We aren't finished yet. At any time could scrap the whole thing and start over.
The differences in this one from yesterday (scroll down to the previous post) is the front cover and spine font. Plus the gentleman on the left has been lightend to mirror the man on the right, thus leaving the Doc in the center, darkest.
On this one, I took the background and played with it. The original file was rather small, so there is only a certain amount of enlarging before it gets grainy (pixelated). I totally forgot to deal with the distracting fence post, but that is easily fixed. I lost contrast on the synopsis text and no, can't do the text in more than one color. I removed the boxes from behind the guys. Actually, I simply moved those layers below the background so they are out of sight. The background is full, no translusing. Yes, I think I did make up that word.I could make each word in the title a single layer and change font sizes with the articles a smaller size. Might do later. No time tonight.
The font is Bernard MT Condensed in case you want to goggle it. Hmmm, let me see if I can make a screen shot of that enlarged for you. BRB
(The red line running through the middle is the spine area, so this isn't what it would look like at all.)
Okay - now that I've looked at it 'big,' I'm not loving it.
Right, well comment and let's see where we go from here.
When Paul Fenton stops for breakfast in a small town, he gets more than he bargained for in the process.
When two-hundred-year-old human remains are discovered on one of Neptune's moons, Earth's history falls into question.
Emily's husband persuades her to try thalidomide to ease her symptoms as she is unaware of the devastating effects.
Who is the women's shelter bomber? Melissa Ryan suspects that her husband knows.
Further developments with the Wilder family.
A hidden past shakes the O'Donovan family to its core
A swirl of emotion and choice, set in Cape Town, South Africa
Love is a constant, but it comes at a price.
When the road ahead is unclear, sometimes you have to rely on trust.
The struggle between good and evil is ages old. It gets all the more complicated when the good guys aren't all good and the bad guys have redeeming qualities.
Story of a land mothering two races of people – the light-skinned and the dark-skinned.
A gifted Ukrainian ballerina comes into possession of a mysteriously coded address book.
Six passengers' lives change for better or worse after they arrive in Honiton.
Resilience and love in a harsh and unforgiving age
Kathryn's Beach
High Tide
Storm Surge
Glyn just posted emailed comments on yesterday's post. Check them out.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit the red doesn't work for me either. I had to look up those words too (in answer to the comment just in on yesterday's post).
ReplyDeleteThe placement isn't correct on the last one, and I didn't really mean it to be a cover sample, but there it is (in general) with no people on the background.
Glyn emailed that one of you wants to mock a cover for him. No problem with that as long as I get a file I can use in my software. The spine hasn't been calculated to the actual interior length, so there is that little pesky detail. I agree that some of the words in the title would be off putting.
ReplyDeleteWill have to go to bed soon, it is after MN here and that day job thing I do means I do have to sleep. So comment away.
Just so you know why I want to use my software, I don't purchase the bar codes, only the ISBN. My software generates the bar codes.
ReplyDeleteSo is there a lot more to this than most of you thought?
I'm confused on which is the 'before' and which is the 'after.' Not sure this cover would draw me in and make me pick up the book, but I know it's a work in progress. ~Joyce~
ReplyDeleteForgot to also mention that I think the font is too condensed and hard to read, especially on the spine. And since the spine is sometimes all you see on a shelf... well... It's just barely a sliver of whitespace in the O, the H the U. I have 729 fonts on my computer which makes it really hard to choose! ~Joyce~
ReplyDeleteOkay, Joyce... how did you get the number of fonts? I want to see how many I have, though I'm sure you have more. Maybe I should come over to your house and we can pick one. I do get lost looking at all the cool fonts on the font sites. I like to read the comments about them from the developers.
ReplyDeleteHow to know which cover is which? Well, start at the top from yesterday, then go to the top of today.
You're right about the spine. With such a long title, I do have to use a condensed font. That might not be the exact width of the spine, I won't know for sure until the interior is formatted. Then I can properly calculate the spine.
Thanks for the comments.
Not as many comments today. Has everyone gotten bored or simply emailing Glyn direct?
ReplyDeleteHow about going sepia? NO boxes of any colour, please.
ReplyDeleteIf you have the background and photographs in sepia, you can play with the colour of the font(s) you may want to use. The grey and black makes it all too harsh IMHP.
The bio? Shame on you, Glyn Pope!I think Sue G.'s suggestions are great ... and that's what nitpicking is all about.
All in all, a promising cover and one I would go for in a bookshop.
Yeah, the boxes were a bad idea. Sepia, I have no idea why, but I bolt when I see it. There are more covers on the next post, please look.
ReplyDeleteI love nitpicking. Too many people think they can do their own book and upload it to one of the online services and call it good. Most of the time - it isn't anything near good.
I don't know how many rewrites Glyn has had to do in the last 9 months. Then on the interior, I will go through many times making adjustments, even removing the extra space at the end of paragraphs that some people put in. Attention to details is a good thing.
It's a process. There will be a new and better cover up in a day or two. Please keep coming back.
Nadine, open up Computer (C drive) then Windows, then Fonts and in the lower left-hand corner it should show you how many items are in that folder. Mine's actually 730 now. Also there's a free program you might like called FREE AND EASY FONT VIEWER - helps with choosing a "look." http://www.styopkin.com/details_free_and_easy_fonts_viewer.html
ReplyDelete~Joyce~
Like the last version of the cover but I am wondering about the title - is it perhaps a little bit of a mouthfull? I know that Glyn can be a little 'wordy' but the tile does remind me a little of TW3 (That Was The Week That Was) - you need to be English and of a certain age to know what TW3 was but it's worth Googling!
ReplyDeleteThe hairy man - NLA
That of course should be 'title' not tile
ReplyDeleteYes the title is a mouthful. You should have seen some we rejected. They seem so benign - and boring. The funny thing is, this title will grow on you - or at least it did for me.
ReplyDeleteKeep the comments coming, I am reading them. I had a post, but didn't get it up because I had to mow the lawn. It was 109F outside (how does grass grow when it is that hot???) and I was exhausted when finished (worthless).
I like the lighter shade of background and no boxes. The title is a long one, and I am wondering if it will get lost on the spine. I can't wait to see how you fit it all in, Nadine.
ReplyDeleteThis CD for $20 has a nice selection of vintage fonts. I came across it a while back and bookmarked it for future use.
http://www.cthulhulives.org/toybox/PROPDOCS/PropFonts.html
This is a freebies link http://www.fontspace.com/category/typewriter
Thanks again Glyn for sharing the birth of your cover. :)