Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Before and After: The Vanished Knight Cover

Hey everyone! Since a lot of you guys were really interested in seeing more of these before and after posts, I thought I'd do a few more of them.

Today, I thought I'd share what went into one of my covers.

Before: 

At the time (and depressingly, much like now), I didn't have a ton of money to spend on publishing, so I decided to see if I could publish a without spending money. The answer was that I could publish two ebook without spending a dime. 

How? Well... Photoshop has a month-long free trial and Flickr makes it possible for me to find images with a creative commons license. 

The image I picked was Albion_Sovereign_Medieval_Sword_11 by Søren Niedziella. The license has a CC BY 2.0 license attached, which means that it's free to adapt and to put to commercial use, as long as I give proper credit and don't imply that the licensor endorses my work in any way. (New kids in the image copyright game: This paragraph can be very important if you want to make a cover from a free image.) 



After: 

This was literally the first time I tried to make a cover, so I kept the image manipulation to things I knew: changing exposure, the composure of an image and cropping. 

By composure, I mean, placing the image so that the viewer's eye gets drawn in. First was the placement of the sword itself and next came the titles. 

I also had the added issue of the maker's mark on the blade. Little things like that can really make a viewer's eye go to the wrong place. Luckily, though, the best placement of the blade was in a way that happened to put the mark out of the frame. 

The result? 




Pretty good, don't you think? Oh, but that's nothing compared to the new cover I'm about to put on the books. 

Yep. I already have the e-book covers done. Only need to do the paper-back covers before I update both The Vanished Knight and The Heir's Choice. 

Who knows, maybe one day, the books with the old covers on them will be collectors' items. ;-) 

If you'd like to check out The Vanished Knight, you can find it at the following e-tailers: 


The paperback is also available at places like Walmart's e-store, Book Depository etc. 


And there you have it? Let me know your thoughts. Also, would you guys like a crash-course on image copyrights as learnt by me? Looking forward to more before and after posts? 



15 comments:

  1. The cover definitely looks great, it's amazing how much sharper and clearer the image is compared to the original. Yep, copyright can be a thorny issue, so any help would be appreciated. Look forward to seeing the new covers!

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  2. That's pretty darn good. It's awesome you were able to do it without spending money too! Congrats.

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  3. New covers? I can't wait! Shout at me when you're there. I'll help spread the news.

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  4. Wow, it looks great! Definitely clearer and very clean looking. Can't wait to see the new ones too!

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  5. Looks fabulous! I do love seeing the before and after posts.

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  6. I think it looks nice! It's both pretty and professional looking.

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  7. Great job on the old cover. Can't wait to see the new one.

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  8. Love the old cover. But I can't wait to see the new one!

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  9. That's a great cover. I'm impressed by your knowledge. I know nothing about such things.

    Love,
    Janie

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  10. You did a great job! I don't think I would have fared as well on my own:)

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  11. You have a great artistic eye. I love that cover. It's simple, yet powerful. I can't wait to see the new one.

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  12. I always thought your covers were pretty cool anyway, but can't wait to see the new ones!

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  13. You know, I never imagined that your covers weren't professionally done. :-)

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