Art and Culture # 67
The Power of the Book Cover
-For the Uncensored!
The power of the book cover is what makes writing a book essential to the written word. There’s always the saying goes “you can tell a book by it’s cover.” In genre titles, yes, this might be a gross overstatement. Often book covers can be quite beautiful. Don’t pretend that you’re not in the erotica section of your favorite book store peaking at the words an unknown romance writer is going to sell you. Because it might actually make you excited. Remember that feeling? When you looked at a piece of Art and were amazed, shocked, that a book or piece of Art could defiled your preconceptions.
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I made a post that did cover this idea. Romance books should essentially make your blood rise. You should want to look at a romance novel that makes a woman look at her husband and say, “I’m going to suck his dick tonight.” And maybe for no reason. But that’s what romance/erotica should do. But for women, it’s complicated. While the words fester and the characters long for one another, a book cover says all the feelings you wanted to say.
A lonely mid-western house wife or a New York socialite are then one in the same. They have both Peyton Place or Fifty Shades of Grey, and they can look at each other and smile. It’s an old title, but that’s what books do. They help you build a bond that you should feel transcends boundaries.
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With book covers, they do serve as the visual aesthetic of what the book can mean.
With the fantasy genre, there are so many covers that we could cover that would become fifteen pages. The famous fantasy drawer, Frank Franzetta, who was born February 9th 1928 and passed May 10th, 2010. There are so many Franzetta covers it would be insane to cover them all. One painting titled Conan the Destroyer is probably the most famous painting of all the Robert E. Howard covers.
While this is a cover that pays more attention to the overall hellscape of brown. Brown is a rather muted color, and not to be worn as a suit. But the way this picture almost looked like caked blood. Because blood is brown, and not red. Movies use corn syrup. This would be a window into Conan’s soul that not many artists could capture. It makes me want to start hunting full on naked, crawling through the middle of the forest. Training like Conan. Learning whether the sword is right. But paintings create evocative emotions. And great book covers create a gist of both author and painters view of the book. It helps if the author loves the book itself. The consequence of great art is that it will be remembered and set a tradition that other artists can aspire and outdo. Frank Franzetta went onto an illustrious career, but his paintings live on, because he gave so much of his soul into the painting. The experience it takes to make a painting, drawing, or writing, takes years to match. It’s nothing like looking at a book cover and your eyes drawn to the book.
But there is something lacking with book covers that don’t have a good budget or they look like every cover you see. Again, when you’re kind of an amateur, and you’re self-publishing, you learn as you go. It’s hard to admit but if you know a wonderful drawer, it might just be fire for your book. Also if you’re not very good at art, download WOMBO, because you can use the title of your book to get an equally beautiful cover. Plus, it’s made by AI, so you can honestly use it as your own, or alter it however much you like. AI hasn’t reached that sentience yet to sue humans for stealing their art, so use WOMBO while you can.
Ultimately, art takes time, and sometimes, if you’re an amateur, time will help you progress, and be your best critic. But a book cover sometimes can make or break your sales, but learn and study all you can. Because that book cover, might just mean a sale. If not, keep making great book covers.
There are very few artists on the Internet I do ultimately have no faith in. But Athon.X’s drawings are phenomenal. I can’t wait until he writes a full fledged comic of his Captain Kekistan.[ii] And the act of art, takes time, but also copyright exists. Copyright your art as well.[iii]
http://frazettaartmuseum.com. Found 02/01/2022
[ii] https://substack.com/profile/50212348-a-thon-x?r=j7aax&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=web.
[iii] https://eservice.eco.loc.gov/siebel/app/eservice/enu?SWECmd=Start.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 19 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Our Freedom Book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/thereallouistbruno17. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His next series, City of Sand is out now:https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/louis-bruno/city-of-sand/hardcover/product-rke9jz.html?page=1&pageSize=4. Also, if you can’t subscribe so that you can get members only content, please be sure to share the articles, as well. If you do Subscribe, as well so you can get my articles in your inbox every time. Every little bit helps in the war against Big Tech.
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