E-Cover

Normally I have trouble finding articles to write about for this blog. Then, today, BOOM! there's three right away. I plan to write about and link to all of them, but I've decided to start with this one as it seems the most apropos to what I've been writing about lately.

This article in the WSJ by Javier Espinoza entitled Designing for Digital is all about book covers for the e-reader world. It's a good little article with some nuggets of info I already knew or could have guess at. Among them:

an e-book cover must be bolder, simpler and more legible than its print counterpart, graphic designers say.

and

For Andy Fielding, an Edinburgh-based graphic designer who works with writers self-publishing their e-books, simplicity is the key to a beautiful design that will stand out. "A print book only really has to work in your hands as an object. But when people are looking at e-book covers they are looking at them on places like Amazon, where they are very small initially—the size of a thumbnail."

I've always thought that Dick Francis' book covers were simple, colorful and yet powerful. These are the ones that I tried to channel when I came up with my own.

Yes, yes, his look better, but I feel that mine meet the requirements that are laid out by the article.

Anyway, I thought it was a great article, and was full of information for anyone planning to e-publish. I've seen several other self-published folks who have not used the advice listed in the article and I believe their sales probably are hurting because of it. Then again, my sales aint no rocket ship.