Making a Cover

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Creating an E-book Cover

Stages in the making of a cover

1 original image	2 centre panel texturized	3 centre section moved to create a space	4 space filled with colour	5 untexturized section is now "puzzled"

6 a font with a Japanese effect is used to make the author name and then doubled to make it thicker. Looks good.	7 OOps, the same font is used to try to make the title - but there is a problem rotating it.	8 a second try gets the title set up. Type is set once in black and then a white copy is added to make it stand out more.		9 final cover image
			This use of the Japanese effect font was obviously not working for the title. We want a cover that is readable as a thumbnail. I went back to the image with just the author name, which I thought looked very good. A couple of tries with a narrower plain bold font in black and then cream, and voila, the final cover was there.

This process may look very primitive to those with Photoshop but I use a really old Photo House package from Corel which I am still learning how to get the most from after using it for some years. It is what I have used to make all our covers.

habu selected the cover image, and this was our discussion about it when it came time to make up the cover:-

Me: One reason the "Choke Hold" cover is not done I confess is that I have no inspiration. The pic is good, clear, and appropriate but does nothing for me I am afraid. Sigh. But I have no idea of an alternative either so I just have to get on with it.

habu: The photo is evocative of the book for me. An ambiguous pose. One guy could be choking the other (congruent with the book) or they could have been working into sex (the position of the hands of the bottom guy—almost a pleasurable hint—also congruent with the book).

Me: I agree the hands are evocatively held.

habu - later: As I already said, from the aspect of the hands, he could either being choked or having sex—which captures the book as well as any other image I found.

Sabb - cover designer

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