Book Covers

You've written a great novel which is exciting and vibrant.  In fact, you've even had the book professionally edited.  Good for you.

Now is the time for the book cover.

Slap up a plain cover with the title.  Sure, that'll grab readers.

Use a generic one from CreateSpace.  Be still my heart.

Create your own.  Are you a professional graphics designer?

Have it done by a friend.  Hmm?

Did you catch that 2nd sentence just two up from this one?  Professional.

I've done several of my own book covers.  I painted for years and even sold some of them when I was younger.  One I sold was donated to a church in California.  The person who bought it, took me to view it in the lobby.  It was somewhere south of San Francisco and was called "Brotherhood of ...."  No, I don't remember the exact name, it was 50+ years ago.

I was informed that with the release of my latest book (hopefully by late February) that I should have a professional graphics artist do the cover.  I checked into it and the cost was prohibitive but his work was absolutely fantastic and IF the chance came up for me to hire him, he is first on my list.  I found others who were less expensive and seemed to do great work.

In an email to a friend, I mentioned I was looking for somebody and she recommended Tim, a local artist who wants to get into more computer graphics.  He had done a couple of book covers.  I decided to give him a try and connected with him.  At first, I started to think I was dealing with a young man, perhaps a college student, or worse yet, a high school kid.  He assured me he wasn't and told me his age was "39" and yes, he quoted the age.  I think he might know Jack Benny.

Anyway, he has worked with me and we are very close to finalizing the cover. I think it looks professional now that I'm seeing more of the final product.  The mockups seemed very amateurish.

What do you think?  My story takes place in 1961 and is about a young Amish boy who wants to attend high school. He meets the newly hired black chorus teacher in a rural all-white NW Ohio school.  The story is about him learning to sing and also deals with Civil Rights, Vietnam, death and bigotry as the two of them, outcasts in the school, move through two high school years.

This is the cover he has offered.  I know I want a tweak since I don't care for those little things between the book title and my name. I just don't know what I do want. lol.

And this is the full book cover... He says the open space on the left could be used for the back of the book blurbage.  I hope there is enough room. lol.  I like the 'whole' image thing.

I'm also considering a title change from "An Amish Voice" to "The Amish Voice" which seems stronger.

Please weigh in with your thoughts, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Resolution Update: This will be book 1 of the 3 I hope to release this year.  We won't discuss the weight since it is a battle.  At least I haven't gained weight.

Until next I ramble on...