Spring in Florida, Book Cover Design

Spring has sprung in Florida as evidenced by the amaryllis and azaleas blooming. No tulips, but beds of amaryllis.

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Hello and welcome. I'm feeling good today. I don't know if it's because spring is evident in Florida (and I must say hot with temps in mid-80's) or if it's because I'm finally over the flu. I didn't know how bad I felt for the last month until this week when I realized I feel so good! So miserable for awhile. If you have or had the flu this winter, we are soul mates. I guess that flu shot didn't cover what I had. Hope you are feeling well now too.

Even feeling as rotten as I did,  I put the vegetable gardening book up on amazon on Feb.15. That was the highlight of the month and so much fun to do with my hubby, Gardener Ted. 

Quick Tips on
Vegetable Gardening
Book Cover
Available at Amazon

I shared the book cover with you so you could help me make a decision. Today I'm sharing a book cover for the upcoming ebook on writing tips from romance and mystery authors.

The authors were guests on this blog from October to February, so I'm sharing their tips and new material in the ebook. They had so many helpful and creative tips, I had to put them all together in one place so more writers could see them and use them for their writing projects. I'm so excited to be able to get this advice into the hands of aspiring and experienced authors, and to introduce readers to the contributing authors and their stories.

The book covers are below. I didn't put the fifteen contributing authors on the front of the book. Amazon only allows ten names to be listed as authors when uploading the book file, so I will list them inside. Even if I listed them, the names would be unreadable in the ebook thumbnail.  

Please give me some feedback on the covers. Colors, fonts, placement of words and images. Too busy? Too stark? I'm open to hearing it all.

Thanks.

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Thanks for your help. 
Images on the book covers courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
Multi-Colored Books from Stuart Miles portfolio
Opened Book from digitalart portfolio

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LINKS TO DESIGN A BOOK COVER:

If you are designing a book cover, here are a couple of links to help you design it.

The Book Designer--Five great fonts for book covers. There are many more helpful articles here by Joel Friedlander, the guru of book cover design.

The Cover Design Studio Article on fonts and typeface. Lots of information on design here.

Please sign up in the box at the right to keep up-to-date on the blog posts on the J.Q. Rose blog. Thanks!

Book Cover Design, Choose a Book Cover, Vegetable Gardening Series, Giveaway

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Yes, I have questions for you. 

I'm getting ready to publish a series on vegetable gardening. No it's not a mystery series, but rather a few booklets with quick tips to help vegetable gardeners grow a more productive garden filled with delicious, healthy veggies.

My DH was raised on a farm in Central Illinois. He grew to love gardening as a kid.  His passion for growing plants led us (yes we were co-business owners) into the greenhouse, garden center, and floral business. I decided to share his love of vegetable gardening on a blog several years ago. I enjoyed taking pictures, sharing tidbits about our garden, and offering good gardenng practices I gleaned from Gardener Ted. 

I have heard so much about writers turning blogs into books, I decided to try it for myself. My DH is my consultant and listed as Gardener Ted.

Question 1-Have you ever gone from blog to book?

Question 2--If you have, what were your results?

Question 3--I am now in the process of finishing Part 1 of the series, Starting Your Garden. When the booklet of about 3000 words is edited, would you like a copy to review? I would so appreciate your feedback. Leave a message for me in the comment or email me so I'll know to send you the final galley. email jqrose02 at gmail dot com

Below I have posted a few ideas for book covers. It's hard to remember these book covers will be shrunk down to an inch tall when the book is listed for sale on amazon. So I have tried to make them pretty simple with readable text. I used The Print Shop 22 to create the designs. The row of garden plants photo is my photo. The other two are from freedigitalphotos.net. I attribute the single seedling photo to amenic181  and the hands holding the seedling to adamr. If I choose one of the professional photos I will purchase the rights to use it.

Question 4--I am not sure how to list Ted on the book cover. At the moment it reads "J.Q. Rose with Gardener Ted." Should I put his name on it without the "with?" 

Question 5--Which book cover do you believe would catch the reader/gardener's eye? Please choose one and leave a comment below. Thank you.

Book Cover 1

Book Cover 2

Book Cover 3

Please leave a comment below about your choice of book cover. Thanks.
If you would like to join me in this indie publishing project, subscribe to this blog for updates on the progress.

Please share this post with your friends and family who are into gardening OR who like to look at book covers! Thank you!

This Week:

Thursday, January 29--The guest author for the Romance and Mystery Authors on Writing series is, um, let me check. Oh, it's me! I guess I'm not a guest, but I do have writing tips for you. Come back on Thursday and you can choose to win one of my mysteries or to read the first three chapters of my Work in Progress. This WIP is a mystery, romance, and paranormal and so much fun to write. C ya' then!