Cover Designs

By the end of the year the e-book conversions of the Tory Bauer mystery series will be complete. For those of you who don't know there are six installments in this series set around an aging, overweight cafe waitress working in the fictional town of Delphi, South Dakota. Oh, and the author of this series is my Mom, Kathleen Taylor.


I had been nagging her for quite some time to convert this out of print series to any e-book format to no avail. Then a opportunity came-a-knocking. A professor friend who teaches e-book technology offered to convert her books as a class project. The students would get some real world experience and my Mom would get her books converted for free. Unfortunately, the books were written in the time of 5 ¼ floppy disks and the manuscripts were printed and mailed to the publisher so there weren't any edited electronic files that could be easily uploaded.  This meant that six copies of the book would have to be disassembled and scanned. The conversion of the first three books are almost complete and the last three will be completed next semester.

So this is where I come in. My Mom asked me to design the new “covers” for the e-versions of her books. I said yes immediately not knowing exactly what I would do at the time but I knew I would have time to figure that out. After a few weeks of percolating I started to develop a theme or style that would be used across the board for all six covers. I have scanned two of my rough (very rough) sketches to use as examples while I explain the uniform elements of each cover.

1. Each cover will have some kind of frame layer on top and that frame will be unique to the story. Neither of the sketches have a frame yet.

2. Each element will be photographic and “cut-out” with a drop shadow to add a layered effect.

3. Kathleen Taylor will be found at the top and behind all the layers.

4. The main elements will layer on top of the author’s name.

5. The title will be either a part of the frame layer or added as a separate element behind the frame layer. The title element will always be unique to the story and near the bottom of the cover. It will also be the most prominent element on the cover.

Stay tuned for full color mockups

Don't Take My Word For It

I know it has been a while (just over a month) since I have posted anything and almost two months since I have posted anything new or even the slightest bit entertaining or educational. Please excuse the absence, I will try harder to add pertinent information more often.  It has just been so easy to click “retweet” or “like” lately.

However, the lack of posting here doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing any writing or illustrating. I have been spending a most of my time writing blog posts for my beer review, education and nonsense blog at www.hopheadsaid.com.  I have also been writing and illustrating a geeky beer info book (plan to make that a series) that will be released soon and available on Kindle and Nook. 

I have also been searching for paying writing jobs.  There are few worthwhile opportunities out there and I am making a list of my successes and not so successful endeavors for you.  I will talk about those in greater detail in the coming month.

I have also been doing some art here and there when the bug bites.  Right now I am in the rough (very rough) draft stages of six book covers I will be designing and illustrating, for lack of a better term.  These covers will be used as the e-book covers for the soon to be re-released e-versions of the Tori Bauer murder mysteries written by my mother.  I will be posting the rough draft sketches soon and more progress picture updates when they are necessary.

Even though there hasn’t been much posted here for March or April I have reached an important milestone in my writing career over those two months.  Drumroll please? I sold enough books to earn a commission.  True, it was small but it was big enough to buy a few pints!  More importantly, though, that commission check made me a professional writer.  Some may disagree as to the degree of professionalism, but I will now be labeling myself a writer, after stay-at-home dad and before homebrewer! 

So that gets me to the point of the post.  I have had some good numbers in Amazon for an unknown author and an unknown book and I have been sitting steady at #11 Top Rated in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Children's Fiction > Literature > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Dragons.

My book  Pet My Dragon? is sitting right behind “Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-wiener” and I would like you to help Pet My Dragon? take that spot.  While I would really like to take that #10 spot what I am really interested in is creating a buzz around that book that I can use to help find a publisher for this story.  Please help me by tweeting or posting a link to my book on your favorite social media outlet and help me get this grassroots campaign started.  Below are some reviews that have been posted on Amazon.com.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, March 16, 2011 By  Corey - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Pet My Dragon? (Kindle Edition) I downloaded this e-book to the Kindle app on my Blackberry Bold. Looks great and is easy to read. My 4 year old son really liked the illustrations, especially the one from the cover showing the dragon breathing fire. He didn't Very much want to pet the dragon either, but iT sparked a great discussion about seeking first to understand peopLe before making judgements. I recommend this for all parents of preschoolers. 5.0 out of 5 stars Scribbles Never Looked So Good, February 27, 2011 By  Fayemous Books (Canada) - See all my reviews This review is from: Pet My Dragon? (Kindle Edition) This is a very cute story geared towards small children, but also fun for adults who will most likely be asked to read it night after night at bedtime. The words and rhymes are very enjoyable, and adults can have fun reading each character's dialogue in a different voice. What I like about it is the pictures, which are created to look like a child has drawn them. Crooked lines, out of proportion eyeballs, and colouring out of the lines are features that make this book very fun to look at, and the added touch to make the elements look like paper cutouts is a really great idea. The bright and simplistic nature of the pages will be sure to keep the kids entertained and allow their imagination to run wild while listening to the narrative. It's also a great book for kids just learning to read on their own. Definitely worthy of a spot on your ebook library shelf. 5.0 out of 5 stars Great llustrations, January 18, 2011 By  Dave Sparks (Sioux City, IA USA) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Pet My Dragon? (Kindle Edition) Great job, Curtis, and a great message. My favorite part: the very creative illustration technique. I have never seen anything like it. Least favorite part: Not crazy about the text font. Kindle on the iPad (or other large format) is the way to view this. The color is great! I look forward to reading this one to my 4-year-old granddaughter. For the record, Jenny, I had no problem viewing one page at a time on the iPad by just rotating into the vertical position. 5.0 out of 5 stars Really Hip for the Toddler Set, January 18, 2011 By  Bethel - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Pet My Dragon? (Kindle Edition) Downloaded this for my new Kindle 3G with Wi-Fi and it is a really unique book. I have a new grandchild in July and wanted to have some cute books on my Kindle ready-to-go. Super easy to download and worked immediately! I was recommended to this author and I have to say the rhymes are very hip and cool and the art is eclectic enough for repetitive reading by adults as well as eye-catching for the younger viewers. I will be watching for a sequel... 5.0 out of 5 stars Super!!!, January 13, 2011 By  matthew taylor "redwing24" (south dakota United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)  Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Pet My Dragon? (Kindle Edition) I downloaded it on my Droid X and looks great, very easy to download and the kids loved it as so did I. Keep on plugging and waiting to see more in the future!!! Great Job!!! 5.0 out of 5 stars Pet My Dragon?, January 11, 2011 By  Jenny Jorgensen - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Pet My Dragon? (Kindle Edition) Very easy to download. I viewed it on my MacBook Pro, on my iPhone, and on our iPad. Easy to sync between the three units. IPad showed double pages at a time. I was unable to change that to individual pages but that format IS more like a book. IPhone was small, and not as smooth for moving to next page, but my iPhone is a 3G and nearly 3 years old. It was running on wireless network in the house. I used my MacBook Pro to share it with my kindergarten class at school. They loved it, immediately noticing the "speech bubbles" which we were just learning in reading. The colors were very bright and vibrant. They were excited about the rhyming words which I also enjoyed as they were far more interesting than just 'cat/hat'. Viewing the pictures more closely we noted that the characters were often hidden in the picture on the page prior to the character's introduction. Great social message that we discussed as a class. I am planning to download Kindle for PC at school and try it there. Very well done! 5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Rhyming Story Book, January 5, 2011 By  Kathleen Taylor (South Dakota) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Pet My Dragon? (Kindle Edition) The bright colors and wonderful illustrations just add to this lovely rhyming story. This book is perfect for reading out loud to little ones. Kids will love the story, and the message of looking past exteriors is one we can all use. I look forward to this writer's next book!