Crowdsourcing
I not only love reading books, but also looking at their covers. Especially with new-to-me-authors cover art is a very important purchase factor.
When I was only a reader, before I was ever involved as cover artist in the actual production of a book, I imagined that the author would tell the publishers how s/he saw the cover and when there would be a photo-shoot with models and all to just accomplish that vision (i.e. in case no original art was involved). I had never heard of stock art before.
Then, during my beginnings as a cover artist for e-book publishers I discovered the whole world of stock on the internet. There were, and still are, very pricey sites like veer.com — especially when compared to what you earn as e-book cover artist. And then ones who I could afford — istockphoto.com, dreamstime.com, stockxpert.com, to name just a few.
I started to recognize the expensive images on Romance covers by NY publishing houses and dreamed of being able to work one day with the same stock, to bring the NY flair to my covers.
This dream, though stopped later as the first articles started to appear on blogs—yes, also on RTB—about how books, even ones releasing the same month, were having the same cover. The ‘recycled-cover-trend’ had arrived.
So I evolved as artist, striving more for uniqueness and creativity instead of copying what the NY pubs put on their covers. Not that I didn’t do that before, knowing that almost every other e-book cover artist—when working with photos—used the same stock resources than I did. However, the NY pubs were no longer my role model for a great cover.
Don’t get me wrong, please! There are still tons of NY covers that get me drooling! I’m not saying one is better than the other (and I don’t even want to go into an e-book/print pub discussion), just that some events altered my view on the cover art process.
While there will always be some poorly executed e-book covers, I’m very pleased to notice that the majority of e-covers today are very appealing and don’t need to take a backseat when compared to the covers created by the art departments of the big publishing houses.
Quite contrary is the fact that the e-cover artists still use the same ‘cheap’ resources, and the covers have never been better or had more variety than they do today. There are real photo magicians at work.
(And believe me, ‘cheap’ is a very subjective matter as especially lately, the most stock sites increased their prices.)
So while the e-cover industry improved their ‘looks’, the NY pubs have started to recognize—and I’m sure the economy is not a small factor here—the value of the ‘cheaper’ stock sites. After the ‘recycled-cover-look’ you now can see a new trend: Crowdsourcing! It’s not an own, to the Romance publishing world limited, phenomenon, but shows its head everywhere.
Wikipedia: “Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call.”
Two very well-known Crowdsourcing cases recently have been the TIME magazine cover and the Twitter bird. You can catch up on both also here with lots of visuals.
Nowadays, when surfing the Romance section in online bookstores, I should actually be happy about the fact that I have difficulties telling e-covers from other covers apart. Unfortunately, it’s not only because the e-covers improved so much, but due to publishers using the same $6 stock images I and my fellow e-artists use, and most don’t even do it creatively.
On the one hand, I’m thankful for crowdsourcing as photographers who offer their photos up at affordable prices, giving me the opportunity to purchase the ‘basics’ for my covers. I often merge up to five different photos to create the cover the author and I are looking for. On the other hand, I’m not as happy to see bigger companies, publishers, who could afford to pay the artists more (or even get a bit more creative with the use of such widely used images), do the same, though it’s definitely the right thing in the business world, where cheap resources and fast work are appreciated, and in the end the biggest profit counts.
So please do welcome the crowdsourced-cover-trend!
Copyright
Crowdsourcing
I not only love reading books, but also looking at their covers. Especially with new-to-me-authors cover art is a very important purchase factor.
When I was only a reader, before I was ever involved as cover artist in the actual production of a book, I imagined that the author would tell the publishers how s/he saw the cover and when there would be a photo-shoot with models and all to just accomplish that vision (i.e. in case no original art was involved). I had never heard of stock art before.
Then, during my beginnings as a cover artist for e-book publishers I discovered the whole world of stock on the internet. There were, and still are, very pricey sites like veer.com — especially when compared to what you earn as e-book cover artist. And then ones who I could afford — istockphoto.com, dreamstime.com, stockxpert.com, to name just a few.
I started to recognize the expensive images on Romance covers by NY publishing houses and dreamed of being able to work one day with the same stock, to bring the NY flair to my covers.
This dream, though stopped later as the first articles started to appear on blogs—yes, also on RTB—about how books, even ones releasing the same month, were having the same cover. The ‘recycled-cover-trend’ had arrived.
So I evolved as artist, striving more for uniqueness and creativity instead of copying what the NY pubs put on their covers. Not that I didn’t do that before, knowing that almost every other e-book cover artist—when working with photos—used the same stock resources than I did. However, the NY pubs were no longer my role model for a great cover.
Don’t get me wrong, please! There are still tons of NY covers that get me drooling! I’m not saying one is better than the other (and I don’t even want to go into an e-book/print pub discussion), just that some events altered my view on the cover art process.
While there will always be some poorly executed e-book covers, I’m very pleased to notice that the majority of e-covers today are very appealing and don’t need to take a backseat when compared to the covers created by the art departments of the big publishing houses.
Quite contrary is the fact that the e-cover artists still use the same ‘cheap’ resources, and the covers have never been better or had more variety than they do today. There are real photo magicians at work.
(And believe me, ‘cheap’ is a very subjective matter as especially lately, the most stock sites increased their prices.)
So while the e-cover industry improved their ‘looks’, the NY pubs have started to recognize—and I’m sure the economy is not a small factor here—the value of the ‘cheaper’ stock sites. After the ‘recycled-cover-look’ you now can see a new trend: Crowdsourcing! It’s not an own, to the Romance publishing world limited, phenomenon, but shows its head everywhere.
Wikipedia: “Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call.”
Two very well-known Crowdsourcing cases recently have been the TIME magazine cover and the Twitter bird. You can catch up on both also here with lots of visuals.
Nowadays, when surfing the Romance section in online bookstores, I should actually be happy about the fact that I have difficulties telling e-covers from other covers apart. Unfortunately, it’s not only because the e-covers improved so much, but due to publishers using the same $6 stock images I and my fellow e-artists use, and most don’t even do it creatively.
On the one hand, I’m thankful for crowdsourcing as photographers who offer their photos up at affordable prices, giving me the opportunity to purchase the ‘basics’ for my covers. I often merge up to five different photos to create the cover the author and I are looking for. On the other hand, I’m not as happy to see bigger companies, publishers, who could afford to pay the artists more (or even get a bit more creative with the use of such widely used images), do the same, though it’s definitely the right thing in the business world, where cheap resources and fast work are appreciated, and in the end the biggest profit counts.
So please do welcome the crowdsourced-cover-trend!
Copyright
