Friday, August 19, 2016

Cover Art Contest! And YOU'RE Invited!

It has been a really, really long time since I've done one of these cover art contests. 2014 was the last one.



Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com 

And that would largely be because I bought so many covers when we did that last one. But anyway, I've got some new projects coming up, and while most of them do have the cover art already designed, a number of them are without art. 


So I'm going to be put up a couple of cover art challenges in the posts that follow/precede this one.


Here's what you need to know.


The deadline is September 22.


It's more challenging this time because in most cases you're being asked to match the style and feel of existing covers.


The technical stuff. The covers must be vertical (rectangle-shaped) and must be a minimum width of 1,400 pixels. Recommended size is approximately 1,600 pixels wide by 2,400 pixels tall. JPEG (JPEG / JPG) or TIFF (TIF / TIFF) ONLY.


I will pay $75.00 a piece for the winning cover (not including the price of any photos that must be purchased) and the artist of course gets a cover credit inside the book.


The photos can be submitted to the contest with the watermark.


****Because I have an existing account at Shutterstock, I would prefer that you choose from their library, but I'm not going to make that a hard and fast rule if someone comes up with a really amazing image for a winning cover. ***


You submit your cover art to the email address on my contact page. Make sure you let me know what name you want your work posted under.  http://www.joshlanyon.com/contact.html


Your work will be posted on this blog site and then readers and other interested parties will vote for their choice for the final cover over the next week (I need this all finished up by the end of September) HOWEVER THE FINAL VOTE IS MINE. And I can be picky and eccentric as regular viewers know.


If you have any other questions, go ahead and in the comment section below.







8 comments:

  1. I find it interesting you used the words "picky" and "eccentric" to describe what you like. Both might be true, but you are a fantastically easy client to work with. You are concise describing what you are looking for and that makes the job so much easier. Having worked with the opposite, you've been one of my favs hands down.

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    1. :-D The thing is I do occasionally come up with eccentric ideas for cover art (as *cough* some of my regular cover artists THOUGH NOT YOU PLEASE will agree?) And I have been known to go against the will of the people. Pretty frequently, in fact.

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  2. This is going to be so much fun! It's so cool to see what kind of ideas everyone comes up with. It was a lively, productive event last time and I'm sure it will be this time, too. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the creative, different approaches!

    And hey, you're entitled to be as picky as you like. ;-) It's your art. You're the one who knows best what kind of wrapping you're looking for your stories.

    Also, I second what Catherine said — you're the best boss I've ever had. :-D

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    1. One of the cool things that came out of the last event was a lot of the covers I didn't choose got snapped up by other authors, so that was kind of an unexpected bonus for everyone.

      And when you work with talented and professional people like you and Catherine, there's no reason to be anything but happy -- and timely with the payments. ;-)

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  3. I'm so excited! I absolutely love your books and I really enjoy designing covers. Have you posted somewhere the title and summary of the book(s) so we know what to aim for?

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  4. Great!

    And yes. Look at the five previous posts -- those are your cover challenges, beginning with SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS. :-)

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  5. I love when you have these contests! Thank you!
    I was wondering if there was a secondary title for the Christmas story? For instance, with Bite Club you have The XOXO Files. With all other Adrien English titles you have The Adrien English Mysteries added. I was wondering if you wanted that secondary title on this Christmas story as well?

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    1. Another good question! Yes, in the case of series books, I think it's good to have the name of the series as a subtitle.

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