Sometimes if you look at the numbers, the prospects for making money in any given business may seem bleak.

And yet…

Even in the poorest of industries, there are often people making money hand-over-fist while everyone is claiming such things are impossible.

Certainly this is the case today with the publishing industry. When you look at the figures, things look bleak. Bowker (which sells ISBN numbers to publishers) claims that over one million titles were published in 2009 — just in the US. That number is three times the number of different titles that went into print in 2005. And from all vantage points, it appears the numbers of books being fielded are even higher now — and going up all around the world.

Did a little deeper into the numbers and you’ll find fewer books are being sold and that many titles sell only a handful of books.

And yet some people are making great money in the industry. Some writers (including some of my clients) are seeing sales that would have made mid-list writers back in the 1990s kill for. And there are a few folks claiming a million or more sales — with self-published ebooks. Some presses are going under, yet a few are thriving.

What makes the difference?

One thing many successful publishers are doing is niche marketing. They find groups of people interested in some subject that isn’t being well served by publishers, write titles aimed at this small market, and then reach potential buyers with advertising and reviews of their books. Today with the Internet, reaching this or that niche has never been easier or cheaper. Many successful book sellers are making fantastic money with a small niche market — and are often “under the radar” of others in the publishing industry who are aiming at a more general market of buyers.

For authors, an important key to selling books is promotion both of the author as well as the titles that writer has written. That may sound flippant with a high “oh, duh” factor. Yet I find many writers fail miserably at this. They write their book, toss it out the door, and start on their next manuscript. And then they’re miffed because none of their books rack up any serious sales.

Remember: If you’re an author, writing your book is only half (or even a fourth) of the work these days. Promotion of your title is key to making it a success.

It’s also a mistake to see your title as competing in sales against millions of other titles. In fact you’re only competing against books that are similar to yours.

And even then, not so much. Often readers will buy many books on any one given subject; in truth your “competitors” may actually be helping you sell your book by wetting the interest of potential buyers in the subject matter your book is about.

In the end, the trick for authors is not so much somehow beating competitors out of their sales, but rather to present your book to those who have interest in the subject you’ve written is about. The key to sales is not about worrying about other similar books, and especially about the many books flooding the marketplace, but rather targeting potential readers and buyers of your books, and bringing their attention to your title.

Advertising, interviews, blogs, etc., are all tools you can use for that purpose.

So write your book, get it published, then roll up your sleeves and set about gaining the notice you need to sell yourself and your title.

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Best-selling author Duncan Long is a writer/illustrator who’s been in the publishing business for decades; over one hundred of his titles have gone into print with HarperCollins, Avon, Paladin Press, and other publishers. Today most of his work involves creating book illustrations for other authors. You can see his book and magazine artwork in his portfolio of book illustrations.

Creating a good book cover is — as the saying goes — an art. A very delicate art at that. Just a little too much here or there can destroy the balance of a cover and transform it from a thing of beauty to an eyesore.

Simple designs can often be key to a good cover. With such designs the cover will be laid out (consciously or unconsciously) in a geometric pattern. If you have a cover illustration whose rough layout can be viewed as a circle, pyramid, or other geometric shape, the artwork is probably going to look good. If it doesn’t fall into some geometric shape, it’s likely in trouble.

Simple also applies to the number of elements in an illustration. Often the most effective cover illustration will be of a single figure or object. In addition to looking good full size in print, these covers can be shrunk to ebook, web, or catalog size and still look great. On the flip side, a book cover with a cast-of-thousands illustration often becomes a horrible spaghetti of visual confusion when reduced in size — or viewed from a short distance by a potential buyer in a book store.

Complex typefaces can also be a mistake when plastered onto a cover. Often a simple sans serif is more effective than some squiggly wiggly font that’s too clever by half for the cover of a book. A typeface should add flavor and otherwise be invisible. If the first thing a viewer notices is the design of the type rather than what it says, it is not suitable for a book cover. (The possible exception to this rule comes with fantasy and horror titles which tend to allow more ornate or — in the case of horror, gungy — typefaces.)

Remember: In book cover design, less is more (more or less).

Thought should be given to how a cover illustration matches the subject matter of the book. Even the best of illustrations may fail as a book cover if the artwork misrepresents the genre or type of book it is being used with. For example, a horror novel with a pretty girl and sans type might look like a Romance rather than a horror story. As such, it would serve the book poorly even though the work itself might be outstandingly good.

Put a spooky cover with some twisted lettering on the cover of the same book, and it might suddenly become a great seller.

The overall color of a cover may be important, too. A pink cover for a horror book isn’t likely to work well (greens or browns — yes!). Likewise drab colors on a Romance or joke book are likely to make the book less than attractive to a target audience.

A lot of thought needs to be given with any cover design to be sure the right message is being sent to potential readers. And when in doubt, simpler is almost always better.

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Duncan Long works as a book illustrator and designer. He’s created cover illustrations and layout for large and small presses as well as many self-publishing authors and indie presses. See more of his artwork at: Duncan Long’s Portfolio.

Final book cover for Voice of the Chosen (illustration by Duncan Long)

We just rounded up the cover for Lawrence P. White’s science fiction novel Voice of the Chosen, the third book in White’s science fiction series. I’ve enjoyed doing each of these covers, and believe this my be the most attractive of the three — though it’s perhaps a tossup with the second in the series (Knights of the Chosen).

Although we pretty much established the elements of the cover from the git-go with this project, there were some strange twists and turns — and all my fault. The author told me he wanted a domed building with a 30-40 year old attractive woman in a cloak appearing above it.

Yes, that sounds simple enough. But I still managed to throw a monkey wrench (albeit a flying monkey wrench) into things.

Since the building in the story was the senate building on a far-flung planet, my imagination twisted the idea into something that had an Earthly counterpart. My logic: Since state and federal capital buildings here on Earth have a dome on top of them, and are often referred to as “domed buildings” that this was what the author meant when he told me the building was domed.

Thus, the first rendition of the domed building was of a somewhat Venician style, multi-stories and, yes, a dome on top.

Science fiction novel concept art gone wrong - so right, yet so wrong.

Buzzzzz…. Wrong solution.

The building was to be a dome, period. Not a tall building with a dome on top. Oh, and no city in the background. And, a much different age of woman. And the woman was supposed to have a hooded cloak, not an evening dress.

Other than that, as the old saying goes, it was perfect.

Fortunately, the fix was a bit easier than one might imagine. I took one of my original digital paintings (sans windows in the dome), hacked the dome from it, and plopped it into a landscape. Then I added some walls, stairs, and pedestrians. At that point I was pretty much on the right page (although we finally cut down the width of the stairs to make the whole building appear on the cover).

The cloak and dusty nebula of the sky were pretty much right from the first (with the star field, dust, and colors perhaps throwbacks to those beautiful paintings on the classic paperback science fiction novels I grew up with as a kid).

But the gal’s face. The robot in the studio went clanging about croaking, “Warning! Warning! Danger, Will Robinson.”

I kept painting her way too young; the character was supposed to be older but very attractive. Perhaps my agism was showing here. At any rate, after three or four stabs, everyone was desperate. I asked a question I should have asked earlier. “If you were casting a movie of the novel, what star would you choose to play the role of the queen?”

Once I got the answer, I had an imagine in mind to work toward. Of course I couldn’t slavishly copy a star’s face. But some of the feel of that face went into the painting (can you guess which star it was?). Now we had her face right:

The final face for Voice of Chosen

I dropped the face into the hood of the cloak, repainted the folds around the face, and that completed the illustration for White’s science fiction novel:

Final artwork for the Voice of the Chosen science fiction novel.

My next task was extending the edges of the painting so it would fit on the front of the cover while still allowing plenty of space for the title and author’s name as well as the trim “bleed” around the edges of the cover. Since the typeface was to be the same from the first two books in the series, there wasn’t much room for error there (though still I managed, initially making the lettering a bit too small and thus having to resize it and shrink the center elements of the painting a bit, and then painting in an even larger border to take up the slack — at that point the stairs on the senate building were also truncated on the left and right).

From there, I generated the cover artwork for the Kindle and Amazon.com book catalog (with the Kindle version generally working with most other ebook formats).

After that, I plugged in the spine measurements with other information to create the layout and lettering for the spine and back cover of the book for the print edition of the novel.

Final layout for the science fiction novel Voice of the Chosen.

The final layout went pretty quickly since I had the icon I’d created along with the designs from the previous two books in this science fiction trilogy. So after tinkering and adjusting everything so the layout was polished, I had the print version of the book’s cover ready to go.

Nothing to it — provided you have a patient client, which I fortunately did; he courteously shepherded me in the right direction each time I strayed until we finally had .

All three of White’s science fiction novels are available in Kindle format at Amazon.com including this latest of the three Voice of the Chosen. If you enjoy a face-paced science fiction novel, you’ll find this book to your liking.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to treat yourself to the other books in the series as well.
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Illustrator Duncan Long creates cover artwork for science fiction novels as well as other genres and non-fiction books. His artwork has appeared on titles from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Mermaid Publishing, ILEX, and Enslow Publishers, and well as many indie presses. You can see more of his book artwork at Duncan Long’s Book Illustration Portfolio
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Got some fantastic news about Dora Machado’s Stonewiser III book (which I created the cover illustration for in 2010, the creation process being described in a previous blog).

Here’s the note from Bryan T. Marshall (the head honcho at Mermaid Publishing, LLC):

I just wanted you both to know that the 3rd book in the Stonewiser series, Stonewiser: The Lament of the Stone has been awarded the Silver
medal for SFF in the 2012 IPPY Awards as well as is currently a finalist for SFF in ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards.

That gives us three books that were all Book of the Year Award finalists as well as three books that have won National Awards – I don’t think that I know of any series where every book in the series has garnered such praise on a national level and much of that praise is directly related to your efforts!!! Thank you for the hard work you put in to make this series what it is.

Nice.

Of course the cover illustration I created for the book isn’t the only reason the book did so well. But I like to think it helped it on its path toward success. Here’s the artwork I submitted:

Also a great plus for the book was the beautiful layout and cover design created by Mayapriya Long at Bookwrights.

For those wanting to purchase a copy of this award-winning book, you can find it at Mermaid Press. Machado’s first two book (which I also had the pleasure of creating book cover illustrations for) are also available there as well for those wanting to read the entire trilogy.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book cover illustrator who has created cover artwork for HarperCollins, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, and many small presses and self-publishing authors. Find more of his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

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Over the last month I’ve been creating covers for several of Taylor Andrew’s upcoming novels. Among these was Broken Bread (which has also been made into a stage play with the possibility of a movie as well). The story is a bit of a throw back, somewhat like a Hollywood offering from the 1930s. In the story a diner is being run by an angel with unsuspecting souls coming in for a meal and discovering not only their body but also their soul is nourished.

Starting this illustration was somewhat of a shot in the dark. I knew initially that a rustic scene with sleigh bells on a leather strip, angel wings, and a loaf of bread on a butcher block surface were the key elements. Armed with that knowledge, I fired my first salvo: a very rustic scene complete with wooden angel wings, copper pot, and some sleigh bells hanging on the wall.

The "first draft" cover illustration for "Broken Bread."

Not even close.

No cigar.

A patient (but somewhat horrified) art direct handed down a new mandate calling for more realistic wings and a small butcher block table — with no background. This resulted in:

2nd version of the book cover illustration with more realistic wings and black background.

Closer. But the wings looked a little like an ill-fated goose had been nailed to the background. We needed bigger, more complex wings and — due to an oversight in the original specs for the cover — the knife needed to be lost and the sliced loaf replaced with a loaf that was actually broken in keeping with the title.

The art director gave me a reference photo of the classic angel wings style needed (which proved a bit time-consuming to paint due to their complexity). The tough part was repainting the loaf and leather strip of sleigh bells that was to be draped over the edge of the table.

So next:

Detail of the updated broken loaf illustration with sleight bells to the side.

The loaf worked, but we decided to move the sleigh bells to the front — which (since I digitally paint most book artwork rather than render objects with 3D software), meant repainting most of the string to give it the proper perspective:

Detail showing the illustration with the sleigh bells repainted forward.

Almost there.

Our original thought was that the background should be a neutral charcoal grey rather than black. However it proved less dramatic than a black background so we retained the black.

As I finished up the final draft of the painting, on a whim I made a second version of the illustration with a shiny gold halo, even though no one had mentioned having one in the picture. It just seemed like the perfect “filler” to take up the empty space between the wings.

Holding my breath, I sent the new version in.

And…

Everyone liked the addition of a halo. So the final version of the book cover illustration now sports the glowing ring.

Final book cover design and illustration by graphic artist Duncan Long

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When not painting halos without the client asking him to, Duncan Long illustrates and designs book covers for a variety of clients from large presses to self-publishing authors. See more of Duncan’s book artwork at: Duncan’s Art Portfolio
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Much of my weekend was spent updating my various book cover artwork galleries and book illustration portfolio. Such work tends to be both a challenge of sorting (as well as a personal challenge to a book illustrator to continue producing good work — with the hope of actually surpassing some past accomplishments). Looking over a huge collection of artwork also proves to be a humbling experience as I realize that if things had gone a different direction here or there in my life, I likely would never have had so many opportunities to realize my dreams within the publishing industry as a book illustrator.

Being able to work as an artist over the last couple of decades is nothing if not a privilege; as a child I loved books and being able to create book illustrations that draw readers to new books is a dream come true. Additionally, it’s an amazing time to be working in the publishing industry as it undergoes massive changes: adapting to a worldwide marketplace, the Internet, cheap publishing in China and India, and the growing popularity of ebooks.

That preamble out of the way, I’d like to invite folks to my various galleries that now have some new pictures as well as favorite older artwork.

My Book Illustration Portfolio contains the best gems of my book cover artwork that I’ve created over the last decade as I continue my work as a book illustrator.

For those interested in locating a book cover illustration for a mystery novel, murder mystery, or a hard-boiled detective tale, I’ve updated my Mystery Book Illustration and Artwork Gallery.

I now have also updated Gallery of Horror Book Artwork and Illustrations that should send a few shivers down the spine if not inspire a few startle responses. And it has become packed with horror illustrations, too. Nearly a hundred from ghosts to zombies to scientific experiments gone awry — and all points in between. If you need book cover art for a mystery, please check out this collection of pictures.

Need a book illustration for a fantasy story? Got you covered there, too. And I’ve updated my Fantasy Book Illustration Gallery with some new artwork as well as older “classic” illustrations I’ve created over the year for fantasy tales. If you enjoy artwork featuring knights and castle intrigue, good (and bad) fairies, pirates, or all of the above, you’ll probably find something to like in this gallery (and maybe something perfect for the cover or your fantasy story).

"Deep Space Thoughts" by science fiction illustrator Duncan Long

My Science Fiction Book Artwork Gallery is also teeming with a variety of illustrations, many looking for a science fiction book cover to grace (also included is artwork that has already appeared on books and magazines including covers created for Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.

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When not battling flying monkeys, illustrator Duncan Long paints artwork for book and magazine covers in a variety of genres including Science Fiction, Fantasy, Crime and Mystery, and Horror. Explore all his online art galleries at: Duncan’s Book and Magazine Illustrations
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Final cover illustration for Stuart Jaffe's mystery novel

This week marked the completion of the book cover illustration for Stuart Jaffe’s Southern Bound. The mystery features the classic 1940′s style, hard-boiled detective — with a supernatural twist to the character (and I’ll not say more as I don’t want to create a spoiler). Basically the author wanted a mystery cover illustration with a film noire-ish look with lighting that gave the character a supernatural or ghostly look.

"Old Gumshoe" -- first stab at the cover illustration for Southern Bound

The first stab at the cover had a frontal view of a tired detective. It got us into the detective/supernatural/art noir neighborhood, but the dingbat artist had forgotten that the lettering for the book was to run down the right side of the cover rather than the traditional top/bottom positioning. (I can only blame the distraction of the flying monkeys here in the studio for this error).

So next came another painting, this time in profile, of a detective on the left side of the cover space.

Second stab at the cover illustration for the mystery novel

Now we had the proper layout and a suitable detective for the mystery cover — but lacked the supernatural elements needed. I tried several tactics, including a glowing face (below left) and a glow outlining the face (right) — and as is painfully evident, neither were effective.

Two failed attempts at a glowing face...

This is the point where an illustrator ignores the panicked Muse frantically skipping around the studio screaming, “You’re not able to pull this off!” and instead concentrates on what other options might be waiting in his bag of tricks.

I realized I had three: One was to make the figure become transparent as the lower edge of the picture was approached — but that wouldn’t work with this illustration because it would appear to be shadowing with the black background.

The other two options held more promise: Make him materialize from a cloud of smoke, or give him glowing eyes.

The latter option was likely more in keeping with the story. But it also has become somewhat of a cliché with Hollywood movies, TV, and comic books employing it on a pretty regular basis. Worse, if red eyes are used, one is reminded of the Terminator robots and/or demonic activity, neither of which would fit the story.

However that still leaves a spectrum of other colors.

What about blue?

Let me say that both the author and I had doubts as to whether glowing eyes would work, but I had already shifted the color of the detective toward a ghostly blue during my face-glow experiments, so “No harm in experimenting a little,” I thought. I used that color scheme and quickly painted some glowing blue eyes over it.

And it worked!

Final cover illustration for Stuart Jaffe's mystery novel

Thus, the cover illustration which now is becoming part of the layout for Stuart Jaffe’s mystery novel Southern Bound.

While you’re waiting for Jaffe’s mystery to appear in a bookstore near you, you can learn more about the author and his books at Stuart Jaffe’s website.

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When not stumbling into the artistic solutions for a mystery novel cover illustration, Duncan Long illustrates a wide variety of book genres. His artwork graces the covers of novels from self-publishing authors, small presses, and large publishing houses. Discover many more of Duncan’s mystery and other genre illustrations at: Duncan’s Illustration Portfolio
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Author Mary Maddox recently wrote of her experience in choosing an effective cover for her novel Talion. Originally she’d selected a very attractive, abstract photo for the cover — yet it failed to sell the book. At a book signing, one blunt person who told her, “I’m not buying your book because I don’t like the cover. It tells me nothing. I have no idea what the book is about.”

Ouch.

Fortunately, the author thought over the rude comment and realized there was an element of truth to it. The abstract cover was attractive, yet failed to convey any insight as to the genre and subject of the book. The story encompasses horror, mystery, and the supernatural, yet the cover art reflected none of this.

So, Maddox set out to find a new cover illustration. (Rather than write more about how Maddox went about finding and choosing her cover artist and her thoughts about the importance of selecting a suitable book cover, I’ll direct readers to her blog when she offers some tips about choosing the right cover art for your book.)

Cutting to the chase, I was called upon to create a new cover illustration that would display two characters from her story. My cover illustration wasn’t nearly as beautiful as the first, yet it will likely serve the book much better because the faces on the cover will help the book connect with potential buyers, and the lighting, colors, and expressions reflect the horror, suspense, and mystery genres the tale encompasses.

To tack down the feel of the story and genre just a tad more, I selected a typeface that was a little misshapen and ominous, giving the lettering a sinister feel that complemented the tone of the story.

When we’d finished, we had a cover that conveys the ominous tones of the book (which a reviewer at the Charleston Times-Courier described as “Silence of the Lambs meets The Turn of the Screw…. The story is propelled by suspense, and made delicious by Maddox’s Ray Bradbury-like gift for deft, deep-shadowed description.”)

And, yes, it’s the book is the proverbial “good read.” You can read samples from the book (as well as buy a copy) at Amazon.com.
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Duncan Long illustrates book and magazine covers including those needing new cover art. His artwork has appeared on a number of books from self-publishing authors, small publishing houses, as well as large presses. Find other samples of Long’s book art at: Duncan’s Book Art Portfolio
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"Deep Space Thoughts" by book cover artist Duncan Long

Another set of illustrations from the flying monkeys at the Duncan Long Studio. These illustrations were created for my personal pleasure, but hopefully eventually will find homes on book or magazine covers. Subject matter covers science fiction to horror to fantasy, with perhaps a few stops in the Twilight Zone.

For those interested in purchasing the rights to any of these, please note the title under the picture to get me “on track” with our negotiations (it is so embarrassing to sell the rights to the wrong piece of artwork — ahem).

"Sometimes the Darkness Wins" book cover artwork by Duncan Long

"Low Noon' - book cover illustration by Duncan Long

"Teen Witch" book cover artwork by illustrator Duncan Long

"Storming Heaven" - book cover artwork by illustrator Duncan Long

As this is written, all five of these illustrations have all rights available including book and magazine cover rights. It will be interesting to see where these appear. That said, there is work to be done on contracted covers… so back to work.
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Duncan Long illustrates magazines and books for self-publishing authors, indie publishers, and large presses. Discover more of his illustrations at Duncan Long’s Magazine and Book Cover Portfolio
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As noted in last week’s blog, I wrapped up the illustrations I created for the 2013 US Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP). In last week’s post, I showed the work that went into the poster. But there was a bit of other artwork for the project including spot art (for t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other items for promoting the program) and also a book mark.

Originally, the plans called for a simple reduction of the poster illustration for use as the bookmark. But as the poster became more and more complex, it quickly became apparent that it wouldn’t work as a bookmark.

So I was soon working on a new design that would employ at least the book/smoke/magic lights from the original. As it turned out, the book/smoke/magic lights proved to be all that was needed, and thus the final book mark is just that (as seen in the illustration at the top of this blog).

But sadly it took me a while to realize this truth, and thus I spent a little time wandering in the design wilderness that illustration can become. (On the plus side, digital artwork lends itself to recycling. So elements that failed to be of use in this project will likely be pressed into service in future projects.)

So here are some of the “runners up” that resulted in my search for a suitable design for the US CSLP (2013) bookmark:

In the end, I dropped the pirate, pharaoh, spaceman, horse, fairy, and sword — and went with the simpler design of just the book/smoke/and magic lights. Often simpler is better, and that was certainly the case this time.

Final version of the bookmark created for the US CSLP (2013).

Finally, as noted in a previous blog, the fate of the mermaid was up in the air with some on the committee opposed to her and others okay with her. I have word now that she failed to make the cut and won’t appear on the poster. Which is fine. It’s been my experience that when there’s doubt about whether or not an element should be in a painting, it should be removed. “When in doubt, throw it out” is a good rule of thumb for most creative work, and this poster is no exception.

And, as noted above, she’ll very likely appear in some other future project where she’ll be more at home. Until then, she’ll swim quietly and peacefully in my mind.

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Knowing the joys of a simple bookmark design, Duncan Long works as a professional book illustrator. Enjoy more of his book artwork at: DuncanLong.com.