The Host, cover, take two

Henry E. Powderly II — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:16:36 +0000

Here’s another version of the cover for my novel, The Host. I got some feedback from my first version about the coloring on the tick being unnecessary. In thinking about it, I decided to go with a different graphic of the tick altogether.

I also posterized the moon a little so it fit in with the effects on the neck and the tick. What do you think?

And now, the cover of The Host

Henry E. Powderly II — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:48:37 +0000

Yesterday I posted the first chapter of “The Host,” and I received a little bit of feedback mostly from Twitter, so thank you. Though my claim that I was done fiddling with it is easier said than done.

But, aside from having to polish what is now my third draft into a final edit, self publishing means I have to come up with a cover, too. Well, I’ve been working on it.

So far, only the front cover is done, and I’d love feedback. Here are a couple of things I did. I took a photo of the back my neck and posterized it in Photoshop to get the main silhouette. I did the same thing to an image of a tick, which I placed on the back of the neck. Also, I used stock art of a lunar eclipse.

As for the title, I spent a lot of time trying to find a font that I liked and kept coming up empty. In the end, I decided to write the title myself in marker, to scan it, and place it in the center with an outer glow around it to match the eclipse. I think it works.

Perhaps the hardest part, however, was figuring out where to put my name, what font to use, what size. I looked at countless book covers, and there is no consensus. I’ve finally settled on streching it across the bottom using a san-serif font.

I’m a fair designer, but no expert, so any criticism would be a big help.

Henry Powderly » book design

The Host, cover, take two

And now, the cover of The Host