March 28, 2024
MY THOUGHTS  ON  THE ART OF BOOK  COVERS  FOR  THE INDEPENDENT  PUBLISHED  WRITER

MY THOUGHTS ON THE ART OF BOOK COVERS FOR THE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHED WRITER

The  art of the book cover in my opinion is kind of the most important  thing a writer should consider  after finishing the complete draft  of their work. Why?  You might ask . 

I’m not nearly  ready to publish my novel quite yet .  But  I  will be self-publishing  some of my short stories   connected  to  my work in progress  novel  sometime within the next couple of months.    Besides  finding  an editor  for my work  it’s not too  soon while   I’m still in my 2nd draft to think about what type  of book  cover  I want for my novel  and  short stories.

Well  before there was Amazon  to  look for books to read and there were still  places like  Barns &noble who were king  of the book world.  A person  could walk in and   browse  a book  from the shelf and  look    at the cover .   Just by the interest of the  cover  they  would turned  the book around and read the blurb.   And  if the blurb was  good enough they would buy.  

I should know . I did that very thing.

Who would have known  the design of  one  little book cover could make a person  buy a  book. Amazing   right?  I know. 

The  way book  covers  are  presented  have changed over the years within  50  years or so.   They went  from  just the title on a   one  color background to full blown out  designs  of book scenes  usually  drawn by artist  to computer  generated photos  of scenes or characters  with the title  on the cover . 

I kind of love the old  style of the way book covers looked.  Those  ones  that are hand  drawn by the artist.   It seems now  a days and this is just my opinion but  I feel  every writer  that  publish  a book  in the modern day , the book covers  look the same.  Especially  for those  romance  and  fantasy sci-fi  novels. They all look the same.   Computer  generated .

I  wish I  could hand draw myself  but atlas I can’t  .  I  can   only  edit and manipulate  photo and videos  . Which is call a  photo  /video  editor. Which I do for a living.   I have  dabbled   with images and designing  my own  short story book cover/  web cover  in photoshop and after effects . However  those  are just place holders and  when  it comes to my actual novel   and  short stories   I will be hiring another artist to  hand draw all my book covers  in the  future.

My favorite  type of book cover of all  time  was  the original VC Andrew  book covers .

  • The Flowers in the Attic series . 
  • The  Laundry  Series
  • Casteel series

And many of her other books . 

All of her  book  covers were a specific kind  of book cover called  a  keyhole  step back book   cover.  It’s not really  seen today because  its  time consuming  and expensive  but  this type of book cover  in the front of the book, you would  see a key hole cut out with a face  and then you open the book and see the face  of the horrified character  in a scene  with her family or what not  and on the back  of the  book which is called a  step back  you   see a full  blown  out  illustrated  scene.  

That was one  of the best parts  of reading a  VC  Andrews book as  a teenager. Yes I still  am  a VC  Andrews fan. And I still  read her books.

And so this  is the type of book cover I  dream of having one  day.  And I  know  it is expensive . However  I am   willing to  pay the cost whatever  it might be for that  type of  book  cover  . Hand drawn by an actual artist  of course. 

If  any artist is available  and would  like for me to see your work so you can possibly  draw my book  covers  please  comment down  below and let me know.  I’m starting to be on the search  for an artist  who is willing to design  something  close to the  step back book  covers  that is similar to VC  ANDREWS.

If you liked this blog post and you want to  see more content involving my work in progress During the Blue Hour Follow , Like , share  . But first  LET’S START A DIALOGUE

WHAT’S YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT BOOK COVERS?

I  want to know so let me know in the comments  below.

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