Covermakers Chat Thread

[TriciaG]

If someone else has an idea for Big Sur

Hi Tricia, an impromptu search was followed by the image of a close-up picture of him partly through a bottle, with the ocean/sea shore as background. Sorry, just trying to help.

Depending on the source, it might be copyrighted as well.

[DrSpoke]

If someone else has an idea for Big Sur

... image of a close-up picture of him...

Depending on the source, it might be copyrighted as well.

good point, sorry

[annise]

I've an idea - will claim it.

Anne

[lorda]

Thank you Tricia for the cover of Miniaturen.

[annise]

Just thought I'd throw out for whoever gets Bratton's Idea by Manly Wade Wellman, the story is about an evil ventriloquist dummy that leads a group of gangsters and murders people. So... could be fun to look for images for that one...

We need to keep the main cover thread for preclaims and links - and so we have a chat thread .
Re your post - if you can find a PD image of

an evil ventriloquist dummy that leads a group of gangsters and murders people

give a link. In this thread
Otherwise it isn't much help.
My view is the chance of finding one is infinitesimal

Anne

[annise]

I tripped over an interesting blog about book covers that I thought might interest someone else.
https://www.draft2digital.com/blog/the-psychology-of-a-good-book-cover/

Anne

[msfry]

I tripped over an interesting blog about book covers that I thought might interest someone else.
https://www.draft2digital.com/blog/the-psychology-of-a-good-book-cover/

Anne

Neat article. Thanks for sharing. Gives me an idea for a Zoom session just for LV covermakers. We could discuss the article then talk about what we like to do, software we use, and where we get our material. Maybe include readers and how they feel about their covers. Record it for future covermakers to view and learn from.

[chymocles]

It's time to revise the page explaining how to claim and then create a cover.

• The first thing to do is to eliminate the contradiction between these two sentences: "If you haven't posted yet in any forums please don't make a claim without posting in this thread so we can communicate with you" and "Simply post in this thread, your claim will be added." The problem is that the first sentence indicates that claiming the cover is not done in this thread but rather in some unspecified way elsewhere, this thread being useful only if one has never before posted anywhere else. Apparently that is not true, so change the language.

• Next, delete the first phrase in this sentence: "In this case, please try to have the cover ready by cataloguing time." It serves no purpose, unless some other cases exist.

• This note—"*there is an error in the text of these templates, so please replace librivox.com with librivox.org"—ought now to be unnecessary. It's been here for a decade or so. Why not revise the templates?

• The sentence "I would be grateful - just upload the edited ones to my folder" is pointless unless it is clear who you are and where your folder can be found. A contributor should not have to hunt for it. Make this process easy.

• Please note that the main templates, the first ones, are .RTF and .DOC files, whereas the subsequent directions refer to manipulating .JPG image files. Clearly, a step has been omitted. Granted, a beginner may need some coaching on how to convert a .DOC file into a .JPG, but at least it makes sense to add that step to the process in the place where it must occur.

I am not a beginner; I have made a good many covers, but I am an old person, and I don't do this kind of thing every day, so I need a refresher every time. That's why I read these directions so often. You can have no conception how opaque they appear to a 78-year-old Ph.D. who taught writing all his working life.

Tom Copeland

[msfry]

Tom, I agree with you completely. And since you are a good writer, why don't you submit a stream-lined, logical set of instructions. I've been meaning to do this myself but haven't found the courage to approach whomever it was who wrote those hard to follow directions in the first place. And possibly, the system has evolved over time as well. All systems need periodic review. Of course, only the person who wrote the original post can actually change it . . . or maybe any MC can do that.

Bravo!

[TriciaG]

Yes, it could use some re-working. I mean, do we really need links to handy programs to make Zip files?

The first thing to do is to eliminate the contradiction between these two sentences: "If you haven't posted yet in any forums please don't make a claim without posting in this thread so we can communicate with you" and "Simply post in this thread, your claim will be added." The problem is that the first sentence indicates that claiming the cover is not done in this thread but rather in some unspecified way elsewhere, this thread being useful only if one has never before posted anywhere else. Apparently that is not true, so change the language.

- Claiming a cover for a cataloged project is NOT done in this thread. It's done on the claims page. Thus, maybe it should be re-worded, "if you're new to the forums, please don't claim a cover on the covers page without posting in this thread, so that we can communicate with you". (Although that direction is in the section referring to the claims page, so I'm not sure it needs to be reworded.)
- Claiming an uncataloged project cover (i.e. pre-claiming) must be done in this thread.
I don't see a contradiction.

Next, delete the first phrase in this sentence: "In this case, please try to have the cover ready by cataloguing time." It serves no purpose, unless some other cases exist.

The other case is a regular claim on a cataloged project. I suppose one could remove "In this case" and leave "Please try to have the cover ready by cataloguing time."

This note—"*there is an error in the text of these templates, so please replace librivox.com with librivox.org"—ought now to be unnecessary. It's been here for a decade or so. Why not revise the templates?

The sentence "I would be grateful - just upload the edited ones to my folder" is pointless unless it is clear who you are and where your folder can be found. A contributor should not have to hunt for it. Make this process easy.

Someone please do. It's just waiting on a revision. (Maybe I'll do that today. I'll post if I do.) The second quote becomes irrelevant if the templates are fixed.

Please note that the main templates, the first ones, are .RTF and .DOC files, whereas the subsequent directions refer to manipulating .JPG image files. Clearly, a step has been omitted. Granted, a beginner may need some coaching on how to convert a .DOC file into a .JPG, but at least it makes sense to add that step to the process in the place where it must occur.

True. The steps could use a little cleaning up.

[HannaPonomarenko]

TriciaG, your cover for Selected Stories of Evgeny Chirikov is perfect!
Thank you

[TriciaG]

TriciaG, your cover for Selected Stories of Evgeny Chirikov is perfect!
Thank you

Thanks! I'm glad I found that portrait of the author.

[TriciaG]

The CD cover templates linked in the first post of the working thread have been corrected (replacing librivox.com with librivox.org), and that "These have an error - someone please correct them - I would be grateful - just upload the edited ones to my folder" message has been removed.

Carry on with the suggestions/discussion on how to change the rest of that first post.

[annise]

Thank you . I haven't the software to do it.
Anne

[chymocles]

I'll go to the page again and see if I can find some reference to a Claims page, but I really can't improve the directions until I understand the system myself—which I don't. I have never once been able to claim a cover; every time my MC has done it for me, and I'm going to ask Michael to do this one too. I don't trust myself to navigate this web site!