When I was looking for a non-royalty stockhouse, I really only found one that met my needs, Shutterstock. They allow their images to be used for e-book covers which was actually the exception to the ones I investigated. In addition to have a large selection of photography and art available in the jpeg format, they offer two packages that I can afford. I chose the one that offers 5 any-size images for $49.
Now a lot of writers can't or don't want to pay basically $10 per image, especially for a short story when it will take (barring a freaky but welcome unexpected run of success) at least a few months to recoup their money when their story is only selling for 99 cents anyway. I chose it for a couple of reasons, the first being that I expect this story to stay available for years to come. I don't think $10 is too much to pay to have a cover of which I'm proud for at least the next several years. The second reason is that this package offers downloads of any size image. Their other package offers 10 or 12 images at either the small or medium size only. I want the freedom of artistic license and to not have to be constrained by image size.
Now, I minored in black/white photography in college, so while I can't draw a stick figure, I do know something about composition and visual balance. I also know what I like :). My daughter's had years of art lessons, and while her stick figures are better than mine, her real love is digital manipulation of images. Between the two of us, we've come up with some covers that I love.
The first rule of choosing an image is to be flexible. Sure, some stories are easy to match on cover image. My newest story released is Butterflight, a young children's short story about a girl who unintentionally turns tiny and goes for a ride on a butterfly (cover below). The obvious choice for the cover is a butterfly. I checked Shutterstock for photo jpegs with butterflies. While there were some beautiful ones, ones that I could use for awesome covers, only a few of them had blue and purple butterflies, the colors of the butterfly in the story. I did save those in the library I created for this story, but then I eliminated the photos in the search and only searched illustration jpegs. Ah! There were a couple more that I liked. I put those in the library also. I also threw in a few from searches that I did on girl, Asian girl, and spinning. Now, I had probably ten in my library, and after Erica and I discussed the possibilities, we chose the one below by DeepGreen minus the text and outline. There wasn't an outline in the original image, but I knew it would need one so that it didn't blend in with the background white on BN and Amazon.
Some stories are a little bit harder to match, such as "Rocket Girls Are Real," another children's story, but for older kids. I couldn't find much with searches on astronauts (most were male) or female astronauts (a few but none really appealed to me). The search for cosmic, galaxy, universe and whatnot brought up zillions which I could go with, but I was hoping for something interesting to kids. An idea struck. I did a search for stars and backgrounds. That was the ticket. I threw a few into a library, let the possibilities simmer for a day or two, and chose the image by Fotos57, again minus the text. I did want it to be a little bit girly, and while this one is awfully girly, I admit (before you message me that not all girls are girly-girls), I love it anyway. Girls don't have a lot of science fiction aimed at them, so I went with it (okay, the story's really a fantasy, but it's science fiction within a fantasy framework).
The second rule to choosing a image is to leave room for the text. Of course, in RGAR, there's nothing but room for text here, but the image is obviously leaving room for text in the middle. That's another reason I chose it from the others, because the image draws the reader's eye to the text. For "Butterflight," there's also a natural space for text.
I don't like to place text over objects in the image unless it's just a bit. I'll give you an early peek (I'll release it within the next week or two) at my flash story collection cover, "Mellow Yellow," because I had to work around text in the image here. It's about as busy an image as I'll ever choose for any of my e-stories. It's on the verge of being too busy for the bottom text, but I think it works for this one.
The third rule for choosing images is to go for the feel. For MY, I wanted a distinctly 70s feel since the cover story is set in the 70s. Doesn't this cover (image by Adrian Niederhauser) just reek of that decade? For the RGAR cover, between the image and the font choice, I'm hoping you get a hard impress of fun. For one last example, the below image is the cover from "Pony Up," a young adult historical fantasy. There weren't a lot of images of pegasi, so I had to go with ponies. I knew this image by Benjamin Haas was the one for me when I saw it. It cries of history and the American West.
Is there anything I've forgotten, folks? So much of choosing an image is all about knowing it when you see it. That's not a learned thing, but if you're able to keep all of these things in mind when searching, you should be able to find something that will work. Sure, it helps if you have an artistic bent, but even if you feel you don't (and most people do whether they know it or not), ask a friend who does. Feel free to discuss your own artwork and choices below.
And, oh. Be sure to check out my website at www.lindaabdavis.com if you'd like more information on the stories attached to the covers here.
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