Choosing Pictures, Level Easy AF

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No, it's not easy at all. Choosing the images for your cover will take most of you ( m e ) a heck of a long time. With good reason. The image is the most important element in your cover.





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How does one choose the right image? Before that, just know that getting attached to an image will fuck you up.

The very first thing you should check is the quality. You need a high resolution image, or you're fucked. It should be a portrait image, but landscape can work if the res is high. If it's blurry, look away —no matter how pretty.

For beginners, you want an image with a lot of blank space. That way, you have sufficient space for easily adding text. It shouldn't be cluttered before adding the text, or else it will become a whole damn circus once you add the text.

 It shouldn't be cluttered before adding the text, or else it will become a whole damn circus once you add the text

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As seen above, there is a lot of space. You can add the text and still have sufficient space to breathe. You don't always need this amount of space, but for long titles, you always do. 

An easy way to know if your image is cluttered or not is to see how many colours there are. Do the colours distract you? Or do they blend in well? Is there a focus point in the image that draws attention? Or do you not know where to look. Is there a clear background?

The image should look like it was professionally photographed. It should not look like something you or your friends took in your backyard.

The only time you can actually use a cluttered image, is if you will be manipulating the image and only use the people or object in that image. Instead of the entire mess of an image.

You also want something that matches your genre and story (sound familiar?). If your book is about the end of the world, a cat shouldn't be the main image. Unless that cat is the reason for that world destruction. Even then, you don't want to spoil too much with your cover. If your story has a monster, you shouldn't reveal that monster in the cover. Maybe its shadow, or eyes, or even a sinister smile. Make the readers want to find out more. Don't tell them everything like movie trailers be these days.

 Don't tell them everything like movie trailers be these days

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