tarotbear
Since Mr. McElroy has a thread asking about book titles I decided to try this thread about book covers.
Most self-publishing companies have some sort of 'Cover Creator' program that takes your info and inserts it into templates you select {Although they are not quite as flexible as they make them sound}, add text, change colors, etc., etc., and it formulates the cover based on your input. This is great until you want to incorporate something for your own photo files.
Face it - unless you have your own Tarot card pictures you cannot expect to find some in a company's 'free-use photos' file ... and using images of someone else's deck on your cover means getting permission and paying them a royalty (every 2 years as long as the book is in print).
So - I just made some changes - using my own deck, of course! I don't have to pay myself a royalty!
I do wish the program that inserts a picture was more flexible - but it's not. The cover of the Humor book is fine, but I wish I could get more of the Aces to show on 'It's All in the Cards', but it means pulling back farther and shooting at a higher pixel count - and still not knowing how it will come out until it goes through the template. Since the image is sharp I'd rather have sharp than a full image of four cards not sharp.
It takes less than 24 hours to make a change; I revise the cover file, send it for review (takes the book off-sale) and when the file comes back I do a quick check, hit 'approve' and the book is back up for sale.
SO ~
Should a Tarot Book have Tarot Cards on its cover?
Pix 1 & 3 - original covers
Pix 2 7 4 - revised covers
BTW - the picture on 'It's All in the Cards' wraps around the back if you look it up on Amazon.
Most self-publishing companies have some sort of 'Cover Creator' program that takes your info and inserts it into templates you select {Although they are not quite as flexible as they make them sound}, add text, change colors, etc., etc., and it formulates the cover based on your input. This is great until you want to incorporate something for your own photo files.
Face it - unless you have your own Tarot card pictures you cannot expect to find some in a company's 'free-use photos' file ... and using images of someone else's deck on your cover means getting permission and paying them a royalty (every 2 years as long as the book is in print).
So - I just made some changes - using my own deck, of course! I don't have to pay myself a royalty!
I do wish the program that inserts a picture was more flexible - but it's not. The cover of the Humor book is fine, but I wish I could get more of the Aces to show on 'It's All in the Cards', but it means pulling back farther and shooting at a higher pixel count - and still not knowing how it will come out until it goes through the template. Since the image is sharp I'd rather have sharp than a full image of four cards not sharp.
It takes less than 24 hours to make a change; I revise the cover file, send it for review (takes the book off-sale) and when the file comes back I do a quick check, hit 'approve' and the book is back up for sale.
SO ~
Should a Tarot Book have Tarot Cards on its cover?
Pix 1 & 3 - original covers
Pix 2 7 4 - revised covers
BTW - the picture on 'It's All in the Cards' wraps around the back if you look it up on Amazon.