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Book Cover Art

and Creative Friends

Book cover art is a major selling factor of any book.

Too, art and photographs can tell a story and serve as story starters or picture prompts. They can also inspire certain creatives into writing song lyrics.

Some readers will automatically pick up any book by a favorite author, regardless what the product looks like.

Anyone casually perusing the shelves in a book store is usually drawn to an unknown author’s book by its title and cover graphics. That leads them to then read the blurbs on the back.

In publishing a book, the face of the product is critical. It doesn’t matter if it be a novel, a short story anthology, poetry, or nonfiction. Book sellers like to see dazzling covers; though not all book art jumps out at you from the shelf but can still incite the imagination.

See my three covers and video trailers on My Books.

Also, remember to check out the exciting book cover art on my new thriller, Down to the Needle, which is my latest release.

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After a twenty-one year hiatus, I began oil painting again with the intention of creating art for the covers of my own books. Though I’m doing very well with my paintings, ironically, I haven’t created anything that could be used as a cover.

Here are some of my photographs in my Ukulele Series. This batch of photos include not just ukuleles but beautiful leis and other Hawaiian instruments as well.

Also, here’s Big Red, one of my oil paintings that I photographed while the paint was still wet. That's why it may shine in places.

However, in the process of beginning to paint again, and noticing book cover art all the more, it dawned on me that painting and other art is like writing on the walls. With a free-flowing imagination, art can be story starters; picture prompts that lead to stories, even to publishing a book.



Since four of my future books take place in Hawaii, I may end up using some photographs I’ve taken. That’s right, not my paintings, but photographs, which are the origins of much book cover art.



Since I now have an abundance of art and photographs, I’ve decided that some of it can be story starters for writing contests right here on this site. That’s coming up in the near future.

Book cover art is a specialty field. The picture must, in all cases, relate to the story being told. So perhaps I need to find photos or paint specific scenes from my next books.

Many facets are involved in publishing a book and book sellers are keen to them all and promote only the best.

To date, I have been asked twice about using my photos as book cover art. I am thrilled! If you are interested in any of my photos for your book cover, please don't hesitate to Contact Me. We can work out great deals that each can live with.

UPDATE:

It took me a long time to find suitable art for the cover of one of my future books. Since the story has a strong subplot, in addition to the regular plot, and both take place in different locations, I knew it was going to be difficult to find suitable art that represents both. But... I found exactly what I needed! I found it through a friend's art.

Though I photograph and sell my art, I had not been able to shoot anything that I could use as cover art for this particular book. Cover art is so important. It must...

...have eye-appeal

...represent what the story is about, and

...be enticing enough to draw the viewer in and cause them to open the book to find out what's inside.

If you are looking for cover art, please check out my gallery. I have so much artwork from which to choose, from Hawaii Culture to Classic Cars, with scenery and landscapes, birds, animals, machinery, miscellaneous objects, and so much more.

For anyone who finds something they wish to use, or simply own, don't hesitate to contact me via the Contact Me page here on Write Any Genre, or from my Gallery.

Have fun with this. There is so much to see. And like I did with my friend's art you, too, may find just the right artwork for your book covers.




See my photographs and photos of my oil paintings at Mary Deal Fine Art.


Photography Prints

Both my photos and paintings are available as giclee on canvas, framed or unframed, and posters (all in many sizes), and greeting cards. If you purchase greeting cards, you can have printed inside any message you wish. That's exciting!



If you see art as picture prompts for your writing, story starters, book covers, or other creativity, here are some direct routes to picture prompts you may find interesting:

Since I live in Hawaii, I'll start with HAWAII CULTURE

Or how about SEA SHELLS or...

... some of you might enjoy SEA GLASS - all hand picked by me, by the way, as I take my breaks along the beach.

Other story starters could be KAUAI ANIMALS with animal poses from the sublime to the absurd.

MORE picture prompts or story starters and art can be found listed on my Resources page.




Speaking of book cover art….


Patrice Federspiel is an incredibly talented artist located in Honolulu, Hawaii. I have not seen all of her art but I wouldn’t think twice about using one of her pieces for a book cover if it fit my story. And one just might. After all, I do have four future books taking place in Hawaii. Some of her art inspires story starters in me.


See more of her spectacular art at Koloko Arts of Hawaii.


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Another friend, Simon Seah, is extremely talented and creates some of the most fantastic fantasy art for books and video games. If interested in fantasy art, you must see his work. His art will make your book or game covers POP! Visit him at Fantasy Art and Portraits.


Hopefully, we can have a picture or two of him and his cover art in the near future.



Other creative friends will be added to this page soon. I may even start a page for each aspect, like one for book covers, another for writing song lyrics, another for painters, yet another for screenwriters. For now, it’s a great start.


We’ve sort of wandered away from book cover art specifically, but writing song lyrics, story starters from picture prompts, publishing a book? It’s all writing on the walls to me.


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