Can anyone help

[ALB2012]

OK I cannot draw, I cannot use computer drawing.

I need a cover for my book. I cant pay but I can give credit for the artwork in the book.

I know roughly what I want which is something along the lines of

Redhaired elf mage (will specify what she looks like later)

blond haired human man (storm mage)

darkness, light and storms

I want lightening I have a photo of light over a lake tinted blood red at the moment which I am using.

Can anyone help. Drop me a message if so

 

[Chime85]

I personally cannot draw for toffee, but have you considered a proffessional graphics designer? I don't have any in particular to recommend, but I'm sure there's a company out there who'll be happy to help you out.

 

[Steerpike]

If you can part with at least $5 for the cover, you might also check out fiverr.com.

 

[TWErvin2]

A cover is a very important tool in attracting readers. A bad cover (art/layout/design) will turn readers away in droves. There is just so much competition out there.

Although it somewhat depends on you goal(s), but scraping money together to get a quality cover created might be a good investment, and delaying publication (I am guessing you're self publishing) until you have the funds might be wise.

 

[ALB2012]

OK can people help me here. I like my cover, it is atmospheric, in my opinion anyway. However I have had mixed comments- (some quite nasty) about it. Saying it doesn't reflect the genre etc, blah blah. I want to shy away from scantily clad elves and warriors built like conan as that is well a bit cliche. I have had some people say they love the cover and I am not sure I should change it simply because a couple of people hate it. Please can people here tell me what they think. (Keep in mind adult dark fantasy romance).

Ta

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I can't draw for (well toffee will do!) either. But I do my own covers regardless, and I love the process. I'd suggest getting photo's from the morgue file, they are licensed for creatives to use freely, (by the way if you use faces then you have to be careful as someone might still get pee'd off) then some cutting and pasting of bits of images and a few photo editing programs like photoscape (it's free). It's amazing what you can achieve with a little time.

You can check out my covers at the bottom of my blog - Greg's Books

Some are lame, some are ace. And if you like any of the styles let me know and I'll tell you how I did them.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Darkphoenix747]

Gimp is also an awesome tool to use in creating your own covers. It is also free and YouTube has all the videos on how to use it. You can also download the manual and read it instead. I can't draw for (it seems toffee is the word of choice here), but with that program I was able to layer pictures over my (toffee) drawing. Then all it took was a little fiddle with the lighting and the cover looked great! I'd highly recommend it.

 

[ALB2012]

I have Gimp, you still need some artistic ability I might have a look at the other ideas though. I have a cover artist for book 2 and I may just leave book 1 as it is for now and the cover artist I have will do it for free. I do not want stock pictures, I will see what i can find, we did find a site where you can buy the pictures and it is pretty cheap:0

Oddly I have had people saying my cover is great and some saying it doesnt fit. I will have a play with what I have but I have tried to layer and paste and all I get just looks shit.

Thanks for the advice though.

 

[skeletor]

I mean… maybe it’s taboo to say, but using Bing for their DALLE function or just trying out GPT for free and then generating an image based on your description is a good idea to get a “rough idea” of what you would and would not like in your final image, from there you can use that as inspiration to hand off to someone on fiver or elsewhere if you want a unique human creation.

 

[pmmg]

This one is from 2012. I dont think the op’er is coming back.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Yeah, I barely remembered writing my post - but my have things changed. I still use Photoshop to edit images, but my primary cover image generator is now Deep Dream (All hail our AI overlords!).

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Prince of Spires]

maybe it’s taboo to say, but using Bing for their DALLE function or just trying out GPT for free and then generating an image based on your description is a good idea to get a “rough idea” of what you would and would not like in your final image, from there you can use that as inspiration to hand off to someone on fiver or elsewhere if you want a unique human creation.

One thing to be aware of is that the Bing Dalle function doesn't allow commercial use of their images (at least in the free version, don't actually know if they have a paid option that does allow this). So it's fine to use as inspiration, but don't use them on your cover.

 

[pmmg]

So…AI producers are going to complain if you steal their stuff? Hmm.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I'm not going into the legality of AI companies, simply because no one has made any definitive decisions about them, and that's not my point. But I do think in general it's good to know the important points of the terms of the service you're using. You don't want to violate them. It gets people into serious trouble. Now, I think chances of Microsoft going after a writer who uses one of their images are fairly low. But it's good practice in general. There are plenty of stories out there of people violating Amazon's terms of service (sometimes even without knowing they were doing so) and getting banned for life for it, effectively ending their self-publishing carreer.

Also, while the legality of AI companies can be debated, using an image without having the proper license can't. That's simply stealing someones IP. And as a creator, that something that I feel you shouldn't do.

As a side-note, using such an image is actually also againsts Amazon's terms of service, since when you publish a book via KDP, you assert that you own all the necessary rights to whatever you are publishing. And while Microsoft might not care, Amazon sometimes does. And they will pull your book if you can't prove you own the rights (which in this case you wouldn't be able to do).

 

[pmmg]

I didn't discuss the legality either. And I made no comment on your point.

Its good know the water you may be in.