Book Cover Illustrations

I completed the cover illustration for Jim Organ’s book Clockwork Girl, a science fiction / fantasy story about a young lady who discovers she isn’t human but rather a mechanism that thinks it’s human.

Beautiful idea for a story.

I’m looking forward to reading this tale.

Everyone understands that a quality book cover is the new gatekeeper that helps would-be buyers decide whether or not a book is worth spending money on. Put a poor cover illustration on your book and sales will be poor.

But what happens if you’re on a very limited budget and can’t afford to hire an illustrator to create quality cover art for your book? Are you up the creek without a paddle?

Not if you know a few simple tricks. The first secret is in tapping into the premade (or ready made) book cover art market. But it’s a market full of potential traps, pitfalls, and mistakes — any of which can cause your book sales to be poor despite what appears to be a quality cover. So you’d be wise to learn the ins and outs of this marketplace before spending your hard-earned dollars.

Rather than reinvent the wheel here, I’ll simply direct you to my article about premade book cover artwork and illustrations: Buying Quality Book Cover Art for Less.

“On this day, above all others, we must pause to remember the horrors of the Shoah and to honour the memory of both the victims and the survivors who suffered under the brutality of the Nazi regime…. We are further reminded on this day to reject all Holocaust denial and to speak out against totalitarian regimes, such as Iran, that consistently deny the Holocaust ever occurred.” — Hank Rosenbaum, Co-President of Canadian Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants

I recently completed the cover and inner illustrations for my novel Lesser Gods (which is a free download from Jan. 23-26, 2013 along with software/apps to read it on about any computer, tablet, or smartphone made — as well as a Kindle at Amazon.com).

I’ve been writing, revising, and reworking this science fiction novel on and off for nearly a decade, and as is often the case with authors, I also spent time dreaming about having a cover for it that was to my liking. Possibly the first thing to note is the title change; the book originally sported Wrong Side In which seemed a clever title to me, a notion not shared by any other soul on the planet. Thus, an eventual title change as well.

Here are two of my early (and painfully poor) efforts:

During this time I also created a cyborg cover illustration that I think would have worked well as a book cover. However it didn’t really hint at the humor and moral issues covered in the novel, and so will live to fight another day on some other book cover:

The years passed and eventually the final draft of the story was ready to go to print. At this point, I created a series of illustrations that held the pearl of the final cover illustration — surrounded by a cloud of distractions. I’m often bothered when working with authors on their book covers by what I’ve come to call KSE (“Kitchen Sink Effect”). Basically the KSE happens when an author tries to tell the whole story of the novel on the cover illustration, throwing in (as the old cliche goes) everything but the kitchen sink. The result of the KSE is a hodgepodge at best, and generally an eyesore. A quality cover can result only after the author is convince to allow me to cut away unneeded elements.

What was alarming to me in working on my own cover was that even being aware of the KSE, as an author I was unable to resist the siren calls and guided my ship toward the rocky shore. Without considering what I did, I added cyborgs, pretty gals, a dragon, court jester dummy, aircraft, spaceships, and other odds and ends. I tried to juggle, move, nudge everything into place as KSE took over.

So here are just a few of perhaps a dozen of the KSE versions of the cover I created:

Eventually I had an “aha” moment and cut away everything but the hero and his hallo along with his throne and distant planet. No, this scene never actually appears in the book (though there are spots where a reader might imagine it), and, yes, major characters and elements in the book are missing from the illustration. Yet this illustration, free of the KSE, proves the most effective solution for marketing the book.

And in the end, that’s what a good book cover is all about: Capturing a potential reader’s attention and giving him a feel for what the book will be like, and doing that with just his first casual glance at the cover.

I’m offering Lesser Gods as a free ebook from Jan. 23-26, 2013 via Amazon.com. You do NOT need a Kindle reader to read this novel; you can download free software and apps to read Kindle books on smartphones, tablets, Macs, PCs, etc., from Amazon.com.

I’ve always liked having “extras” in the way of ornamentation, icons, and illustrations in books, so when I did the Kindle layout for my new science fiction novel Lesser Gods, I created a set of icons that would appear at the top of each chapter. (Figuring out how to get Kindle to center and size them probably was a bit of a frustration, but by “hacking” the layout for a day or two, I finally came up with a compromise that worked well.)

The various icons go with the story — though it may not be obvious at first exactly how they fit into the tale.

I should note that readers can download a free Kindle version of Lesser Gods from Jan 22-26, 2013. After that, it will be sold for $2.99 a copy.

The story is a little hard to describe. It takes place in the near future with artificial intelligent machines and genetic engineering become common — and commonly misused and sometimes malfunctioning with disastrous results. An anti-hero with a cynical sense of humor rounds out the story. Oh, and a pretty and possibly virtual gal named Alice. As in Alice In Wonderland. Yes, the plot gets a little strange.

Discover more about Lesser Gods, read sample chapters, etc., at Lesser Gods website.

And, if your calender is reading on or between Jan. 22-26, 2013, hurry on over and download a copy of this sci-fi adventure while it’s still available for free at: Lesser Gods: Amazon.com.

We finalized the front cover — and name — of my new science fiction novel Lesser Gods. In addition to writing the book, I also was able to illustrate the cover and add several dozen drawings and paintings to the inner text as a special extra for readers.

By way of promotion, I’ll be offering the Kindle version of this book for free from Jan 22-26, 2013; the book offers lots of excitement, laughs, surprises, and perhaps a few profound thoughts. You can read more about the book (and find some sample chapters) at my Lesser Gods webite.

And, if your calender is reading on or between Jan. 22-26, 2013, you can download the science fiction adventure at: Lesser Gods: Amazon.com.

The intriguing thing about publishing these days, is not only that the playing field has been leveled by Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and others, but also that with POD and ebooks, a title can remain “in print” for many decades (and can do so without the costs of advanced printing, storage, or taxes on unsold books).

For an author, this means a single book can generate money year after year (and can even continue to do so after the author has died — for 70 more years according to US copyright law). That means even if a single title earns only a little per year, over time this the earnings can accrue into a tidy sum. That being the case, today’s book can out-perform the “flash in the pan” of the mid-list book of the recent past, which often only earned enough to cover an author’s advance, after which the publisher let the title go out of print (often leaving the author with no more earnings on that title for the rest of his life).

But now that’s changed.

Today, the key for an author wanting to earn a living at writing appears to be quite simple: Sticking with the task, regularly writing new titles and self-publishing, or publishing through a small press interested in printing everything an author writes. That’s it. Just keep generating product to sell and then patiently wait for it to keep earning more and more over the years.

As things now stand, authors can succeed by regularly writing new books, putting them into print, and planning on staying with the business over the “long haul.”

The historical novel Disguised for Love – The Strickland Sisters is a free ebook today and tomorrow (Dec. 28-29) at Amazon.com.

Yes, I created the cover :o)

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See more of Duncan Long’s book cover art in his portfolio.

I recently completed the three book covers for the Dark Slayer fantasy/science fiction series by author Craig Halloran (who added the distinctive lettering to the covers himself).

These presented two challenges: To get the “feel” for being both a somewhat barbaric culture and to give visual hints that the stories would be unfolding somewhere other than on Earth. To give “off world” hints, we used two suns on the first cover, and two moons on the second (with the assumption that after that readers would understand the setting for the stories since most would gravitate toward reading about the first two before moving on to the third in the series).

For the fantasy aspects of all three illustrations, I mixed clothing styles somewhat. On the first illustration I tried to avoid any historic period weapon in designing the battle ax; likewise the armor was somewhat of a cross between Viking and Gothic armor with non-historic decorative elements. On the second cover, I sprinkled some unusual animals here and there in the background. And the magic snake pretty well sets the fantasy stage on the third cover.

Book one in the series is show above. Here’s the cover artwork and lettering for book two. We took advantage of the night scene to let the moonlight glint off the two blades the character is holding:

And here’s book three which has an indoor, dimly lit environment to allow the sorceress’ magic snake to glow to its best advantage.

You can find out more about the Craig Halloran’s books at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

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Duncan Long is a freelance writer/illustrator. You can find more of his book cover artwork in his online portfolio: Duncan Long’s Book Illustration Portfolio.

Many people don’t know that before I started illustrating books full time, I worked as a writer/illustrator. I enjoyed some real success, with some of my books even ending up in the private libraries of the CIA, FBI, and FEMA — with excerpts from one title even being read into the US Congressional record at one point.

Occasionally I return to my roots as a writer, and over the last couple of months I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a massive manual that basically distills my decades of experience in the survival field into one book that covers all the bases from crime and storms to chemical and biological weapons and all points in between.

At the moment I’m offering this manual exclusively as a Kindle ebook, with plans to add a hardcover version to my lineup the first of 2013. Eventually the title will move from there to Nook and other ebook formats as the economics of marketing the title dictate.

I’ve written this manual with an eye to the “average Joe or Jane” who’s more interested in knowing what to do during any of a variety of emergencies rather than becoming a hard-core prepper or survivalist. Think of this book more as an insurance policy that you’ll hopefully never need — but which you’re surely be glad you bought should you ever actually need it.

Although this publication is huge (as might be expected since it covers everything from how to avoid being a victim of crime to what to do during any of a variety of medical emergencies to how to survive a terrorist attack or all-out war in your neck of the woods), I’ve kept the price down to just $3.99 for the Kindle version.

My goal is to get this live-saving information out to as many people as possible.

So far, the book has garnered some serious downloads and some nice reviews:

“Duncan Long is one of the two best writers on this planet on preparedness and survival topics.” – Kevin Swindle, Kevin Swindle Preparedness Newsletter

“This author has done his homework. He’s not an extremist or alarmist but gives very sound practical insights and solutions that are doable by almost anyone. Worth the read and the price!” – James D. Day

Disasters happen. But there’s a lot you can do to prevent becoming a victim of such events. I’m hoping if you’re concerned about your future and that of your loved ones, you’ll take a few moments right now to visit the Amazon.com site and learn more about YOU CAN SURVIVE the Very Worst Manmade and Natural Disasters: A Handbook for Self-Reliance.