In preparation for April Camp NaNoWriMo’s eBook bonanza I’ve been trying to get cover art done for all the stories in the queue. The Saturday Story Prompt covers are easy (if time consuming), but the other stories are a bit harder…
The basic goal for an eBook cover (for me) is to get something simple that scales well and can be read easily all the way down to 75×100. Last check, both Amazon and Smashwords displays the thumbnails at 100×150, so I might need to revise that strategy upwards. *pokes image*
I think it turned out okay, although at the full resolution (1800×2400) it looks a little rough because it’s not true vector art. I really need to save up and buy Photoshop someday. Or learn how to properly use Gimp. Or just pay someone to design proper covers.
Starting from Not-Scratch
The original ‘cover’ image for The Wolves We Are is a basic photo manipulation and was always meant as just a placeholder until I had time to draw a real one. It’s much too small (and much too square) to work as an actual book cover, so last August I started playing around with ideas for its replacement.
Six months later I’m finally getting around to it… yay for Camp?
(Note to self: Stop getting distracted by other hobbies!)
So this morning, prior to the Martian Death Flu kicking in about noon, I managed to get a decent version done of the cover I sketched out last August. I ended up taking out the bonfire in the middle just because the fire looked odd against the green and I wanted to keep close to the original color scheme.
I think I may take out the photo remnants (eyes and teeth) I had left in for pop and the title needs some work for the smaller scales. Compared to the SSPs, it’s just not legible at 75×100. I need to go back and look at some of the other covers over at Amazon and Smashwords and see what tricks other folks are using.
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