Playing with graphics

Today I did something I don’t do normally, I spent some time playing with graphics. There’s a reason I don’t do this, I’m not very visually creative – I can handle the technical side of the job, but I can’t visualise what I want to create and I struggle a great deal with finding the right images to play with.

I am in constant awe of people who can do this, and people who do it for a living. I have to pay people to make book covers for me because I know the value of a professional looking cover and don’t want to do my books down with the mediocre effort I can come up with. Unfortunately I had to put aside my dislike for graphics work today because I am being featured in a new magazine that is being started up (details coming soon) and my payment is ad space for my books, and I was asked for the ads.

After my initial panic subsided I got to work, promptly got stressed out and had to take a breather. Fortunately I am not one to give up, so after a brief break I returned to the job, and this is what I came up with

Now I’m not going to claim that any of these are works of genius that will result in me getting thousands of sales every time I use them (oh I wish that would happen) but I am pleased with the way they turned out because of how much I dislike the process.

I also had a quick look at creating a cover for my next book, because being able to do so would save me a lot of money, but had to give up very quickly because my blood pressure and stress levels climbed very quickly to dangerous levels.

If anyone out there can produce a cover on a par with the two I already have for under £150, I’m looking for a designer for the Inspector Stone Mysteries #2.