Jul
14th
2019
(Since 2013, Really, But More So Now) · 5:21pm Jul 14th, 2019
"i've got a bunch of story ideas and even a backlog of finished, edited text that I'd love to put out there now for my readers to enjoy"
"great, let's do it"
"but we apparently need covers"
"why"
"people/site metrics keep telling us we do"
"ugh, fiiiiiiiiiiine, let's go looking"
::time passes::
"anything we can use"
"yeah, turns out that since we mainly enjoy writing stories about unpopular/obscure/side characters, or even popular characters in unique premises, there's nothing out there, we'd have to commission a cover which takes time and money, thus delaying publication by at least a few weeks"
"that's ridiculous! i have so much story ready to go right now"
"then we probably should have made it all about sunset shimmer"
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Bookish Delight · 395 views
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I understand your pain.
Why not just use a placeholder until you can find something you prefer?
I suppose the whole "Use a vaguely related stock image" plan is out?
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5088795
I'll have to, but you have no clue how much I dislike it. and this whole "covers" thing in general why back in my day-
Especially since for some of these stories there are distinct images I'd love to use for covers if they existed. I also write a lot of one-shots, so it rarely seems worth the effort since the most first impressions for one-shots happen when the fic is first published.
There are also some "stock images" that I'd still have to cobble together with a photomanip program in order to be relevant. :P
Sounds about right.
it is a major pain
At least Sunset Shimmer's hot as fuck. Especially the way Sunnysundown draws her
Anything that you aren't enabling votes on probably doesn't need a cover, at a guess.
5088832
I mean,
the truth is I'malsoa vain pretty-pictures-loving pleb soI'm not about to shaft my dedicated fans, either.I know what you mean. =/ Every character deserves a chance to shine in the spotlight!
Yup, it's a pain. At least with Diamond Tiara, there was a mix of options, between screen captures, a bit of artwork, and vectors I could play in Inkscape with. I've combined all those things as well, from adding art over a screen capture to slicing and dicing artwork (with the creator's permission, of course) into something more bookcovery. Even put together a cover for someone else's DT & AB story. And then there are three commissioned cover art pieces as well (though I never actually finished the story I commissioned the first one for). For the likes of Sea Swirl, Filthy Rich, and Spoiled Rich/Milk, options are even fewer. Which means a lot of story ideas absolutely lack appropriate cover potential. Hence why my Sea Swirl story uses a modified meme pic as its cover ;) And I expect, if I were to write Equestria Girls based stories, art for minor characters would be even harder to come across.
That said, I do think we could probably get away with a nice text based cover, if it had a bit of style to it. Maybe with a single item, like a rose or something, that fits the theme or is relevant in some way to the story. It would avoid the "no cover, not really trying" impression. Plenty of books in real life are that way as well. But obviously, not as cool as artwork. Especially not compared to custom artwork done especially to fit the story.
5088832
I would think, even without votes on, you still want people to notice your story. If you didn't want that, well, you just wouldn't publish it ;)
I know the metrics like images with the characters themselves in, but I've found themey pictures not involving the characters to be used to good effect sometimes.
5089066
That's actually a pretty good idea, thanks.
This is so very, very true. As a weird shipper I understand, hehe.
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Weird ships are best ships. But hard to cover, yeah
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For Teilight and Cloud Chaser I literally just photoshopped two shots from the show together.