Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Help Wanted: Getting a Cover for a Novel

I am almost finished with Brothers, my third novel, and since I plan to self-publish I need a cover. My first novel was commercially published; the publisher (Baen) got a cover I liked done by a professional. For my second novel I used something I found online, with the permission of the creator. 

For the third novel I want a custom drawn cover. The question is how to get one.

One possibility is to hire the illustrator who did the cover for my first novel. The argument for that is that he is not only a skilled artist, he is someone who did a good job of designing a cover for that novel. Multiple details that didn't matter were wrong (the women, for instance, should be wearing mail, not plate). But the overall feel was better than anything I could have told him to do. 

The argument against is that doing it that way is expensive, probably more than the total income I will get from the novel—writing novels is not how I support myself.

Another possibility is to find an illustrator online. There are a lot of them on Fiverr and I expect other places. Many are very inexpensive, some as low as five dollars for a book cover; pretty clearly those are using stock images, unlikely to fit what I want. But at least some of them, at a price well above five dollars but well below what the professional would charge, are artists drawing their own art. Typically they offer a range of services at a range of prices. That suggests the possibility of buying something at the low end of their range, which might mean a figure without a background not set up as a book cover, on the assumption that if I don't like it I am out a pretty small sum, if I do like it I pay the additional amount to have it converted into a suitable cover.

Another possibility is to find an illustrator in realspace. In a little over a week I will be attending an sf convention. It will have an art show. I plan to look for works that fit the style I want, note down the artists, and see if any of them would be interested in doing my cover and at what price.

That leaves the problem of deciding what the cover should show. The ideal solution would be an illustrator willing to read the novel and with the ability of the professional to design a cover; that may be hard to find at anything below the professional's price. The more likely solution is that I decide what I want and give the illustrator a verbal description, which the illustrator then converts into cover art.

Do any of my readers have suggestions? That includes general ideas on designing covers or finding an artist. It includes, for any of you who volunteered as beta readers and have read Brothers, suggestions as to what the cover should show. 

And if any of you happen to be artists ... . I got the best book cover I've ever had for the third edition of Machinery by a contest on this blog, but that only worked because a lot of the readers of this blog had read and liked that book.

If you are an artist, my current cover idea involves a thirteen year old boy, a very large dog, and a mountain pass. Relevant passage, or the whole novel, available on request.




7 comments:

NZ said...

My brother is an artist, and would probably be interested in this sort of thing if he has the time. On his website you can check out his work and get his contact info: www.yotamzohar.com

You can see some more of his art on his Instagram page if you scroll past the photos of random stuff: instagram.com/theyotamzohar

He also does pretty good work with pen, which I think would give a book cover a distinctive look. Every schoolday he makes an elaborate drawing and puts it in his son's lunchbox, first photographing it and putting it on a dedicated Instagram page: instagram.com/iloveyouwolfie

David Friedman said...

Your brother's work is very good. I'm emailing him to check the possibility.

Knud Berthelsen said...

99designs.com is great for things like this. It is a platform where designers read your brief and submit their designs. Only the one you pick gets paid. It is very reasonable by US standards, but most designers live in places where it is good pay

Jonathan said...

A boy, a dog, and a mountain pass illustrate the beginning of the story but are likely to make it look like a book for children. The same goes for, say, two boys playing chess, which could be used as a illustration of the title.

An ambitious artist might try to illustrate the battle of the sphere: one side trying to break through it, the other side trying to restore it. But I think it would be hard to do that effectively as a book cover.

Sorry, I don't have a bright idea at the moment.

David Friedman said...

Thanks anyway--negative comments are still useful.

What about a cover with no picture? My current idea is:

Brothers

by

David D. Friedman


Bare is brotherless back.

With a background and frame designed by someone much more skilled at such things than I am.

Or, alternatively:

“But if she’s wrong… If we’re brothers, nobody can make us fight each other, not the Einvald, not Uncle, not anyone.”

Would something along those line work? Suggestions from anyone on covers that don't involve a picture?

Jonathan said...

The book is set in olden times (apparently), and involves conflict within and between families, and magic. I wonder if this could be suggested by an appropriate design of playing cards, or Tarot cards (as in Zelazny's Amber series); or perhaps heraldry, or stained-glass windows? Just floating a few ideas . . .

Tom Mazanec said...

I love sci-fi and am a Furry.
I wrote the Steve Jackson Games furry background in their Infinite World campaign. They published it in their magazine Pyramid.
It had two illustrations, one of a griffon (?) (which had nothing to do with the article) and one of what I presume was an aesop, which looked nothing like I imagined them to...instead of being an animal on it hind legs, it looked like Lon Chaney.
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=1465