"Working" Covers Can Help You Write your Story #ChaBooChaLite #ChaBooCha

The above picture is of a working book cover I made for the novel I was writing a couple of years ago during Blog Your Book in 30 Days and Camp NaNoWriMo.  It is not the official cover for the book. The final book cover will probably look nothing like the above image. But it was fun to make and having an image to have in place for the book cover gave me a bit of a kick in the pants to keep writing.

During NaNoWriMo, members are encouraged to create a book cover to use as a thumbnail image for their project. I think it can be just as useful during ChaBooCha. Having a working cover is an inspirational tool to use. Your story is calling to you to write it and now it has ammunition in the form of an image to call to you with.

Another trick, if you don't want to make a simple image for your book cover, or you don't have the necessary skills to do so, is to look up images of people who look like the vision you have for your characters.

Below are some random images of men and women, found easily on royalty-free image sites such as Pixabay.com:

                                

Of course, for children's books, you will most likely find images of younger people such as children or teens.

 And here are some "working" images I made for some of my children's NaNoWriMo stories a couple of years (two of whom used the covers for their published books):

Just make sure that you don't spend so much time on this that you don't get your writing done. It can be a fun and inspirational tool to use during your writing, but, used incorrectly, it can also become another distraction that keeps you from writing.

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Give-away

I create book covers, sometimes with more success than other times, using photo-manipulation, with your photos and/or stock images. Whether or not I can create your vision depends on what your vision for your cover is. I'm offering to create a "working"cover for one prize winner. If you are signed up for ChaBooCha Lite, just comment on this blog post in order to be entered to win. Winner will be chosen by a random number generator on the 30th of this month.

Crafting appealing cover art - guest post by Julia Stilchen #ChaBooChaLite

Cover Design for "SuperHERo Tales" created by Julia Stilchen

Crafting Appealing Cover Art for your Chapter Book

The book cover designing process can be exciting and an easy process if you understand what to look for and plan out the concept.

Before you get started, it is best that you have done your research and have defined your target audience and age range. There are generally two types of chapter books: early readers (6-8 years) and older chapter books (7-9 years).

Chapter book covers are often depicted with a main character especially if it is a character driven series. 

Things you should consider for a concept:

• Think about what message you want to portray with the main character. The message needs to stay consistent with the main theme of the story.
• Does the typography of the title match with the theme? Is it legible? Script fonts are to be avoided in most situations because they can get lost or they just don’t have much readability as a clean and bold type would.
• Are you using elements that are also consistent with the theme?
• Choice of color palette - colorful, dark and mysterious, etc.
• The layout and composition. Do not depict characters standing idle in a stick position. Have them in the middle of an action. This is far more engaging and appears more natural. Keep in mind things like spacing and contrast, so that both the title and the cover art stand-out but do not conflict with the other.
• Genre/tone. If your book has a lot of humor, then showing the main character in a humorous moment is ideal and consistent to the tone of the book. Same goes with other genres.
• Visual metaphors that evoke an emotion or intrigue in the viewer.
• Think about the type of art style you want to use. If your book has comic book elements, the cover art style should have that also.

A book cover should be attention grabbing. Its goal is to generate interest. It is a marketing tool. You want kids to stop and beg their parents to buy your book, and the cover is the first thing the viewer will see. First impressions are important to gain interest and help increase sales.

With the amount of books published today, you want to put forth the best design possible. So a cut and paste design really doesn't stand up against its competitors especially if they are professionally designed.

Research and study other chapter book covers. What appeals to you most likely has appeal to kids too. Observe products that are sold in stores, packaged for children. Having a graphic design background, it helped me to understand the emotion behind a design. Does it evoke intrigue? Excitement? Humor? Adventure?

Design several concepts as rough drafts. Compare and choose one that contains the best potential while keeping the above elements in mind. But keep things simple. Do not overload the cover with unnecessary clutter, or else the typography and visual message you are portraying will get lost. The saying “Less is More” holds a lot of truth. Kids these days have shorter attention spans, so narrow the art down to focus the theme/message of the story without it being overwhelming to view it.

Have fun with it, and the more you practice, the more familiar the entire process becomes in designing appealing book covers!

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Julia Stilchen loves writing stories for all ages. She works from her bat cave, mischievously plotting mishaps for her characters as they embark on fantastical adventures in otherworldly places to confront dangerous and daunting villains! Muhahahah! When she is not plotting or daydreaming, she spends time with her husband and two children where they create adventures of their own. She created the book cover for "SupeHero Tales: A Collection of Female Superhero Stories" and also puts together wonderful book trailers. To learn more and see current developments, visit online at http://www.juliastilchen.com.

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Alas, there are no more prizes to offer this month, but I hope you will leave a comment anyway. 

Teapot Tales Volume 2 - It's time to vote on the cover!

If you submitted a story to the anthology, you get to vote on which of the possible covers you prefer. You may vote in the comment, stating which three you like in the order that you like them. Your first place choice will get three points, your second place choice will get two points and your third place choice will get one point. Please ignore any discrepancies in the titles or any watermark images as all of it will not be problems in the finished book covers. (Also, if you have a favourite but prefer a different font, feel free to suggest.)

Book Cover 1

Book Cover 2

Book Cover 3

Book Cover 4

Book Cover 5

Teapot Tales - Vote for our book cover! #ChaBooChaAnth

I am posting all of the submissions I received for the book cover for the fairy tale anthology. It's up to you all to vote on which one you like best. I will not include names with the submissions, so no one can claim "friend voting." (Not that any of you would actually do that!) Also, I am not voting unless we need a tie breaker.

We have until midnight GMT tomorrow night to vote. Vote by stating which one you want as the cover in the comments. Each one will be given a number and you vote for the number you like best. Please ignore any titles in the pieces up for voting as some of these were sent in before we had chosen a title, so people left it as "title" or put a sample title in. Whichever one you choose will have the correct title in the finished product.

#1:

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#2: 

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#3:

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#4:

 

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#5:  

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#6: (This one is a concept cover, not the finished piece.)

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#7:

So there you have it. You have seven covers to vote on and a limited amount of time to do the voting. So get voting! I can't wait to see what the final cover is going to be!

ChaBooCha Fairy Tale Anthology: time to choose a name and a cover #ChaBooChaAnth

photo credit: Fairy Magic Photos

We have an anthology that is slowly approaching it's production date. I'm shooting for a release date of August 1st, but that date is not yet a definite date.

We still have to choose a title for the anthology. We've had a couple of suggestions so far.

"Once" and "Once Upon a Challenge"

If you have other suggestions for titles, go ahead and suggest them in the comments and, sometime in the next few days, I will create a post listing all of the suggestions for your vote, either here or on Facebook.

Now, on to the cover: I know that we have some super creative members of the challenge, so I am going to leave it to a vote. I can probably convince my husband to create a cover to submit, and a few ChaBooCha members have discussed creating covers to submit. We will have the next three weeks to try and create the perfect anthology covers, the kind of covers that will appeal to people of all ages. E-mail me your covers at Rebecca (at) Fyfe (dot) net and I will create a post here and on Facebook for a vote on the best one.Voting will start on June 27th.

Some ChaBooCha members have submitted line drawings to include inside the anthology, and I am happy to include more. Make sure you sign your drawings, and there will be a page listing contributing artists within the anthology too. Cover artist will be credited separately.

The cover can be an idea that is just generic to fairy tales in general or magic, or it can relate to one or more of the stories that will be included in the anthology. Because, of this, I thought I'd list the topics of the stories which will be in the anthology (in no particular order).

Variations on the classics:
Rumplestiltskin
Little Red Riding Hood
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Frog Prince/Princess
Rapunzel
Snow White
Puss in Boots
Tom Thumb

Semi-original and completely original fairytales:
a story about a raven girl
a story about cherry trees
a story about a tree and a girl
a story about a little boy and the stars
a story about a little girl and the fairies
a story about a dancing girl elf
a story about the seasons
a story about an ancient turtle and a young blue bird
a story about a girl who outsmarts an ogre
a story about a man becoming a dragon
a story about an adventurous princess who saves a prince
a story about a girl who doesn't fit in and must find her place
a story about an ice-hearted dark fairy queen and a girl who needs her help
a story set in Japan, with a powerful woman and two young lovers

There are more stories than this, but this should cover most of the topics. There are other elements within these stories too, such as pirates, magical scepters, homicidal roaches and some hungry chickens. So dazzle us all with your creative magic and lets see what covers we can come up with! (If you're not sure about what a good book ocver should look like, browse the web or look at books on Amazon. Which book covers appeal to you? Which don't?

Since we don't have a title chosen yet, just put the title, temporarily, as "BOOK TITLE" for now, or wait until after the title has been voted on and chosen.