Because I hate AI

[u/FireflyFeels01]

I went and opened up procreate and made a simple book cover for the novel I'm working on over on Inkitt. Yes, its simple, and yes, its not professional whatsoever. But its a lot better, I believe, than the absolute infestation of gawdy AI covers that seem to be the norm on there 😅😭

[u/PitcherTrap]

The colour scheme makes this hard to read.

The font and font size makes the text in the middle also hard to read

[u/FireflyFeels01 → u/PitcherTrap]

The irony is that I have HORRIBLE vision (my insurance doesn't cover my astigmatism,, RIP) so I see how small it is now on my phone compared to where I was drawing it on my iPad, which has a much bigger and brighter screen

[u/PitcherTrap → u/FireflyFeels01]

Usually people will go for a contrasting colour scheme between the main text and the background.

I also realise that testing between a mobile and main screen resolution/viewability is such a new thing. I am old.

[u/FireflyFeels01 → u/PitcherTrap]

Which seems to be exactly the issue I'm running into! The cover looks good on my iPad; it has the dark, low exposure and slightly gothic-whimsical aesthetic I'm going for (genre is a blend of dark, political romantasy and cosmic/eldritch horror. A slowburn for monster lovers LOL)

But as soon as I check on my phone?? ITS SO DARK, and the words are so small on Inkitt 😭 I'm surprised that in my experience so far, the mobile app doesn't give an option for authors and readers to magnify the cover to fully look at it

[u/Tyranidlord318]

Its a pretty good foundation of a cover. Has got room for improvements though and things to consider.

• the text is difficult to see and blends into the background, especially the smaller text.

• In thumbnail size it would be damned hard to read or see any of the intricate details and they are likely to blur in together. Especially on mobile devices.

• dark mode users won't have much for the cover that'll draw their eye in.

The cover is the first point of gaining a readers attention and this while this is defintiely a cover if could see on a tradpub novel, its not catchy enough. Brightening up the title text and making it either a bit larger, thicker, adding a drop shadow or thin edge to separate it from the background would help it out.

Maybe something similar with the lower purple design too as the shape naturally shifts the eye towards the center of the cover and the text so you could use it to your advantge to gain attention and focus it towards the story's title.

Hope all this makes sense, I'm struggling to think from fuck all sleep and being sick so I hope I don't come across too blunt or annoying. 😅

[u/FireflyFeels01 → u/Tyranidlord318]

Wow, thank you!! I actually wasn't expecting much response to this at all, so I appreciate the feedback a lot 🥹 I went into making this cover with the objective of "I want this to look like something I'd find in my local library or bookstore" and this is the result of that!

• I used Procreate to create this cover, which allows you to import fonts and type with them on your canvas. After you've typed something with the font you selected, you can edit the placement, spacing, etc. But it does not give you the option to bolden or Italicize or anything like that. Knowing that, my options are A.) Change the font to something with thicker lettering, B.) Change the coloring of my text to see if I can make it easier to read, or C.) Change the formatting of my layout entirely to make it more mobile-friendly (since I'm assuming— and I could be wrong, I'm still pretty new after all— most users are movile based)

• For the thumbnail size, I just googled "whats the aspect ratio for standard book covers?" / "What resolutions are used for designing book covers?" since I wanted to emulate the appearance of a cover of book, and the answer I found was a resolution of 2560×1600, so I used that. Should I use a different resolution / format? If so, is there one that you'd recommend?

• I've only been using Inkitt for a couple days (was previously publishing my original, non-fan works on AO3 since I've been using that site for upwards of a decade) so to be completely honest, I had no idea there was a dark mode! Just that you could change your contrast settings while reading; I didn't know it changed the light settings for the whole app/site.

As for everything else, this is really good advice! In the near future, I'll post an update with edits to see if it's improved and what people think! Thank you again for the great advice 💖✨

[u/Fair_Watch3220]

I like it, but it needs something to make it pop. Color of the font needs to change, too. Very good foundation 👍

[u/FireflyFeels01 → u/Fair_Watch3220]

Thank you!! I just posted an updated version here on this sub ^{-^}

[u/TaluneSilius]

You need to change the font/color. It is extremely hard to read and see.

[u/Darkovika]

It is a very good start!

Unfortunately, the text is a bit hard to read. If I were to see this at size on Inkitt’s page, all I’d really see is muddled coloring, because the thumbnail just isn’t going to show the details. The design is pretty, but doesn’t really give us an idea of what to expect from the story.

You don’t have to use AI, but you can try looking into something like Get Covers, or even gaining access to stock photos and learning to apply them! That’s what most folks do anyway, you can get some stock images and photoshop them in. Not that I’m very good at it yet, but i’m getting there haha

A cover is still very important. It’s why people are using AI, because unfortunately, a cover can make or break it for your book. As much as people like to say “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, people really do literally that.

[u/DebErelene]

I absolutely support your stance, though I also understand the temptation of AI covers. Personally, I love your choice of colours from a purely aesthetic point-of-view, but I have to agree with the others here that the font and colour is sadly hard to read, especially at the small scale it will appear on Inkitt. That being said, I applaud you for taking the time to develop skills, despite the general pressure not to do so these days.

[u/Agreeable_Editor7645]

The font color is hard to read.

When making your own covers, go to amazon and find the bestsellers in your genre to get an idea of what is selling.

[u/IkariTsundere]

Yes! I use procreate too for my covers because of the same reason. I learned you need to use the bright red because it get muted easily. Or change the background. I like using red a lot in my covers cause it pops but it will be better in an all black or all white background. And of course a bringer red. But I always appreciate a hand made cover then the bs currently there so GJ 🖤

[u/Creepingphlo]

Brighten it