What's Your Type?

I've already covered the fonts I use for writing the actual story text, but those aren't the only fonts a writer needs to choose.

Today I'm more concerned with cover design and the fonts used therein. Readability is, as always, a factor, but much less of one than for the actual text of the book. Covers need to be eye-catching, and title/author font is a big part of that; I know I've picked up a book or two based on how interesting the font was.

Unfortunately, I've never been any good at writing/designing letters, and it doesn't look like I'll be getting into a typography class any time soon, so I'm restrained to using others'.

As of today, I've kept tabs on the following fonts for the following stories:

Dead Font Walking for Along the Winding Road

Aquifer for Short Tales of the Human Body, a compilation of short stories based on and explaining certain aspects of human biology (whether or not it will be written is still udner debate)

Xenogears for Macbay Transportation Services (possibly a dash of Gear Crank for, say, the author name if it would fit in)

bu Penfield Deco for Victims of the Bridge

 What do you think? Are these fonts eye-catching enough? What kinds of fonts do you like, either to look at or use in your own stories?

Further Attempts to Be Artistic

Although Mayflies has drifted quite a bit from its original conception—most notably in the setting, which is now ancient Mayan—I thought I'd post my attempt at its cover here. I actually requested a fellow NaNoWriMo participant to make one for me. She stopped after three, and I decided to combine my favourite elements from each, although I don't think I did terribly well.

My name goes in the orange area's lower right sort-of corner in the same font/colour as the title but in a much smaller size.

This uses the background from the second cover, the font from the third cover, and my own (shabby) version of the whatever-it-is in orange from the first cover. Basically, I really, really like the background from the second cover, but the original felt too "soft" without the orange/red. The third cover is my favourite overall; I just like the feather background here better than the birds on that one (thematically; artistically, they're both great).

So, tell me what you like, and I'll figure out what elements work. Sound like a deal?

They Say Three is a Magic Number

I've posted my first and second attempts at a cover for The Long and Winding Road; now here's my third (drawing heavily from the second, of course).

I changed the background to another photo by the same artist, but I had to add my own fog with different gradient styles, so I'm a bit unsure about that. It's much easier to see the title with this, although most attempts to place my name interfere with the most winding part of the road. I'd kind of like to figure out a way to put my name in two lines on, say, the bottom right side, but I don't know what I would use to balance it out. Currently, my best idea is wedging it between the arms over the straight section of the road.

I tried to go ahead and tone down the flesh colours a bit, but it really didn't look good. This photo does have more colour to it, though, so hopefully the contrast is less overwhelming. If not, I may just have to redo all of the colouring on the arms, which would not be particularly fun.

I fixed Charlotte's index fingernail and smoothed out some of the outline bumps. I think I might need to blur the texture on Arthur's (the front) hand a bit, since it stands out a lot more than that on Charlotte's.

I'm also considering changing the title again. I unfortunately fell in love with As We Wind on Down the Road, but since those are lyrics from a song instead of the title, I would have to deal with copyright, and I don't foresee much success in that endeavour. It's a shame, since I think Arthur could easily be a big Led Zeppelin fan. I may go with the earlier-suggested Along the Winding Road, although I'm not sure how I should divide that into lines for the cover. It all depends on whether any songs actually play a role in the story.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Cover Me

Some of you may have viewed my first attempt at making a cover for The Long and Winding Road. For those interested, here is my second.

I'm not entirely sure if it will be usable in publishing, since the background is from a wonderful stock photo artist on dA. While I had been envisioning a much more, er, winding road, this picture really has a good feel to it, and I wanted something symmetrical with the hand design in front. I'll still try to find somewhere to take my own picture, but I doubt I'll be able to do as well.

The hands are mine, although I did start by tracing a how-to guide on them. Charlotte's nails are my own addition, which explains why they need more adjusting. I tried to add a little texture, though I'm not sure how well it really turned out. The main difficulty was the outlines. I did my shabby tracing, then the colouring, then the same-color outlines, all in an attempt to make it less cartoony. It's still far from realistic, but I like the effect. Of course, I'll have to redo it if I decide Arthur is white after all (he's currently Chinese with a little bit of Korean and Caucasian). We'll see.

I might make the title bigger, although I like the effect (Hooray for SumoPaint layers!). It goes well with this background, at least. I was originally going to do black letters with a white glow, but then I stumbled upon this effect. The lettering worked well enough for me to stop font-surfing at the "B"s, but if anyone has an idea that might look better for a post-apocalyptic romance, let me know.

I'm planning to have my name centred, same font and effect but smaller than the title, about where the fog comes in on the road. I really don't mind the cover without it, but that probably wouldn't help get my name out there.

Then again, eBook covers really aren't seen as much as "real" book covers. I have to look at a solid book cover every time I go for the book, but 'tis not so in digital publishing (at least, not for the Nook). I just need to snag some attention and hope the writing is worth looking back at the description for my name.

So, better than my last cover? Worse? About the same considering the different styles? Any other photos of the same style you know I could use?

Making Covers

So, I fancy myself to be of some quality of an artist, but making covers is difficult. Maybe "designing" would be a better word, actually. I still have no idea what to do for Mayflies or Macbay Transportation Services, and while I have a vision for Crumbling it's going to be difficult to draw in a non-anime style.

The Long and Winding Road, though, provided a relatively simple design for me, so I went ahead and tried to make it. So, ta-da.

I also have an alternate version for the original fiction. Same font, though it's all one line at the top, and my name is in white, a bit smaller, beneath it and aligned to the right. The main image is still the same.

So, what do you think? There's a heart since it's romance, and blood since it's still zombie apocalypse. And, of course, a winding road. I'm only partially satisfied with each element, though I think the title font worked out fine, haha.

So, does it make sense to you? Should I redesign it? Give up forever? Abandon my writing dreams for cover designing? Opinions appreciated.