Wattpad brings you a guest post from Rebecca Sky, author of The Love Curse, an adventure romance!
Hi Wattpaders, Rebecca Sky here and boy do I have a special treat for you! I often get asked, “Do you make your own book covers?” In simple the answer is, yes. Today I’m going to explain how I do and the special treat is …wait for it… professional graphic artist and novelist Ken Stacey is going to help me!
The first thing you should do when making a cover is find covers that you like. I force my friends to wander bookstores with me and point out covers that catch their eye—I know, I know, I’m bossy! ;) When I have an idea of what style of book cover I want to do, (eg. clean and simple, bold graphic prints, colorful, dark and moody) I look online for pictures to use that fit the style, my personality and my story.
I use royalty-free stock images. The reason I pick royalty-free sites to choose my pictures from, is that once you’ve edited the photo it belongs to you. Not the photographer or the model, you. This is handy if you ever want to sell your book, because no photographers will be coming after you asking you to take down their picture or pay them for it. My favorite site for this is www.sxc.hu. Make sure to read the fine print on the photo; each one has different restrictions. Sometimes I also buy a picture, this is the less cost effective way. The sites I use are shutterstock.com and istockphoto.com. Of the two, Shutterstock is the cheapest.
“That’s nice and all, Rebecca, but how do you edit those images?” you ask.
Well, thank you for asking. For the covers you see on my Wattpad profile I use an online photo-editing program called Pic Monkey. There are many different sites out there but I think Pic Monkey is the most user-friendly. Just upload your picture and play around with their tools. My favorite one is the cloning tool. It duplicates anything you click and moves it to another place. This is great for things like adding flames, erasing things or making someone’s hair longer. They even have tools to help you change eye color or whiten teeth. One of the tools I use most is the sticker overlay option. They have some really cool shapes and images, like roses and buttons, and you can also upload your own pictures to add to the cover you’re editing (when doing this make sure you play around with the blend modes).
“Ok, we’ve listened to you, now we want to hear what Ken has to say.”
I’m glad you said that because I’m dying to hear what he has to say about book covers and illustrations too. My Wattpad fans compiled some awesome questions for him. Here they are.
Interview with professional graphic artist and novelist Ken Stacey:
Tell us about yourself and what you do- I’m a comic book author/illustrator whose pet obsession is aviation! B^) I decided at age eleven to become a professional comic book writer/artist, a dream that was realized in 1974. Since then, I’ve worked in the industry as author, artist, art director, editor, and publisher, chronicling the exploits of Spider-Man, Harry Potter, and the Star Wars gang, to name but a few. In addition to creating my own intellectual property, I’ve also collaborated with other writers, including Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, and Douglas Coupland. I’m the recipient of an Eisner and an Inkpot award, and was inducted into the Joe Shuster Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, a lifetime achievement award honoring Canadian comic book creators for their contributions to the industry.
How long have you been drawing? Since I could hold a pencil - or other drawing implement!
How did you take it from hobby to profession? I’d never characterize what I do as a hobby - it was always a passion, and making the transition to pro, which happened in 1974, seemed inevitable!
Have you ever made book covers? Yes indeed!
What advice would you give to someone making their own book covers? Ensure that the design, typography, illustration and/or photo is intriguing enough to get the audience to pick it up!
What program do you use to edit pictures online? Photoshop, of course!
How do you get pictures for online? Take ‘em with my digital camera!
What was it like working with J.K.Rowling and can we see some of the work you did for the Harry Potter Series? I never had any direct contact with Jo, but believe she had approval of the gaming cards I produced!
Finally how do we find your books? Online in the secondary market, as they’re all out of print! http://kensteacy.blogspot.ca/
Well there you have it folks. People say don’t judge a book by the cover, but we almost all do. Now you have some tools to make awesome stand out covers to attract readers to your books! If you have any questions I’d love to help you out, just stop by my wattpad profile.
Love others and keep well read,
Rebecca