Cover It - Some Basics for Cover Design

How to Fill Out a Request Form

This would seem like a self-explanatory thing but apparently not and no one asks questions if they don't understand what something means. They either ignore it and put something stupid or they change it to what they want it to be. Most designers specifically state "do not change my forms" and if you do they will likely deny you because you can't follow directions. They have their form a certain way because this is the information they want/need to complete a design. All designers are different some have more detailed forms and some have very simple basic forms. Paying attention to their form and filling it out properly shows that you care enough to read their directions and respect the designer and how they do things. 

This is a cover form that I use for groups:

[ ] manipulated [ ] simple

Title:

Subtitle:

Author:

Short Summary:

Ideas (pls give good, clear, details):

Images (LINKS ONLY, pls, do not give me an entire search):

Mood/themes/genre:

Font (Example: script, grunge, horror. If you know the name of the font you'd like let me know):

Anything Else/read my rules: 

Cover types: Different designers make different kinds of covers, I have a chapter in my graphic shop with an explanation of some different kinds of graphics. There are several different kinds of covers, this cover form has 2 different kinds because that is what I offer for groups when I'm in them. Manip covers and simple are the most popular ones right now, but there are more types of cover designs. (the first person who yells out aesthetic gets slapped)

Title: should be obvious, it's the title of your book

Subtitle: also obvious, if you have a subtitle it goes here, if you don't have one then leave it blank or put N/A

Author: your author name how you want it to appear on the cover

Short Summary: this should be obvious but apparently isn't to most people. Do you know what an elevator pitch is? An elevator ride is roughly 60 seconds, your pitch should last no longer than that and be able to convey what your book is about. Your summary should never be a novel in itself, if it is then you're doing something wrong. People have very short attention spans and trust me, they won't read a summary that is longer than 150-200 words.

Ideas: in this spot you want to give your designer an idea of what you'd like your cover to look like. be specific, but not overly so. We aren't magic, so while we can do some amazing things unless your designer is an artist that can draw exactly what you want you may have to compromise on some stuff.

Images: this spot is reserved for image links if you have specific images you'd like used. Be certain images are high enough quality. (please don't put in this spot, "they came from my head", yes great you have an image of what your characters look like inside your brain, but that isn't what this spot is for and it doesn't help your designer) you can put images for your characters here or even background images you'd like to see used. To put in an image link open it in a new tab, right click on it with your mouse and click on "copy image link or copy image address". If you're doing it from your phone it will be a little harder to give links. Each phone is different in the way it allows you to copy image links

Mood/theme/genre: does your book have a dark mood, romantic, then that goes here. Is your theme, one of war, redemption, perseverance? it goes here as well. What genre is your book? Thriller, dystopian, mystery, horror, romance? Put it here.

Font: do you have an idea of what type of font you'd like used (like, cursive, sci-fi, horror, distressed) or do you have a specific font in mind? Put it in this spot. (don't know about fonts? check out dafont, they have millions of different fonts that are free for download) If you don't know leave it blank or put N/A.

Anything else/rules: an anything else section can be used, well for anything. Some designers have a password you can put it here. You can also use this section to give the designer any other information you feel is important to your story and could help them with the design. As you can see mine is also used so the requester can let me know they've read my rules.

Some designers have a spot on their form that says 'face claims'. A face claim is usually a celebrity you'd like to use to represent your character. (whether it's an actor, model, singer, or some other star, this is a face claim). It is any image you choose to represent the physical description of your character. (which is basically the same as the images section on my form, though generally you wouldn't put background images here since that isn't a face claim).

These are the basics, some designers have different options and not all forms are the same. This is a place to begin to help you understand some of the things designers ask for. If you ever have questions, please ask, we'd rather have you ask and get clarification on things than fill it out incorrectly and get denied because of it.