape.
I work out how to use inkscaoe in about 2 months with on previous vector graphics experience. so its easy to learn.
Great tips! Thanks! Especially about stroke and no gradient.
I am probably in the minority here but I am not a cover art person. I am all about content. I have to be able to get lost in the story and not worry that the cover doesnt match what the story makes me see in my mind.
As another poster said, the book could have a plain blank cover but as long as the story reels me in and/or it is a book from one of my favorite authors I buy it.
oops.. I just got the email..was I supposed to add kindle to the comment?
Usually the cover art is what gets me picking up the book to look at it further unless I already known the author.
I like pretty or interesting covers.
Loved the mini-tutorial
Just noticed Silver Shark is live on Amazon, must go buy it now, can’t wait until tomorrow to see if I won 
Silver Shark is live on B&N as well. It’s now being introduced to the rest of the Andrews family on my Nook.
I knew there was a reason I stalked this blog, thanks for the heads up. And it’s only $2.99 woot! (although I would have bought it for nearly any price at this point haha).
Yay! Thanks for the heads up. Guess what I’m doing after kiddo bedtime? (And ditto…don’t care if I might get it for free tomorrow. Now is more gooder.)
Oh, same here. I had been checking daily, but didn’t look today. Heading for Amazon now–can’t wait for the drawing! Thanks!
You gave a lot of information, with a minimum of words, and it explained things very well, and kept my interest, even though I am extremely unlikely to even need that information.
LOL about the cover “brand.” I’ve never thought about it before. I have a bunch of old Phyllis Whitney paperbacks, and didn’t even need to check to verify. It was so on target! Talk about subliminal. I was aware of spine looking the same or similar by author, and sometimes by Line, and I’ve noticed certain fonts on some covers, but never consciously realized there was “branding.
I did have to pull out some other books, just to see. The Georgette Heyer covers vary with the Publisher, or Line. Some have a man and woman with the woman in maybe a 3/4 view. Some have a background color, and then a small circle with the man and woman, while others have background color and a small, famed “painting” of a couple. Nora Roberts’ covers vary with publisher, but also with which group of stories, so one group has distant, romantic, views of scenery, including some kind of structure, then there are keys, flowers, shinny line drawing, etc. I had fun checking it out. I may never look at covers the same way again.
Mysteries do it, too.
Thank you!
Yay! I can start reading now! Thank you for the fast publishing!
This is so cool – thanks for sharing.
I have just posted links to this on a writers forum and now they are all taking the p out of me for constantly plugging you
Chantal Halpin recently posted..Writing makes me want to…
Thank you for the information. I have been stalking the photoshop pages wanting desperately to be able to create something unique and beautiful, but I don’t think I can teach myself, and it’s a big investment.
Thank you for sharing, I really don’t have much talent when it comes to art so I find it very interesting. (although I can organize like a mad woman)
And it might just be me being exhausted after a crazy stressful day at work but I can’t help but giggle at “For Edge, it’s girl with weapon and shiny and a disembodied dude.”
hehe
The title is also important for a new author. I’m firmly convinced a book I quite enjoyed some time back was sunk (as far a sales go) by the fact that it’s title was suggestive of fantasy, but was in fact military SF.
Shelved with it’s spine out, it would be ignored by those looking at the title and wanting what was in it, while the one’s who picked it up looking for fantasy would put it back.
My late brother-in-law told me, “Never buy books with embossing on the cover or where the author’s name is larger than the title”. I sometimes ignore this with authors whose works I know, but on the whole, I have found this very sound advice. In a bookshop or library, I expect books to be arranged by authors’ names so I don’t need them to scream “Me, me” at me. I am, however, intrigued by interesting titles.
hey…I’ve had embossing…and it’s actually on two of the books my readers like the most. or so they say. O.o
Of course, I’m probably prejudiced when it comes to anything embossed. Because it’s shiny. I like the shiny.
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Ok, first, Shiloh: BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I like the shiny too. I really have never noticed embossing before on a cover, but I do pay attention to the covers of my books. I am more likely , sadly to say, to buy a book if it’s pretty. However, if the cover is hideous, and I still pick up the book to look at the back and the story intrigues, I will pick it up.
Snort…fyi…I can’t.
Shiloh Walker recently posted..Random Snippets…Locked in Silence…
Just finished Silver Shark (from amazon) and I loved it! Thank you so much for this amazing story
I’m not a writer or artist and will probably never have any need to put this to practice, but I still found it utterly fascinating. I love the psychology of advertising, particularly re books.
Thanks for sharing this w/ us.
As an example, I now want to read Sophie Jordan’s “Vanish.” That cover looks great and it makes me want to get to know the story behind it!
Silver Shark is now available for purchase on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. I just purchased a copy. This has been the best new book week for me. First a new J. D. Robb and now Silver Shark!
Ohhh Thanks Thanks! Glad I read to the end of the comments.
First of all, your covert art skills are amazing. Thank you for sharing your mock-ups and wisdom with us, Ilona.
I LOL-ed at the Johanna Lindsey mock-up, I recognized it in an instant. XD
Also, thanks to Kat Q. for the heads up about Silver Shark being up for grabs. I bought it ASAP and have been attached to my computer for the past two hours. Loved it so much, so many scenes that I laughed, and sighed, and yay-ed, and it was AMAZING. If I didn’t have to wake up in six hours to go to work, I’d read it again… T__T Why cruel world, why?
I finally understand the Gordon’s “sexy-dance” comment from twitter (I couldn’t stop laughing for a good minute or so when I got to that point). And so many other scenes<3
Thank you so much for Silver Shark. I absolutely fell head over heels for Claire and Ven (and everyone else)… I'll admit it, I'm part of that greedy bunch that wish for more, but I ADORE what we have, so I won't complain<3 (Go Ven go, more romancing and awkward fumblings<3)
Meli and Celino and their baby boy<3 Oh how my heart ached so happily!
Hehe, I'll stop here and head off to bed.
Heh, I have the Bleeding Cowboy font too, though I don’t use it much.. xD Interesting post. ^^
Tnx
“Someone with visibility can theoretically just put their name on a colored rectangle and their fans will purchase the book anyway on the strength of the name.”
That is how I feel about your books. I am looking for them and I am going to buy them no matter what; the amazing covers are there to attract new readers. That said, I think most of us are more influenced by the cover than we know. Certainly, if a friend recommended a book with a sucky cover, I have to admit that I would be less likely to dive right in.
I am amazed at the breadth of your talents, and really grateful that you share these intriguing peeks behind the scenes.
Back in the “bodice ripper” cover days I paid more attention to book covers. The pictures on the front really needed to match the description of the characters. A red-haired heroine could not be pictured with brown hair on the cover! Now, not so much. I like the simple covers when I see them but honestly, with a Kindle I rarely pay attention to the cover.
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LOVE the mock ups. I’m amazed at all that stuff.
BTW SO SO happy last night when I checked for SIlver Shark and it was UP at amazon!!! Read until 3am but I was drugged and remember little . Starting again today
Thanks for the information. It’s fascinating to see how the publishing world works. By the way are you going to do a booksigning for Fate’s Edge?
I made the awful, terribly bad mistake of climbing into the tub with my reader (yes, I do that…with the reader in a gallon size plastic ziploc). I didn’t get out until the water was cold, because I had to finish reading…it was awesome, guys…you all ROCK.
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Loved Silver Shark, the kinsmen world makes a very dramatic setting.
Years ago, when buying sci fi and fantasy, I realized with a little chagrin that I had a tendency to purchase anything with a cover by Michael Whelan. And no doubt, when looking at a tiny image, a cover like those he did for Joan D. Vinge’s The Snow Queen and The Summer Queen or Tad William’s Memory, Sorrow and Thorn quartet would lose the impact of the incredible detail Whelan put into them. Add in the covers he did for Stephen King’s Dark Tower books and you have to think about how a fabulous artist can translate a book into an iconic image, and be a little sorry that e-books encourage any trend away from such stellar cover art. In fact, one of my resistances to getting a Kindle was how much I still LOVE a hard copy book with a great cover. I freely admit to a bias for series with the same great cover artists, like Sharon Shinn’s haunting John Jude Palencar covers for her Samaria series – which resulted in my all-time first purchase of a trade paperback, Archangel – or the beautiful Donato Giancola covers done for her Twelve Houses books, both great examples of branding for hard copy. I just this year caved to purchasing Meljean Brooks’ Iron Duke in trade, based partially on a really well-designed cover, and a little bit of me really wants the next in the series in trade rather than e-book for the next great cover. I’m not sure if they have that impact when seen in the small formats electronically.
However, Amazon seems willing to look into ways to bring us larger cover images (I read mostly Kindle prc on a Xoom tablet now, and Amazon WILL acknowledge feedback for their reader), and I’m hoping we’ll end up with the best of both worlds – great covers like those done for the Kate books or Patricia Briggs Mercy series, in a non-fading, creasing or chance of being damaged electronic format. I had a bunch of books, many out of print, damaged by water four years ago, and it still upsets me. My tablet can display a cover painting in far better detail than the printed covers, and I have to think that will be taken advantage of. There’s no reason, particularly when large publishers are charging us the print price for electronic books, that a thumbnail utilizing a cover element can’t be designed for best viewing and the cover be designed using the usual standards for print covers. Ask Amazon for innovations like that as consumers, and I bet they eventually appear.
- Cover Art Lover
AWESOME!
[...] short guide to self-publishing, which goes well with IlonaAndrew ‘s post on book cover design and Ruth Ann Nordin’s how to write 4+ quality books a [...]
[...] Great Link on Cover Design: http://ilona-andrews.com/2011/09/15/cover-design [...]