I have an Etsy Cover Art Shop!
I’ve been reading a lot of indie books recently, and noticed that most of them had covers only their authors could have loved. This prompted me to see if I could find a way of making some cheap cover art for smashwords – so cheap it was available to anyone, no matter their budget. And that prompted me to open a shop on Etsy.
What do you think?
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CoverArtforAll
An eyesore or a boon for mankind? It’s your call 
Ooh, that is incredibly cool and useful! *bookmarks*
(I’m in the middle of writing a thing that might want a cover at some point in the future. And they look kind of awesome.
Definitely a boon for mankind! There are some horrors out there (see http://wtfbadromancecovers.tumblr.com ), and yours are tasteful. You could also offer to help with lettering for a price – that’s another area which is often very bad.
@Lucy What kind of a thing are you writing? I could put a few together that might be suitable if I knew what sort of pictures to go looking for
Thank you!
@HJ
Wow, she has high standards! Admittedly, some of those are awful, but some aren’t bad at all. I like the ‘objectified Scotsmen’ though. I have to say I’ve known a lot of Scottish men and none of them have looked like that, even in a kilt!
Yes, there’s nothing more guaranteed to wreck a good choice of picture than badly done lettering. That’s a good thought! I will do that. Thank you!
Ooh, thank you! I’m writing m/m paranormal romance – psychics and mental weirdness abound (there are no vampires or werewolves). The “Oddy Noir” cover is really attractive IMO, and would probably work for the kind of thing I’m writing. But I think as usual I will probably know more when I’ve got a draft!
(All I really know right now is I will probably want something to be on fire on my cover. That is turning out to be a bit of a recurring theme.)
@HJ I just lost 2 hours to that Tumblr…
Whoa @HJ – some of those are pretty bad…
Alex – great job & a great idea! I’ll send folks your way if they are looking for cover art. If you decide to delve into full cover – front/spine/back – let me know. I just formatted my own POD with CreateSpace but had my graphics guy do the full cover (or whatever it’s called).
@Lucy Aha, I’m sure I have some good fire photos taken by myself on our reenactment jaunts, so that should be no problem.
@Charlene Ooh, thank you, that would be brilliant
I can certainly do the whole layout. The only bit that puzzles me somewhat is how to estimate the width of the spine from the number of pages, but I’m sure that advice must be out there somewhere.
Check out https://www.createspace.com/Help/Book/Artwork.do
Spine size will depend on trim size & no. of pages.
@Char
Oh, that’s very cool! Thank you, that seems to be the biz