Book Cover Illustrations

Working with an illustrator or artist to create a quality book cover is a big deal, especially for indie and self-publishing authors. The quality of the cover is the new “gatekeeper” that helps readers decide whether a book is going to be worth buying.

A good book cover illustration and layout will attract buyers; a bad cover guarantees poor sales.

Here’s an article that gives the scoop on how to work with an artist to create a kick-butt book cover illustration.

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Duncan Long is a book cover illustrator for many self-publishing authors and indie publishers as well as larger presses including HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, and Enslow Publishers. You can see his illustrations online at Duncan Long’s Book Illustration Portfolio

Portal #2-C

I normally create realistic illustrations for my clients to employ as book cover artwork, CD covers, and so forth. But recently a writer contacted me and asked if I had any abstract pictures that might serve as cover artwork for his book.

My answer, “Yes, if I can locate them on my hard drive.”

I eventually did find them, and I thought I’d share them here since they’re rare birds among the work I’ve done. The original picture was titled “Portal Into Consciousness” (or simply “Portal”) but soon became a group of pictures as I work and reworked various ideas built about the original concept.

The basic seed for all this was built from a 3D disk I created using zBrush. This object was then rendered with a glass surface with lights shining on it. The resulting JPG that was then further modified in my “paint program” of choice PhotoPaint. I eventually had a number of variations built around this basic idea.

My favorites from the Portal series are shown above and below.

I have discovered there’s a fine, and somewhat odd, line between abstract and realistic. For example, I used one of these Portal pictures as a background with a figure standing in front of it for an illustration in my book Witches and Fish. Thus, the abstract painting became part of a realistic illustration, and actually fit in quite well.

Arguably, in an age when science fiction and fantasy stories teach us to expect unusual sights and accept them as “real,” the line between abstract and realistic becomes quite flexible.

Portal #3

Portal #3-B

Portal #3-C "Gold"

Portal #6-B

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Normally Duncan Long creates realistic illustrations for cover and inner artwork for magazines and books. His artwork has appeared in publications from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, ILEX, Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Sun tabloid, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. See more of Duncan’s illustrations at: Duncan’s Book Illustration Portfolio
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"Lost, Under the Sea" - a book illustration from Witches and Fish by Duncan Long

Jenna Elizabeth Johnson regularly interviews book illustrators (and authors) at her blog. Here’s her interview of me.

Thanks, Jenna!

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Duncan Long creates book covers artwork and cover illustrations for self-publishing authors and indie publishers as well as larger established presses like HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Moonstone Books, Pocket Books, and Enslow Publishers. You can see his artwork online at Duncan Long’s Illustration Portfolio

Life would be much easier if a guy had that proverbial crystal ball that enabled glimpses of the future. However, we have the next best thing these days: Experts and surveys that can often point the way we’re going, as well as tell us what it is we’re going toward. Here are several excellent articles that give readers a heads up for the coming year.

Authormedia.com took a survey of book publishing experts to create its Publishing Predictions for 2012.

Aptara’s 3rd Annual Survey of Ebook Publishers gives a good look at the likely direction ebooks will be taking in the next year.

And download and take a look at Ruediger Wischenbart’s The Global eBook Market, a free PDF report produced by O’Reilly Media.

Here’s an insight into how many authors are making fantastic money through Kindle sales of their books: The New Midlist: Self-published E-book Authors Who Earn a Living

And finally, a look at how books can be marketed in the Internet age: The Tim Ferriss Effect.

It’s my hope that the various ebook formats will get winnowed into just two or three in the coming year — though more likely it will take several years before the dust clears with one or two clear winners emerging. That said, many publishers and self-publishing authors are discovering that Kindle and one or two other formats generate the lion’s share of sales — with the others being more work to format books into than they’re worth. If this trend continues, it’s likely that eventually just a few formats will be left standing.

Right now the best bets are Kindle (which is a modified Mobi format and as such rather long in the tooth and more than a bit limited) and the newer but nearly as awkward EPUB.

Sadly all the ebook formats in use right now are crude when compared to print layouts. But there’s a ray of hope for those wanting to see ebooks with quality layout, different typefaces (rather than one or two dictated by the reading device), and illustrations: Larger tablet computers are arriving on the scene, and these are capable of reading PDF files (without processing them into a different format), and have screens large enough to allow reading books in their original PDF/print formats (with the option to zoom in on graphics for added detail).

Of course larger tablets won’t appeal to those reading novels or books with few illustrations. Sure a tablet can handle the task, but being larger and heavier than regular ebook devices, tablets aren’t as portable. But for those wishing to read books having pictures and artful layout — as well as graphic novels and comics — the larger tablets may pave the way for quality layout in ebooks that rivals that of print. (And as someone who’s interested in seeing quality illustrations in many of the books I read, I’ll cross my fingers and hope this type of larger tablet reader coupled with the PDF format will eventually become a serious contender in the ebook market.)

In the meantime, 2012 is likely to be a Kindle/Nook/iPad world for those wanting to read ebooks consisting mostly of text.

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Duncan Long loves creating book covers and layouts for print and ebooks. His illustrations appear on book covers from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Moonstone Books, Pocket Books, and Enslow Publishers as well as on the covers of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and The Sun tabloid. Check out his artwork at Duncan Long’s Portfolio
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Ebooks did well in 2011, and I suspect with all the ebook readers that were handed out by Santa Claus this Christmas, they’ll be in very solid footing in 2012. Many in the publishing industry are expecting that in the not too distant future, ebooks will be outselling print in most markets with the exception of the “coffee table” books with lots of pictures, over-sized layouts, or such where print will likely remain king for some time to come.

2011 also saw several unknown authors break out and sell over a million ebooks with their new titles and self-marketing sans agent and big publishing house. So it appears there really is a major upside potential for self-publishing authors in 2012. It will be interesting to see how many more break this million sales barrier..

I think there are several key elements that can help improve the selling potential of any title whether self published or printed by a large established press. The first is the self-promotion of the book – and to some extent the author – to potential buyers.

The second is to be sure the book is well written and carefully edited before going to print. Of course big presses pretty much handle this angle (though they expect manuscripts to be error free when submitted — which was not the case 50 years ago when a lot of the polishing and proofing was done by the publisher). Consequently, authors wanting their book to do well in today’s marketplace often find themselves hiring someone to proof and perhaps even edit their manuscript.

The third essential is that the book should have a professional, attractive layout, especially with the cover. Most large presses handle this for their authors. However this is another task the self-publishing author must handle — and it seems a sizable chunk of my business in 2011 came from authors looking for a cover illustration (and a few from authors looking for a cover superior to that offered by the press handling their title).

It’s little wonder that savvy authors are concerned about the quality of the cover for their book. An attractive cover can be key to a book’s success these days. Competition is intense with more and more authors self publishing. Because of this, the quality of the cover has become the new “gatekeeper” by which potential buyers/readers of a book judge its quality. This is especially true for fiction.

If an author wants to meet with success, then no little effort needs to be placed toward achieving each of these key components. That’s the only way for an author to get ahead of the pack and have a chance of making serious money, especially in the case of a self-published book.

The old idea that an author can simply write a good story and then meet with great success is long past (if it ever was true). Today an author must carefully polish his manuscript, promote the tome, and be sure it has a professional layout and cover if it is to have any chance for becoming a runaway hit.

Here’s wishing my readers and clients a very prosperous 2012 — with lots of new ebooks and print books that soar as high and free as their authors want them to.

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Duncan Long creates book cover illustrations and often lays out entire covers for presses and self-publishing authors. His work appears on books from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Moonstone Books, and Enslow Publishers. See more of his illustrations and book cover design at Duncan Long’s Book Cover Portfolio
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I received word this week that a typeface I’d designed (“Back In the USSR”) is being employed on the film poster (and possibly with the credits) for In the Land of Blood and Honey.

The movie marks the screen writing/directing debut of Angelina Jolie and has already won The Producers Guild of America’s 2012 Stanley Kramer Award and recently received a Golden Globe nomination. Set in the 1990s during the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, In the Land of Blood and Honey. is likely to be an eye-opener to many film goers. It’s a privilege to have played even a very tiny part in the marketing of the movie.

It was a bit of a surprise to learn my typeface was on the movie poster. I’d forgotten about giving permission to use the typeface to The Ant Farm (a Los Angeles design group). The designers were pretty tight-lipped about what project the typeface would be used with and I had assumed it was some small indie movie. So I’d pretty much forgotten all about it until I got a phone call Wednesday saying that the “check was in the mail” for the use of the font.

Then the bombshell: By the way, the typeface is on the movie poster for the new Angelina Jolie movie.

What?

I’ll admit it: My first thought was that someone was playing a joke on me. However after locating the movie poster online and seeing my typeface, the reality began to sink it.

Even more surprising was discovering my typeface (in red in the photo below) behind these two little-known actors. Again there was a certain feeling that perhaps this was some sort of hoax with my typeface added after the fact to the publicity shot.

Publicity poster for In the Land of Blood and Honey showing Back In the USSR typeface (in red).

My “Back In the USSR” typeface continues to be available (free for personal use — commercial users must ask permission from me and pay a fee for the use of the font) at dafont.com.

I created the typeface a few years ago for Issue 4 of my Critica Grafica magazine. To ease my graphic design needs, I added a number of “extras” to the letter set including the faces of Lenin and Stalin, a hammer/sickle, stars, and an AK-47 as well as alternate letters — all with an eye toward making the typeface have the stiff, communist feel of the various sans serif types appearing on propaganda posters that were so prevalent during the Cold War..

After getting the magazine rounded up, I decided to share the typeface. In doing so, I never expected anything like the popularity the font would enjoy; according to dafont.com’s count, the typeface had been downloaded 78,935 times to date from dafont — with many additional downloads from other sites,

And to my great surprise, one of those downloading the typeface would eventually use the font for a movie poster — Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey.

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When not designing typefaces and fonts for movie poster designers and magazine editors, Duncan Long creates concept artwork for movies as well as book cover illustrations. See his movie concept artwork and illustrations at: Duncan Long’s Portfolio
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I just got word that Joan C. Wrenn’s Unsung Lord of Siyah Chan: A Novel of the Ancient Maya is now in print (from Outskirts Press). This is the fourth book in Wrenn’s series about ancient Maya culture.

Like the previous novel that I painted the cover illustration for, this offered a unique challenge in that the author wanted a picture to reflect the Mayan viewpoint of the world, and to also mimic the “flat” look of Mayan artwork. So the challenge was to capture both the look of ancient Mayan art while giving it some depth and realism so it would still work for a modern reader.

The author supplied pictures of Mayan glyphs which included figures similar to those in her story. Mayan artwork is somewhat stylized, and gives “cues” as to whether fabric is fur or cloth, metal, etc. Colors haven’t survived in most Mayan artwork, so educated guesses had to be made. The results worked well and the addition of a jungle, background glyphs, and some torchlight helped pull everything together.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator whose work has appeared on book covers from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Outskirts Press, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other presses — and self-publishing authors. See his book cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Magical Contact - digital painting by Duncan Long

There was a time when I drew my black and white artwork with pen and ink, working over pencil sketches that then were erased after the ink had dried. It was intensive, back-breaking work that often took all day just to produce two or three drawings.

And in my youth I played with oil paints and later acrylics.

But today I seldom draw and never paint except in the virtual digital sense, using digital tablet and computer. The main reason is that the process is just much faster and cleaner. Those pen-and-ink drawings that used to take half a day to complete not only look better when done digitally, they also can be done in a fraction of the time. Ditto with paintings.

The digital media allow for experimenting and then “undoing” if something doesn’t work. With paint, one could undo with a palette knife or another layer of paint, but there was no going back to what had been lost in the process of experimentation. There was no way to go back to what was working up to the point it quit working. Oil paints don’t come with an undo button.

And when it comes time to ship the picture to the publisher, it is a WHOLE lot easier. No packaging, no worry about weeks’ of work lost in the post, or falling victim to a drop, jab, or other disaster.

Of course as with all such things there are downsides. There is a joy in working directly with a physical medium that is lost, and I often miss this and regret that my time is so limited (in that ongoing scramble to make cash), that I have little time to experiment with those grand projects that might be created just for the self (and which can yield the unexpected and exotic).

But I suppose even those first cave painters likely complained about having to spend all their time out hunting mastodon when they could be back home painting by torchlight. Some things never change.

In the meantime, I will continue to create digitally. Like email that delivers messages much faster than the telegraph, painting digitally cuts down on time and expense, for me as well as my clients. With all due apologies to Marshall McLuhan, sometimes it’s the message, not the medium that counts.

Dragonfly - a digital drawing by Duncan Long

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When he’s not musing over the medium and the message, Duncan Long can generally be found at his digital tablet creating book illustrations and artwork that look as if drawn and painted with pen and brush, but which are actually digital from beginning to end. See more of his illustrations and artwork at Duncan’s Art Portfolio
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Some time ago my author friend Karen S. Elliott had some questions that led to some answers that might be of help to other writers needing a book cover.

She asked, “What could writers do to make your job easier? Better description of what they want? Do they even know what they want? What’s the worst problem you ever had with a writer?”

I’ll answer these questions as if the illustrator you’re working with is a guy. This is not to say guys are better artists or that you don’t want to hire a gal to do a book cover for you. It’s just easier for me to write with one or the other, and so I’ll use “him” and “he” with that caveat to the reader.

That said, I think the main thing for writers to understand is that the illustration’s job is basically just to get someone interested in the book so they pick it up (or read a catalog entry) and get interested in buying that title. The cover has to be simple so it can convey its “read me” message with just a glance. That means maybe a character or two can be there with the proper color, lighting, and lettering to set the stage of mood and genre the book falls into.

So the cover needs to stay pretty simple.

Consider: A book is like a movie; it can have a cast of thousands; it can span centuries. The book cover is like one frame of that movie. It is just a tiny part, a brief flicker. It can’t tell the whole story of the book, and trying to make it do so is a study in frustration..

That seems obvious, yet too often writers want all the story elements in the book on the cover, and it quickly becomes a hodgepodge. And nothing causes folks to pass on a book instead of picking it up, than a confusing cover that can’t be understood at a glance. The cover can hint at what’s in the book; it can’t tell the viewer that the character is going to do for the first 100 pages.

I know that sounds simple. But sadly writers often miss this obvious thing (and part of my job is to try to educate them about this — often I don’t do this as well as I should).

When an art director, publisher, or writer approaches the illustrator about doing a cover, it’s generally best to have a scene in mind. Don’t say, “Well, you’re the artist. Read my book and just do your thing.” Unfortunately illustrators are on tight deadlines and don’t have time to read an entire book. But worse, invariably the artist’s key scene will be at odds with the publisher’s. So almost always (at least in my experience) this seems to waste a lot of time and get us all back at the starting line when the dust clears.

Consequently, it’s best to have an idea of what sort of mood you need to establish, what the main “scenery” of the story might be, and what your character looks like. Usually (especially with smaller ebook covers these days) you just will want one or two characters at the most on a cover, and ideally a “close shot” that shows their faces and upper torso rather than their whole bodies. Otherwise you lose a lot of details and don’t really get a good feel for the characters.

You might tell your illustrator, “The main character needs to look like he lives in the European Middle Ages, he should be wearing rusty armor, and his hair is long and stringy. He’s tired and sitting down looking depressed. And maybe there’s a dragon flying off in the distance.” That would give you illustrator something to go on and from there he’ll ask you questions to learn what he needs to know to get started on the first sketches he’ll present to you.

Also be sure you tell the artist how old the character is, ethnic type, hair color and length, and any other key details. Your artist is not going to be happy if he’s spent hours on a painting of a blond Nordic warrior only to discover your hero is from Morocco with short black hair and an eye patch, and just happens to be hanging out with Vikings. The sooner your artist can zero in on things, the happier he’ll be and the sooner you’ll have your cover you need.

Sometimes writers have a “picture” of who the character is in their mind. If you’ve been writing and picturing a well-know actor as playing the part (in your mind’s eye), tell your artist that it would be nice if the character looked a little like that person. He can’t give you a perfect portrait of the actor (due to copyright considerations), but it will get the artwork into the right neighborhood.

On the flip side of that, remember that when the artist creates their version of the picture, it isn’t going to jive perfectly with how you’ve pictured it in your mind. But unless it really goes against the storyline, try not to dictate unnecessary changes. If you don’t write in the book that the guy’s eyes are blue, don’t be upset if they’re green. Or if he has more or fewer muscles than in your mind. Or his armor is bluish steel instead of silver. Or the distant dragon has horns when you didn’t picture it that way.

If something in the picture is different from how you pictured it, but it doesn’t make a difference to the story, then go with the flow. You and everyone will be a lot happier in the end.

In the digital age it’s possible to change all sorts of things: Colors, layout, you name it. But that doesn’t mean changing things will always be for the better. Remember that your illustrator has given a lot of thought to the layout before you even see they first sketch. He’s working to make the picture the best he can and also working to make it show off his best skills and minimize the things he’s not so good at painting.

That means you should never ask for changes unless you’re really sure they might improve things. Sometimes client’s make great suggestions for changes, so if you feel strongly, the artist will appreciate it if speak up. But also be prepared to listen to your artist if he says, “I don’t think that would work, because…” You’re paying him big bucks to do the work; you need to do your best to let him do his best. Micromanaging artwork is a quick way to drain the life from it.

Just as (hopefully) you don’t tell your plumber how best to tighten a pipe or fix a leak, you also need to stand back and let your artist do his thing in the most efficient way he knows how. He’s spent a lot of years honing his skills; let him give you his best. You’re paying big bucks to your illustrator; let him be free to deliver his best.

There’s a point where you need to delegate the work and let your illustrator do it with as little intervention as possible. I know that’s easier said than done, and you do need to give some direction and be sure the picture is turning out the way you want. But try not to micromanage.

Sometimes near the end of a project there will be choices to make: Is this typeface or that lettering better? Would the picture be better if it was flipped horizontally? Should the character be a little closer or a little more distant?

When you get to this point — there’s really no bad choice. You’re choosing between good choices because you’ve reached a point where all the possibilities are going to work. In other words, you can’t make a wrong choice. Just to go with what looks best or let your artist decide. Just be careful you don’t get caught in that endless loop of endless adjustments and changes that do little to improve things but can waste a lot of time all the way around.

I’d say that it’s always a good idea to have an illustrator do the work for you with a contract that has spelled out the amount of pay, whether there will be royalties (generally illustrators get a flat fee and no royalties, by the way), and what rights you’re getting. If there’s no contract, US courts generally assume that the rights the buyer gets are minimal.

If an artist offers you a contract, take it because it will likely be protecting you more than it does him. And have a lawyer look the contract over if you have even a tiny doubt about things; contracts aren’t written in stone and almost always the details can be hashed out to leave everyone happy with things. (One caveat with lawyers: Occasionally one will try to tip everything into their client’s favor, leaving the artist with no safety net if things go wrong. An artist will resent such a one-sided contract and will likely assume you’re going to be a pain to work with. So if you don’t want to loose him as a partner in producing your book, but sure your lawyer doesn’t try to steamroller him with unreasonable clauses within the contract.)

Finally, remember that under the copyright laws in most nations, the artist owns the artwork. You only buy certain rights to use that artwork from him. You don’t own the picture. You likely will only own the right to use the picture on one book cover. But if you want mouse pad rights, t-shirts, or even the right to use the picture on a series of books rather than just one, then be sure that’s all spelled out in your contract. Otherwise there can be some expensive confusion and hurt feelings all the way around due to misunderstandings.

I’ve probably made this process of creating a cover sound a lot harder than it is or maybe even terrifying. Fortunately most illustrators have had lots of experience in these things and will be happy to answer your questions and shepherd you through the process. And once you get started, you’ll find it’s a whole lot of fun seeing your cover come alive, and later a real joy to see the book sitting there on a bookshelf or in a catalog.

That’s when it will definitely seem more than worth the little trouble you went through in getting it just the way it needed to be to help sell your book.

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Duncan Long designs book covers and also creates book cover artwork. You can see more of his illustrations at his Portfolio
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"The Dream" - a book illustration from Witches and Fish by Duncan Long

I recently had a request from a friend to post one of my illustrations that I did for a children’s book Witches and Fish: A Parable of Dreams. The book was basically written for the child in me, with no real plans to ever market it in a serious way, in large part because while a child is the central character, the stories are aimed at adults rather than children.

The book illustration above is one of the early pictures in the book where the boy dreams of flying. And as the title suggests, the whole book has a more or less dream/surreal/modern-day fairy tale feel to it.

Here are three more illustrations from the book:

"The Elephant and the Crane" - a book illustration from Witches and Fish by Duncan Long

"The Fish Kite" - a book illustration from Witches and Fish

"Lost, Under the Sea" - a book illustration from Witches and Fish by Duncan Long

A few more illustrations from the book can be seen in the “free preview” section here Lulu.com where the print and PDF versions of Witches and Fish: A Parable of Dreams are available for sale.

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When not writing and illustrating children’s books no one will buy, Duncan Long loves his work as an illustrator for magazine and book covers. See more of his artwork at Duncan Long’s Art Portfolio
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