As some of you know, I’m taking a bit of time off for personal reasons and decided to not schedule any new covers for awhile. I have a very long lead time and I didn’t want people to wait for two, three months and then be told that I wouldn’t be able to do their cover, so it was best just to finish the current cover schedule and then have some downtime.
It’s not all going to be sloth and reruns of Grey’s Anatomy, though. :) I want to focus on doing as many predesigned cover designs as I can and work on building a more cohesive style. I mean, I enjoy doing covers in different styles for different genres, but I think it’s time to find out what I’m really good at doing, rather than being a somewhat competent jack-of-all-trades designer. It will probably focus on the genres that I enjoy reading, as they will be the ones that I understand the best: urban fantasy, dark fantasy, science fiction, horror, and so on. I would like to go back to learning 3D graphics as well, but pain and worry have made it really difficult to concentrate on anything, so we will see.
I would like to ask: what do you look for in a predesigned cover? Have you purchased one, and why? How do you balance having something which is specific enough for your project with having the cost and time savings of a more instant design?
What I’m thinking about is doing proper cover art with all of the time and detail that it involves and offering it semi-customisable in that I can switch out colour on hair and clothing, change fonts and so on. This would be at half my normal rate for that level of artwork, but I would skip the stress of piecing together exact clothing, precise background detail, etc. This will also allow me to have more freedom with style and detail.
What are you looking for? General ideas? Wishlist (in a very general sense, of course)? What types of images have you just not been able to find on other predesigned sites? Let me know.
Thanks. <3
EDIT:
The wonderful Alex Gregg responded on Twitter with a very good suggestion: premade covers for series, carrying the same models and look/feel across multiple books. Awesome idea, and this was the type of feedback that I was hoping to get.
A PD cover with a series potential is an excellent idea!
Oh great idea! Unfortunately, I was too busy playing FF.
Alex Gregg is right. Something that carries a genre theme through. You could customize that with say, a series of books that are specific to UF, one for Dark Fantasy, Science Fiction.
My wish list, because I cannot find these kinds of covers anywhere: Dark Fantasy / Urban Fantasy covers with awesome Male protagonists. Those are SO hard to find. Most of what I find are weirdly posed, leather clad women. The only covers we see are Dresden Files and okay…dude in a hat with a staff. Males can be Witches, Faeries, Magicians, Magic wielding bikers… or vampire rock stars.
That’s my 2 cents!
Oh, and if you do one with a mischievous dark haired guy with pointed ears, I’d buy the whole set! LOL.
Will you be posting your covers to a specific pre-made website, or creating your own?
Thank you, Phaedra – and I have to say that I have a huge weakness for mischievous, dark haired guys. :D
Ginny, I usually just post them here: https://www.pinterest.com/ravven/pre-designed-book-covers/ I have links from my Predesigned page on this site, but I can add and delete them more easily on the Pinterest page.
o/
Since you asked… I’ve been on the hunt for a set of covers for my new witchy/fantasy series, and I can’t find anything anywhere near what I want. I have to say, I adore the covers you did for Annie Bellet, and if you did something similar to those but preferably with a blonde girl, I’d be all over them!
Hi Raquel – as it happens, I think I have something interesting that might work! :D
Ooo… Now I’m getting excited! I’ll keep checking your Pinterest page. :)