SO YOU WANNA CREATE YOUR OWN BOOK COVER?…
Hmm… I wanted to. And I did. And I’m now having second thoughts about what I did. Let me provide the final chapter to the “3 ACES Cover Story” as presented in my August 3rd, 2008 blog…
Now that the book has been read by a good number of folks, gone through the hands of more than a few critics, contest judges, etc., the feedback cometh in strong (whether I welcome it, or not). THE most negative feedback has been centered around my vaunted 3 ACES front cover, which I conceived all by my lonesome and had executed by two local artists, with the desert background brushed in by my book designer. The story inside (by those brave enough to ignore the front cover) has been well received, and granted a Book Of The Year award in November, 2008, by THE INFINITE WRITER ezine,
Unfortunately, my front cover does NOT tell the book purchaser what type of story lies beneath its surface - and, as far as I am concerned, that’s a disaster. Worse, it leads some to think it’s a Harlequin Romance; others tell me it’s a book about gambling; still more tell me they really haven’t a clue what the hell the book is about. If that isn’t a publishing disaster, what is?
Take a quick look at the cover - off in the right margin on my blog page - and what do you see? A man, a woman, a dog, a truck, and three playing cards - all superimposed on a desert background. Any good professional cover artist (none of which were ever consulted by yours truly) could tell you in a flash what went wrong. What went wrong is that my front cover does NOT tell you that inside lies a deeply felt RELATIONSHIP STORY…not a slick romance, not some dumb trucking or gambling story, nor a maudlin story about an injured dog.
I had been warned about the problem of creating suitable human faces for the two main characters, Dawn and Abner. The dog was easy. But we slaved over the creation of those human faces; yet no one feels that either face does the story justice. Please note: most first rate book covers lack faces!
Why did I populate the cover with so many confusing elements? The answer is that I mistakenly selected ELEMENTS from my story that I thought were keys to explaining the story. Mingling these disparate elements over the front cover only serve to muddy the issue. I would have been better off with a socko, single title superimposed on a blank, one-color page.
That brings up the next giant fault: the book’s TITLE. Documented in my original cover story is the fact that I let the artists name the book, albeit quite by accident. I abandoned my working title of DAWN & ABNER because “3 ACES” seemed both pertinent and snappier. Snappy it might be, but - once again - it throws the buyer into thoughts about gambling. True, gambling is a third element in the story, but it’s not THE story. If you want to better understand the story, flip the book over on my AMAZON page (3 ACES by Richard Ide) and read the back cover. Now that works. I redesigned it after attending an Infinity Publishing conference, where a number of savvy people corrected my mistakes. It was too late to monkey with the front cover. (I’d used it in too many promotions and featured it on my website.) I never did come up with a superlative title for the book.
What am I to conclude from all this? Firstly, hire a highly recommended professional cover artist to design your cover, even if it costs you an arm and a leg. Secondly, agonize over finding the right title for your book - one that conveys the story, one that is simple and perhaps catchy.
Nonetheless, my 3 ACES cover endures - probably for all time. It’s like a bastard child…you hate to admit of its creation; but all the same, it holds a place in your heart you can’t deny.
Oh! - about that “superlative title.” It’s still waiting to be discovered. Too late to use it now, but just out of curiosity - if you have it, let me know.
