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More about Book Covers

Related to last week’s extensive post on book-cover design for indie authors and publishers, Roger C. Parker posted over the weekend a few more tips for better book covers.

He also linked to a page of interactive book-cover makeovers at Dunn+Associates Design’s web site. For a kick, check out a few, and think about how the “before” and “after” designs use the 10 elements of book-cover design that I talked about last week. Pay particular attention to the title and front-cover graphics. How do the new designs use these more effectively than the “before” covers. Especially if you’re wrestling with a book cover right now, this little experiment should inspire you, if not give you a spark of enlightenment.

-TimK

P.S. With at least one of the book covers in Dunn Design’s exhibit (Mark A. Williams’s Your Identity Zones), the author rejected the book cover that his publisher preferred. Traditionally published authors should understand book-cover design, too, in order to use whatever influence you have with your publisher to ensure your book gets an effective design. (Although, as far as I can tell, both the “before” and “after” covers of that book were good covers. The “after” version was marginally better, because it had more focus—less clutter—and highlighted the title more. So it might split-test significantly better than the “before” version. Yeah, at some point, I’ll have to write an article on how to split-test a book cover.)

P.P.S. [update] Kristen Lamb posted over on her blog an interesting guest post by Maria Zannini, a list of Down & Dirty Tips for Creating Cover Art. I’m not sure I agree with all of her advice, e.g., to necessarily put something visually stimulating on the left side to guide the viewer’s gaze toward the right—I would usually start in the middle and work toward the edges, keeping in mind the rule of thirds… but that’s a whole other blog post. Her tips will certainly get you thinking.

-TimK

How to Design Your Book Cover

As an indie author, you probably need to understand book-cover design. Traditionally published authors have their publishers’ experts to design their covers (whether or not those experts are worthy of the designation). Self-published authors, just printing up a few copies for family and friends, will probably be satisfied with the très kewl cover design tools at Lulu. But us indie authors need something more than a bare-bones, stock cover. And we don’t have the budget for a professional designer. And even if we do, we don’t have a publishing company helping us choose the designer. So we need to understand book-cover design, if not to design a decent cover ourselves, at least to know what to work on with our designer.
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What Does Seduction Look Like?

Max, a young writer, asks:

I am writing a story and need a visual description for a female “seductive” (if you know what I mean) antagonist. Or should I even describe her? I’ve seen that done well. This is actually one of my deeper characters.

Hi, Max. The easiest answer I can think to give is: Think of what you like to see in a woman. Then write it down.

I know that sounds simplistic, and it is. But each of us, to some extent, has pre-programmed into him the building blocks for sexual attraction. So the first step is probably to ask yourself, “What would make me feel and think and act the way I want my protagonist to feel and think and act?”

With most writers, this is where writing begins, inside. You empathize with your characters, tap into that part of yourself that feels and acts the same way they do, so that you can understand their story.

But while you’re doing this, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
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Carnival of Storytelling – June 30, 2011

Welcome to the June 30, 2011 edition of Carnival of Storytelling.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a link at BlogCarnival.com. Please browse their blog posts, and share your own favorite posts from your own writing blog for next week’s carnival.

Enjoy!
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Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/06/27

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, “Never a frown, with golden brown.” (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ISFP.
3. A need: the need for emotional intimacy.
4. A quirk: Always writes in 1337-5p34k (leet-speak).

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/06/20

Happy birthday to me! (Yup. Don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.)

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, “.” (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ENFP.
3. A need: the need for attention.
4. A quirk: Loves to dance, and does not have to be on the dance floor.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Carnival of Storytelling – June 16, 2011

Welcome to the June 16, 2011 edition of Carnival of Storytelling.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a link at BlogCarnival.com. Please browse their blog posts, and share your own favorite posts from your own writing blog for next week’s carnival.

Enjoy!
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Writing Tip: Research the Obvious

Let’s say you’re writing a scene in your story, a scene that takes place in a beauty salon. Now, if you yourself have spent 20 years working in beauty salons, maybe you can write that scene off the top your head. But if you’re like most of us, you have only passing exposure to life in a beauty salon. And if you’re like me, you’ve never actually gone inside one.

The classic way out of this, of course, is to “write what you know.” So if you don’t know beauty salons, don’t write them…

Yeah, right. <sarcastic sneer and rolls eyes>

Don’t get me wrong: it’s nice when you can write in a field in which you have some expertise. But if you plan to write more than one or two stories, you’ll need to get into the details of many fields and situations, settings and cultures, in which you have little or no direct knowledge. To some extent, this is always true of a fiction author, because you’re writing events that never actually occurred, in places that may not exist, in cultures that you may have made up, using technology that may never be developed, in times that have not even happened yet. How, pray tell, in the nature of reality do they expect you to “write what you know”?!

The best that we can hope for is to get it as close to plausible as we can.
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What Is a #CharacterStory (and the 2 Laws of Character Action)

I found this photo on Flickr. Entitled “The Problem with Character-Driven Stories,” the photo had an amusing story to go along with it.

As the story goes, there was a writer who was auditioning characters for her next novel. Characters lined up all the way out the writer’s waiting room and around the corner. And most of them, unfortunately, were about the same as all the others. Here’s an example that exemplifies what I’m talking about:

A character named Jean entered, sat down.

“Okay, then, Jean,” said the writer. “Tell me about yourself.”

“I’m 24. I have medium-long mousey-blonde hair. I drink vodka and Coke. I’m pretty boring.”

“And you’d like to be in a story?”

“Yes, please.”
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Monday Morning #CharacterStory Writing Prompts 2011/06/13

1. A photo: see the top of this post. (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ESFJ.
3. A need: the need for security.
4. A quirk: Names his many tropical fish all after characters from his favorite novel.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK