One word: moustaches.
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January 1st Breakdown
5
Okay so Rakshasa did really well this Christmas period. Really well. Lacuna did slightly better, but holy poop-in-a-loop. Paranormal romance has some life left in it yet.
It's especially heartening because Lacuna got mostly negative reviews and its overall star rank fell, but Rakshasa got quite good reviews and held onto its ranking for much longer despite much less promotion, fewer freebies and being in a much more competitive genre.
So I've got one more piece of the five-part Season I to go. Super stoked for it, it's going to be epic. Loving it. Already got plans to take all five parts and publish them separately as a collection, which apparently is a pretty good way to go too for those with heaps of parts of a series. So there's that, too.
BUT THEN PANIC. The collection!
In the dim, dark past, back when people were savages and ate each other, I made the first cover to Rakshasa. It was bad. But with KB and Dalya's help, and the silent angel of Hugh Howey looking over my shoulder, I came up with pretty cool covers for the five parts. I've attached them below just for reference.
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But now I need to do one for the collection. Ideally this should be something pretty damn awesome, you know? Something better than these.
PROBLEMS:
- The stock art in the collection is basically used up and I can't find anything equal/better.
- It can't just be "another part" of the series, it should really be like... okay. This is the COLLECTION. The biggest, brightest and prettiest. It should basically be Dalya's farting rainbow in book cover form.
- The stupid that I suppressed ages ago, the desire to make the cover a shockingly simplistic one and forgo the MANDATORY COUPLE HUGGING part, is starting to come back. Help me kill it.
- Maybe I should ask Raymond Tan, the same guy who did the Lacuna novel covers, to do a cover for this one. But then it'd be all arty and drawn instead of being, you know, a stock thingie. Maybe. Is this bad? I don't know! How do I word?!
Help me KB, you're my only hope!
It's especially heartening because Lacuna got mostly negative reviews and its overall star rank fell, but Rakshasa got quite good reviews and held onto its ranking for much longer despite much less promotion, fewer freebies and being in a much more competitive genre.
So I've got one more piece of the five-part Season I to go. Super stoked for it, it's going to be epic. Loving it. Already got plans to take all five parts and publish them separately as a collection, which apparently is a pretty good way to go too for those with heaps of parts of a series. So there's that, too.
BUT THEN PANIC. The collection!
In the dim, dark past, back when people were savages and ate each other, I made the first cover to Rakshasa. It was bad. But with KB and Dalya's help, and the silent angel of Hugh Howey looking over my shoulder, I came up with pretty cool covers for the five parts. I've attached them below just for reference.
But now I need to do one for the collection. Ideally this should be something pretty damn awesome, you know? Something better than these.
PROBLEMS:
- The stock art in the collection is basically used up and I can't find anything equal/better.
- It can't just be "another part" of the series, it should really be like... okay. This is the COLLECTION. The biggest, brightest and prettiest. It should basically be Dalya's farting rainbow in book cover form.
- The stupid that I suppressed ages ago, the desire to make the cover a shockingly simplistic one and forgo the MANDATORY COUPLE HUGGING part, is starting to come back. Help me kill it.
- Maybe I should ask Raymond Tan, the same guy who did the Lacuna novel covers, to do a cover for this one. But then it'd be all arty and drawn instead of being, you know, a stock thingie. Maybe. Is this bad? I don't know! How do I word?!
Help me KB, you're my only hope!
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I totally still have a version of the first couple of covers with moustaches.Nathalie Hamidi said:One word: moustaches.
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And yeah Ernie/Joe, I tried playing around with the five-covers-in-one and didn't like it. It looked like poop in thumbnail and was pretty disorganized. :/
I was playing around and came up with this:
and actually liked it, except two major problems:
- No two people hugging (genre police will beat me to a bloody pulp).
- The tiger half was mistakenly marked as reusable, but I tracked down the original artist and it's not. And I can't find something suitable to replace it.
Do you have the template? I could try to make it work for you.David Adams said:
I like it. Agree, genre police might give you a ticket, but I think this is good.David Adams said:I totally still have a version of the first couple of covers with moustaches.
And yeah Ernie/Joe, I tried playing around with the five-covers-in-one and didn't like it. It looked like poop in thumbnail and was pretty disorganized. :/
I was playing around and came up with this:
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and actually liked it, except two major problems:
- No two people hugging (genre police will beat me to a bloody pulp).
- The tiger half was mistakenly marked as reusable, but I tracked down the original artist and it's not. And I can't find something suitable to replace it.
3
Okay that image is pretty cool. Saved.DDark said:Just find another stock image that works. Something sensually sexy
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-sexy-young-couple-kissing-image17812358
I could email you if you wanted, but I dunno. I just can't make it work at all. It looks really terrible, too bad to post, and that's saying something.Nathalie Hamidi said:Do you have the template? I could try to make it work for you.
I found a tiger picture with reuse. Something like this? (I haven't bought it yet so it's low res...)
Can't hurt to try! Send it to me and I'll see if I can come up with something.David Adams said:Okay that image is pretty cool. Saved.
I could email you if you wanted, but I dunno. I just can't make it work at all. It looks really terrible, too bad to post, and that's saying something.
I found a tiger picture with reuse. Something like this? (I haven't bought it yet so it's low res...)
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I don't like this tiger, though. Too hairy on the side, not enough on the face.
Use a picture with a similar pose, something like this:
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With the color and circle special effects and a bit of Photoshop touch up on the male from a good cover artist, you should get a cover with the same "feel." I hope this helps.
With the color and circle special effects and a bit of Photoshop touch up on the male from a good cover artist, you should get a cover with the same "feel." I hope this helps
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What about something like this...but with your half naked couple lying down instead of sitting up.
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How about the boxed set?
I've got all the files ready to be tampered with, David, if you want them.
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I've got all the files ready to be tampered with, David, if you want them.
Ooooh! Looks stunning!!!Nathalie Hamidi said:How about the boxed set?
I've got all the files ready to be tampered with, David, if you want them.
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