Something Lighter

It's true I've been in a funk this week, and my failure as an author is hardly the main driver of that. But everyone's got their problems. On the plus side, life's general annoyances have kept me from focusing on what to do with my back catalog. I'm almost sure I want to do something with it, but I'm also almost sure that now isn't the time to place a lot of effort into shaping up my old novels, just so I can create paperbacks for my personal book shelf.

Getting older changes one's outlook in innumerable ways. Where once I would have been energized by creating my two-book anthology, all it did in reality was exhaust me. So many issues arose that I began to question my sanity for even attempting it. To that point, the two paperback proofs I ordered are still sitting in the box they came in, unopened; stuffed inside my closet, actually. I know there'll be something wrong with them, something I don't want to deal with, nor know how to. 

Anyway...the furthest I've gotten in my "thinking about doing something" is to mess around with new book cover possibilities. That is a low stress diversion, and it's sort of fun. I really do love design--I eagerly open every one of Miblart's subscriber emails to view the covers they tout--but that's not to say I'm good at design. I love chocolate ice cream, too, but I have no clue how to make it. Still, design is fun to play around with.

Pixabay is a treasure trove of image possibilities. I prefer Pixabay to Pexels, not only because of its user friendliness, but because the quality of its images is higher. (Both are now owned by Canva, by the way.) The only problem I encounter with Pixabay's search is an inability to narrow it down or exclude images I don't want to view. This is really due to how the photographers tag their images, though; and it's impossible to add every single relevant tag to a photo. In other words, luck and guesswork play big roles in finding the perfect image.

My two novels that still remain in ebook format only are Once in a Blue Moon and What We Conceal. Thus, those have been my focus. I messed around with creating covers for them this week, and this is what I have so far:

  

I'm happier with the second than the first, although both have issues. With Once in a Blue Moon, who could even tell what the title is? "Once in a Blue..." something. The title is too hard to read. Canva wouldn't let me bold the text, so it fades into the moon. I also tried changing the text color, but that killed the overall vibe. (Also, the author name isn't centered, but that's an easy fix.) 

I really love the image and don't want to change it, so I'll need to do something. I just don't know what. I'm thinking I can possibly find a different book cover template that would allow me to highlight the title text, but I do like the text style. It's airy and it helps convey that "magical" theme.  

I'd also like the image of the woman to appear in sharper contrast to her surroundings. I've manipulated the image a few times, and only managed to make it worse each time. I tried finding the original image on Pixabay again, so I could edit it from scratch, but no. Even with the same search term, "moon magic", nope, wasn't there. How the heck does that happen?

Like an old hag used to say in response to people posting their queries on Absolute Write, "I'm afraid this is a scrap and do-over."

What We Conceal's image is great. It's bold; it stands out. The only change, really, would be to enlarge the title text. I'm pretty confident I can enlarge it and still make it fit in the frame.

It's ironic that I fell in love with the first image the second I saw it, but now I really prefer the second.

Bear in mind that these are just first drafts. But they're a start. No, these aren't genre-conforming, but who cares? Not me. It's not as if anyone's going to be interested in the books anyway. And the paperbacks will be for my shelf; therefore, I want something that appeals to me.

Once I settle on my final designs, I'll post them on the blog. In the meantime, keep those comments coming! 😉 

 

Postscript:

I did some minor tweaks. Better?