I did a few yearbooks when you still did it on the board and have done a magazine cover or two over the years. I'm not an artist. I do know that for a book simple is the norm it should stand on content more than looks. I'll just about bet your content is fine or better than fine.
judging by current novel covers: Step one: read the book and find out what the main thoughts and premises are. Step two: Get a good understanding about the plotline Step three: throw all that out the window,choose a really annoying day glow color add some abstract swooshes, Step four:then print the name of the book in some terribly over-used ms font Step five: add a by line in a contrasting serif font and call it art
@ porkn****** - thanks for the encouragement @ nummie - That's about right, but I'm not envisioning this on m***-market bookshelves. Mostly I need some help from a graphic artist to put together a cover based on what I want. I have a real good idea of what I want, and don't want to have to pay the publishing company a pile of money to put it together. I'd rather pay a HAMB artist and know that my project is in good hands.
Get Rog to do it. 40studedood (sp?). He is now retired after about 900 years of doing that for a living. He does fine work. hell he would probably even throw in some marketing advice free of charge he's been doing the book thing as long as I have known him.
I knew he'd written some books and had them published, but didn't realize he was a graphic artist. Great idea! I'll definitely see what he says.
I truly impressed at the response! I also need someone who understands the mechanics of putting a cover together, as well as the artwork aspect. Thanks to everyone for your interest in my project!
I realize that, and my vision of the cover IS pretty simple. I'd just rather pay a HAMBer for any tweaking than someone I don't have any connection to.
If you can't find any HAMB'ers, try elance.com - there's tons of US-based artists on there who will quote the job, you can take a look at their portfolios too.