Book Covers - Part 1

The well-known English idiom says, "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover" or also known as, "You can't judge a book by its cover."

As an author, seeing your cover for the first time before it goes to print and holding the book in your hand is indescribable.

I selected an former co-worker Dan Swoboda and asked him to be involved with my cover design Left Standing. I chose him after seeing some CD covers he has made along with having seen other designs.

When I began the process, I had found this sketch of this man standing alone with two people behind him. I had imagined those other two people walking away and so he would been left standing. I sent this image to Dan.

I liked the idea of a man - standing alone, with hands in his pockets, looking down, a shadow and someone walking away. After a few early versions, he created the 'official cover'.

---
For my second book, Left Unsaid - I have been compiling bits from various images I've see and noted what I liked about each one.

Whether or not two people with their mouths closed will be the final cover, I don't know. I don't even know if these concepts would be used if a publisher is involved, but at least I have an idea of what I'm looking for and it might just point someone in the right direction.

Most authors don't get to design their own covers, when I self-published Left Standing I got to, so hopefully with Left Unsaid I'll have some say in it as well.

Writers/Readers:
Readers: What attracts you about a book cover?
Writers: What positive/negative experiences/stories have you had about your book cover?

Links:
bookcoverarchive.com
bookcreatives.com

Writers Bookstore:
Book Cover Design