Book Cover Designs

By Becca

I'd love it if this post was about a cover for the story I've been writing…

 sadly I have a long way to go before it's at that stage.

I have been planning designs for one of Beth's short stories,
 and it has really captured my interest.

I can't share that specific cover just yet, but I thought it would be fun to share some techniques and layouts that I've discovered.

There are two main categories of covers

(Well, at least that's what we saw when we checked out our book shelf)

Photography based

and 

Illustration based

I suppose there is another category that old books can fall into,

Just a fancy design :)

Like this one I picked up the other day at an pawn shop

I love illustrations, but I can't draw that well… maybe with some more practice :)

 I can take pictures though, and I really enjoy editing and graphic design.

So here are three book covers I made with my photography, and the thoughts behind them.

The first one was for a story Beth has in progress.

I love this landscape, a wagon wheel trail through the prairie.

Just from this picture, can you get an idea about the setting of the story?

I put this photo in PicMonkey and spruced it up a little,

layering a few vintage filters, lightening it up, and adding some lovely fonts.

This is very simple, the picture doesn't distract from the title, but complements it.

With the aged effects and the western fonts, it steers the imagination into the story world behind the cover

Beth's story is historical fiction set in the pioneer days,

could you guess that from the cover and title?

The second one isn't for a real story, I was just having fun :)

Doesn't it look kind of creepy?

I tweaked the lighting, added a distressed wall texture in PicMonkey, and antiqued frame.

The title on the left balances out the feather pen,
and the Author's name is emphasized with a flourish.

It makes me think of a mystery story.

The last one is also just for kicks and giggles. 

We thought since we had one landscape and one still life, I should make one with a person.

So I made Beth stand outside with my umbrella :)

It was raining hard just ten minutes before, but it stopped when we went outside.

So I added some rain in PicMonkey :) 

I washed out all the colors with black and white, but left the yellow to shine

The font I wanted to use disappeared in the trees, so I used some cloud overlays to help it stand out.

 I think this one looks more modern then the first two, it could be YA fiction.

Some day I'd love to design covers that will be published,

But for now I should keep working on my story…