What should I put on the cover of my novel?

A picture of me would work. ;-)

i doubt that highly :P

Maybe half of a moon and half of a mask, attached together in the center of the cover over a dark landscape. You could even put the moon-half over an island-scape and the mask over a cityscape, or vice versa if it works better that way. I’d use white or silver for the text, to match the moon-mask thing, with the text at the bottom in the same color, only smaller (clearly!) and maybe in italics…

It’s hard to describe what I’m thinking, I wish I had a tablet so I could sketch it for you!

maybe a heart with a knife going through it and blood coming out. Not gushing, but just in a little stream or something. It would look really cool if it was pretty realistic too.

When I’m looking for graphics ideas I usually go to google image search and start typing in words. So you could try searching for “exist” or the shakespeare quote, or some character names until you see something that catches your eye. Find two or three things you like and figure out how to combine them.

Creativity is essentially taking two (or more) ideas and synthesizing them in a way that is not immediately apparent. It doesn’t matter what the source of the ideas are, it can be entirely random. You could literally just randomly search for images until you found a couple that you could imbue with meaning enough to fit them onto your cover…and it could be wonderful.

You could also get ideas by going to DeviantArt (or a similar website) and just browsing people’s work. It might give you a blueprint for what you want on the cover. Alternatively, you could pay someone to design a cover for you if you like their artwork.

Also, try thinking about types of graphics. Some graphics are meant as symbols, like you are saying. Some are more like landscapes or portraits. Others are surreal. Some are specifically meant to shock you. Some are designed to evoke certain emotions. Knowing what kind of image you are looking for can help you in the design face.

Final bit of advice. Make more than one cover before you decide on it. Creativity may be easy to define, but it’s not always easy to conduct. The best method for making really good work (in my opinion) is to produce more than you need and than choose the best of the lot.

Congratulations on writing a novel! It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.

@timothykinney thanks for the advice. i wish i were creative enough to use photoshop and draw something up myself but i dont really have that kind of artistic ability. i really do appreciate all the help offered by everyone…i love this site. :)

i used to use DeviantArt when i was in high school because i had a friend who drew a lot and posted stuff on there. i should try using it again.

i just wish i could put something together. i could just put pieces together like a house gets burned and there are roses at one point and then theres a cruise ship and all sorts of cliche items…i’m hopeless…

Another option would be to do a treatment on the word “Exist” as art.

That would be cool

This

My author friends tell me that their publisher decides what will go on the cover. They have in-house artists who illustrate their books. I remember attending a “cover” party for one author friend, when she received the art work for the cover of her latest book.

It might sell better if William Shakespeare’s name is bigger than yours.

@YARNLADY i have a subsidiary publisher so all the extras like what you described costs a lot of money which i cant afford. i wanted to retain all the rights to my novels that is why i am a self published author versus other options.

i eventually will work towards signing my novels over to a bigger publishing house but for right now i’m going to stick with what i got