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Please Help! I need suggestions for my new cover!

Hi all:

As you will remember (maybe) a few weeks ago I published a sample of my new novella that I hope to publish in the next few weeks, Family, lust and cameras. It is now nearly ready (I must re-read it, add some links and make sure everything is OK), and I’m looking for a cover.

To be precise, as I was going for a walk in Barcelona, I came across a building (a hotel) in Carrer Comtal, that I found very intriguing and suggestive and took a few pictures. The computer I was travelling with didn’t have much in the way of programs for manipulating images, but I managed to turn it into a black and white picture. And here it is:

Possible cover for 'Family, lust and cameras'
Possible cover for ‘Family, lust and cameras’

I shared the picture with a fellow author, blogger and good friend, Teagan Geneviene (thanks Teagan), and she suggested I could add colour to a pair of the eyes/cameras or even superimpose a real eye onto one of them. As I said I didn’t have much to play with there but I have recently downloaded Photoshop to my computer, although I haven’t had time to try and use. It seems and excellent suggestion, although I guess it would be a matter or trying and seeing (I’ll try and find time to play with Photoshop and see) although I also quite like it as it is.

I was wondering if you would have any ideas or suggestions about the color of the font for the title and my name, position, and type of font. I haven’ t done much research and would be grateful for suggestion.

I leave you a link to the previous post so you can get some idea about the story. In short is pretty dark, about obsession, voyeurism and revenge.

https://olganm.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/work-in-progress-family-lust-and-cameras-what-if-rear-window-took-place-inside-your-own-house/

Thanks for reading, and you know the usual, if you’ve enjoyed it or found it intriguing, like, share and leave suggestion! 

By olganm

I am a language teacher, writer, bookworm, and collaborator at Sants 3 Ràdio (a local radio station in Barcelona, where I returned in 2018), who lived in the UK for 25 years and worked for many years as a forensic psychiatrist there. I also have a Ph.D. in American Literature and an MSc in Criminology. I started publishing my stories, in English and Spanish, in 2012 and now have over twenty books available in a variety of genres, a blog (in English and Spanish), and translate books for other authors (English-Spanish and vice versa). In 2020 obtained the CELTA certificate as a language teacher, and offer Spanish and English classes. Writers and readers both in English and Spanish are my friends, colleagues, and allies, and after living in the UK for over twenty-five years, have returned home, to Barcelona, Spain, searching for inspiration for my stories. I also love owls and try to keep fit following fitness YouTube videos.
Do feel free to connect with me. Here are:
My website/blog:
http://OlgaNM.wordpress.com

20 replies on “Please Help! I need suggestions for my new cover!”

Thanks Teagan. I still think your suggestions are very good. I must confess to have asked a friend who is an interior designer and has been doing other design things (logos, etc, Hi Lourdes!) to have a look as she told me she works often with Photoshop. But I might try to see what I can manage to come up with this weekend. So if I don’t appear next week I might have been eaten by Photoshop!

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I really like your photo. Do you have photoshop? If you do then you can play about with fonts maybe starting with Gothic? Personally I’d stick to black and white for the fonts, I wouldn’t use any colour. That’s my pennies worth, I hope it helps! 😀

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Thanks Lottie. I do have Photoshop, although other than checking it seemed to work when I installed it I haven’t had a chance to look at it. I’m pleased to have two suggestions for fonts. I sometimes see fonts I really like but never think of asking. And I read an article about copyright for fonts and got quite confused. I’ll keep you posted!

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What a stunning-and strange- picture Olga. I certainly agree with Teagan that adding colour to a pair of the eyes could work very well except that I might go for three pairs spread out to see how that looks, maybe one pair could be the ones reflected in the window to make it look as through they’re peering out.
As for fonts, maybe this little article will help with that for you though there are plenty of articles about this subject. http://www.coverdesignstudio.com/typeface-font-book-covers/
I’m so looking forward to seeing the finished product.
xxx Massive Hugs as always xxx

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Thanks David. Good ideas! I’ll have a look at the article as it’s something I’m interested in but have never done much research about (I only think about it at this moment in the process).
Yes, it’s a very striking building. I had been talking to my mother about looking for ideas for a book cover and I couldn’t believe it when we came across that one, although it’s a street I love, but I don’t think I’d seen what they’d done with that building.

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HI Olga, I wondered if using a basic font in black and had the title diagonal in between the camera thingies starting at top so each letter avoids erasing a camera thingy. There seems to be clear trails running in angles downwards between the camera thingies?

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Thanks Simon. Good suggestion. I have another two pictures of the building (one with much more detail and cameras on it, the other one centred on a window) so might go back and check what you mention, although I think you’re right. I liked the contrast of light on this one. I’m going to have a go and check what I can do although thankfully I have a friend also giving me a hand with it, so hopefully it won’t end up in a disaster.

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La fotografía es muy original e inquietante. Pienso que lo de los ojos puede quedar bien o incluso alguna mirilla .
Muchísima suerte y todo lo mejor para esta nueva creación tuya. Enhorabuena Olga y muchísimas felicidades!

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Thanks. I’m hoping to have a go this weekend although I’ve had a few suggestions and even offers of help that make me feel quite reassured. I’m completely new to Photoshop so…wish me luck!

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I’m not too sure but I quite like the effect of the black and white. Maybe you could play with colour with the fonts instead to make the name of the novel, etc stand out. Or else you could have colour in just the windows? Just my random thoughts, hope they help.

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Thanks so much. It’s been published now. In the post of today you can see the final cover (so far!). Thanks for the suggestions. Might use them in the future.

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