The Time Capsule

In my last post, I spoke about "The Second Layer" of designing a book cover, which is making sure you title stands out well.  Now we head to "The Third Layer". This one probably will seem obvious and it complements "The Second Layer" . It is your author name. It's important that your author name be positioned and sized correctly. There are a few approaches to this. For well known authors—for instance Stephen King or James Patterson—having the author name prominent and big on the cover is good. The reason is, their names are so popular that the author name sells the book more so than the book title sells it. As a self-published author you could use this thought process for your cover to give the impression that you are a popular author. Of course, your mileage will vary with this approach. The other option is to not allow the author name to dominate the content. So you would want it to be smaller than the title. You could even make it barely noticeable

In my last post , I discussed how I go about designing covers for my book. That post covered "The First Layer" , which is the main background cover image. So off to "The Second Layer"! What is it? That would be the book title. It's important to make the title stand out properly. Doing so is the difference between a book cover that looks professional and one that screams mediocrity. Remember, often the cover is the first impression of a book. If the cover is boring and drab, potential readers will assume your book is, too. I know, I know. "Don't judge a book by its cover." But, well, that's the first thing people often do, whether consciously or not. Pick a font that pops and don't just use the default settings for the font. Vary and alter it to the best of your ability to give it some life. A good way to do this is to research book covers in the genre you wrote. Pay attention to how the title is presented. For The Legend of Kyd Lumin , whic

I'm gonna take a step back from my typically scheduled posts (like The Legend of Kyd Lumin  wiki) and focus on a series of posts that outline the steps I use to design my books covers. You've written your book. You've proofread it. It's ready to go! You just need that one thing completed before you can upload it for publication. You need a book cover! There are many options to do this. You could hire someone to design it. You can use the generic cover designs offered on some self-publishing sites ( don't do this! ). Or you could design it yourself. Let's assume you want to design it yourself and that's why you're on this page. Because, if not, this entire series of posts are pointless. How do you go about designing a cover? I use a process of thinking of the book in layers. The first layer is the main cover image. This is something that captures the feel of your book. That will convey to the audience what it might be about. It could capture the emotion o

We're one week away from the release of Fram Gage and The Holographic Man in digital and print. But you don't have to wait until then to read the book. Why would you if you didn't have to? Right now, through a Smashwords Pre-Sale , you can pick up your digital copy ahead of the general public. And on top of that, you'll get 40% off the retail price by doing that. If you purchase a copy, don't forget to mark it on your  Goodreads profile and write an honest review of the book when you're done. And if you want, drop me a note about the book at dshepherd210 at hotmail dot com. (Enter the email address as a standard email. I just typed it out that way to prevent getting spam in my inbox.) Hope you take advantage of this offer and I hope you enjoy the book! Click here to buy Fram Gage and The Holographic Man now!