Preparing For Publication

While I haven't done my final (?) read-through yet, I know my novel-turned-novella is getting close, so since yesterday wasn't a writing (or re-reading) day, I began thinking about titles and cover design.

I previously mentioned that I refuse to saddle this thing with the original novel title or cover art, because it's jinxed. Also, I got sick of looking at that image, after too many years of it sitting on my website, alone and forlorn. 

No appropriate titles sprang to mind, so I, of course, Googled book title generators, most of which were no help whatsoever. Most of the ones I found asked for no keyword input ~ they simply presented a list of random titles. And trust me, my book has nothing to do with "kingdoms". 

BookRaid does have one that asks for the genre and a book description. That was a little helpful, at least in returning a few possibilities to draw from. 

Then I turned to Bing Co-Pilot. I've used it before and thus am aware that it's kind of a joke. One thing about AI, it's sorely lacking in creativity. All I wanted from it, really, was a few good keywords. I actually didn't mind one of its results and I almost used it, until I suddenly hit on a better one of my own.

Cover art creation was commenced as sort of a lark. I wasn't aiming at producing a final product; I just wanted to scroll the image possibilities. I did find one that I think I like, so I slapped my new title onto it and downloaded it for consideration. There is a question in my mind about colors, though. This one is pretty stark, in that it has no primary colors ~ no YELLOWS! (see my previous post regarding graphic design), no reds, not even any blues. Personally, I like a minimalist look, but I'm well aware that I'm not like most people. Since most of the bad things happen to my main character at night, I thought a greyish-black would convey the mood. Trouble is, sitting among all the garish selections on Amazon, will it simply fade into the background and/or turn people off? I could use it with the proviso that it will be subject to change or I can keep looking. 

This is my cover in its current iteration:

Yea, not really feeling it, to be honest, now that I see it again. The image could work with a bit more color added to the frame or text. And I'm not loving the font. I researched the types of fonts most commonly used for suspense novels, and this one was recommended, but it doesn't stand out. Worse, it screams "home-made". And the text placement is wrong ~ it looks like a book report.

Back to the drawing board. Ah well, it was simply an initial stab. I do like my title, though.

Once I'm satisfied with my re-write, I'll need to come up with a book description. Book descriptions are the absolute worst. I don't think I've ever written one to my satisfaction. There's a fine line between too much and too little. I've yet to find that line.

This is the state of my pre-publication process as of now. Baby steps forward, a couple miles yet to go.

UPDATE: The cover has now been changed.