What’s Next
by wjw on September 15, 2011
I’ve been working to get an ebook version of Hardwired up and available for your digitized pleasure.
Here’s the first draft of the cover. (It’s a classic, if you ask me.) And of course I couldn’t resist the Zelazny quote, because, y’know, if you’ve got a Zelazny blurb, you really want to use it.
This is maybe the first of my ebook covers that could pass muster as the cover of a real book. The reason is that ebook covers don’t need anything other than the title and the author’s name, whereas physical books need a publisher’s imprint, a price, and maybe some words explaining how great the book is. I’ve got zillions of good quotes, maybe I should be using them.
Comments?
I think the idea of using quotes is a great one. That Zelazny quote right there would make me rush out and buy this book ASAP…if I didn’t already have the battered old paperback with the Dolph Lundgren stand in on the cover!
One thought: I’m not sure I love the word “classic”. It makes me think old. I wouldn’t suggest trying to deceive your audience, per se, but you also don’t have to be SO upfront about telling them “hey, mouldly old recycled material here!”.
Or, if you do use the word “classic”, I might move it to later in the sentence:
“the science fiction classic”.
That way it at least conjures connotations usually asssociatted with 1950s convertibles or Rolling Stones hits.
Ditto TJIC on use of the word “classic.”
Fictionwise is advertising a “Hardwired” ebook; what’s the story there?
Also, I’m not sure what’s going on, but my browser is cropping the side of the image, so that the cover is apparently for a book titled “HardWir” 😀
Maybe the cover art could be a closeup of a woman’s face, with the usual cybernetic-looking eye, but “KIKUYU OPTICS I.G” instead of “ZEISS IKON”.
Or a woman sitting on a bed (in a Ritz Flop room, all curves and rounded metal surfaces) with a big multi-strand cable going to the jacks in her temples and neck.
You could also try to find a picture of a NASCAR driver and have someone “tech” it up (so that you get the image of a man’s face completely surrounded by technology–sort of the “cold cybernetic womb that only a junkie could love” thing.)
Jon,
Hardwired also seems to be available at eReader (with sucky cover art). Hope you are getting royalties.
http://www.ereader.com/ebooks/b8421/?si=59
That other e-copy, with the garish cover, is an old contract. Scorpius told me they’d be requesting it be taken down.
Sometimes it’s hard to get these people to comply.
DD, all your suggestions are pretty good, but I’m stuck with whatever stock art is available, the alternative being to pay an artist for an original piece, and then having to design the cover anyway.
Cover looks great. The only thing I don’t like is how the title looks like it is twisting upwards on the left and right end.
There’s nothing really wrong with the image, but I think the cover would have a bit more punch if the colors around the image drew from the image. For example use the turquose in the far left hex in the title and a gold/bronze to match the lighter shading on the female torso at the bottom of the page. Or a lavender to match the shadowed background at the bottom of the image.
The optical effect of the title is to appear to make it curved, which seems out of context relative to the image.
I just tried to open Photoshop to tinker with the cover, but Photoshop now tells me it can’t open the file because it’s the “wrong format.”
So now Photoshop won’t open a Photoshop file. Huh.
I guess we’re stuck with the cover as is.
“So now Photoshop won’t open a Photoshop file. Huh.”
Check to see what file formats PS is set to open. PS does not necessarily default to ‘All’. That might be the problem.
Speaking of Hardwired, I think that that was the novel that introduced me to the idea of custom designing firearms and having CNC machines spit them out.
I ended up getting into metalworking and launching a company partially inspired by that idea…and now Boing Boing is reporting that someone has open sourced and uploaded the design for an AR-15 lower receiver for 3-d printing.
http://boingboing.net/2011/09/20/3d-printed-ar-15-parts-challenge-firearm-regulation.html#disqus_thread
(Contra the very first comment, yes, a plastic lower for an AR-style weapon is entirely reasonable: the bolt uses a rotating locking system, engaging lugs in the barrel. The lower is basically just a big bag that holds all the REAL parts together in one place).
Anyway, congrats on getting the future right!
@wjw:
> I’m stuck with whatever stock art is available, the alternative being to pay an artist for an original piece, and then having to design the cover anyway.
I finished the first draft of my first novel a few weeks ago (revising it now).
After the novel was finished I found the perfect (and I mean PERFECT) piece of art that had been created by a Russian illustrator several years before I started writing the novel (it’s almost uncanny how closely the art matches the plot). I contacted him and made an offer…and he accepted. It wasn’t pocket change, but it was quite affordable.
Consider casting your net wider when you look for art.
@Mage:
> There’s nothing really wrong with the image, but I think the cover would have a bit more punch if the colors around the image drew from the image. For example use the turquose in the far left hex in the title and a gold/bronze to
110% agreed. I note that this exactly echoes the advice I’ve been reading recently on choosing mats when framing art. Which, when you think about it, makes perfect sense: that’s what you’re doing here: designing the mat and frame for the image.
Instead I framed with a gold color to echo the woman’s costume. I had to tone down the intensity, because otherwise it was too bright.
In any case, Photoshop now refuses to recognize its own creation, and so I can’t muck about with it anymore.
I like the background but am not keen on a faceless, alien-ish Sarah. Besides, how is it that her total self is wrapped in warrior armor that includes terrific-but-unlikely breast definition (no armor to date does that) and fingernail definition. Why not just get a blow-up doll?
I want to see Sarah and Cowboy both or something that indicates a war with several sides. Face them away from the camera if you must.
The colors are great. They push to the future but also indicate decay, expecially the carbon fiber honeycomb.
Shash, I agree it’s not ideal. But it was the best piece of stock art I could find. If I could afford to pay actual artists thousands of dollars to commission a piece, I would.
No need to explain your use of the Zelazny quote. If he ever said “I wish I’d written this one” about anything I did, I’d tattoo it on my back.
I always think it’s hilarious when people make sci-fi armor that has individual breast definition. Ever hear of shot traps? You’ve made a big bullet funnel pointed right at the center of your chest…
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