Designing Book Covers
Although I’m primarily an author, I do design book covers
for fun. The process is actually very easy. The hardest part is buying a nice
program to create the font and manipulate the images. I use Adobe Photoshop.
Then, I get my images from Dreamstime.com. Sometimes it takes
me hours to look for the perfect image. My eyes feel like they are going to
bleed! You have to be creative in your search words. If you want an
illustration or digital graphic, then you click the top box for photographs
out. If you want a real life picture, then you sort the images by clicking off
the box for illustrations. You can search through both real photographs and
illustrations if you’re not sure what you are looking for.
You can get free fonts all over the web and install them
very easily. But, Photoshop does have a number of great fonts. I play around
with the picture, the title and the author’s name to see which placement is
better around the image. Sometimes the words look great right in the middle,
and sometime they look better on the top and bottom. A tagline is a great to
put on a cover, or a quote from an author who liked the book. I usually put the
tagline or author quote in a different font than the title and author’s name.
After I find the right font and placement, I use “blending
options” to manipulate the quality of the words. You can add a “drop shadow”
and “inner shadow,” make the words look like satin, or look “crunchy”. You can
change the color of the font to match the cover, bringing the exact color from
your cover to the words. It’s pretty cool.
I’m most concerned with making the cover look professional.
Too many covers nowadays are just words slapped on top of an image. I try to
match the words with the image and make it look smooth. I’m not a professional,
but I do enjoy doing it. Now, since I’m with bigger publishers, they design the
covers for me. Haven 6 was designed by Heather Howland at Entangled Publishing.
It does take some of the pressure off me and allows me time to write. But,
sometimes I do miss designing!
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Booked & Loaded –
New Dawn Series Book #4
Aubrie Dionne
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
1937044858
978-1937044855
Number of pages: 326
Word Count: 85K
Cover Artist: Heather Howland
Book Description:
A product of an illegal pairing, Eridani is the only woman without a lifemate aboard the colonization ship, the Heritage, and she is determined her less than perfect DNA will not get in the way of finding love. As the ship nears it's final destination of Haven 6 after five hundred years of travel, images of the surface show evidence of intelligent life on a planet that's supposed to be uninhabited. Commander Grier assigns Eri to the exploratory team to spy on the alien society and return with information on how to defeat them.
When Eri's team lands, tribes of humans attack and Eri is saved by Striver, the descendant of a colonist and a pirate from Old Earth's colonization efforts in other parts of the galaxy. Striver helps Eri rescue her team and they are drawn to each other despite their different allegiances. While Striver battles with trusting Eri, Eri must decide whether to warn him and his people about the commander's intentions, or follow orders and complete her mission.
When Eri's team lands, tribes of humans attack and Eri is saved by Striver, the descendant of a colonist and a pirate from Old Earth's colonization efforts in other parts of the galaxy. Striver helps Eri rescue her team and they are drawn to each other despite their different allegiances. While Striver battles with trusting Eri, Eri must decide whether to warn him and his people about the commander's intentions, or follow orders and complete her mission.
About the Author:
Aubrie grew up watching the original Star Wars movies over and over again until she could recite and reenact every single scene in her backyard. She also loved The Goonies, Star Trek the Next Generation-favorite character was Data by far-, and Indiana Jones. But, her all time favorite movie was The Last Unicorn. She still wonders why the unicorn decided to change back to a unicorn in the end.
Aubrie wrote in her junior high yearbook that she wanted to be "A concert flutist" when she grew up. When she made that happen, she decided one career was not enough and embarked as a fantasy, sci fi author. Two careers seem to keep her busy. For now.
Her writings have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, Emerald Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora Wolf. Her books are published by Entangled Publishing, Lyrical Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. She recently signed her YA sci fi novel with Inkspell Publishing titled: Colonization: Paradise Reclaimed, which will release in October 2012.
Aubrie wrote in her junior high yearbook that she wanted to be "A concert flutist" when she grew up. When she made that happen, she decided one career was not enough and embarked as a fantasy, sci fi author. Two careers seem to keep her busy. For now.
Her writings have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, Emerald Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora Wolf. Her books are published by Entangled Publishing, Lyrical Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. She recently signed her YA sci fi novel with Inkspell Publishing titled: Colonization: Paradise Reclaimed, which will release in October 2012.
Twitter: @authoraubrie
Website: www.authoraubrie.com
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3 comments:
Thanks for hosting me!
Thanks for sharing. This series is very entertaining!
Nice cover. Very informative post.
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