Not finished yet by my artist. Here is a draft of my proposed book cover. Thoughts?
I like it.
Dark of night, twisting road, car headlights in front and taillight streaks behind. And all heading toward something evil up ahead. It all imparts a great eerie feel of an automotive adventure with a twist.
If I wanted to be picky I'd point out that everything in the picture has a detailed, realistic look except the car. The Cobra has a bit of a cartoonish look. If that's your intent then you succeeded. Well done. If you were going for realistic all the way, then the car needs some work. Either way, it's awfully well done for a "draft."
Will this be published on paper or electronic only? If electronic only I can see I'm going to have to get with the times and figure out how to do that. The free short story you previously posted combined with this draft cover have convinced me that I'm going to have to start checking out your books.
Steve
I would agree, maybe make the car a bit more "realistic" in appearance. As I live within close proximity to that very road I'll be anxious to see this in paper or electronic form.
Thank you gentlemen for your input and I agree with your assessments on the Cobra. Trying to get my artist to add the sidepipes and he said he isn't finished with the car yet. To use his words..."Still a lot to do here with the foliage, a night scene, but I still wanted some color in there. I felt blue for the car best stould out, black did not work at all.
Much to do left on the car, rims, driver, clean up of car body curves.
Some work on cleaning up the dragon as well, removed the " bat wing ears" took up too much room, and I felt this looked for demonic and menacing."
The Tail of the Dragon souvenir shop has agreed to sell my paper copies of this book at their store. I am also looking into selling my book at gas stations and automotive repair shops. Wal-Mart and Target I am less certain about. They might look at me sideways thinking..."where's your agent" and "who does he think he is?"
Best,
Richard E.
Quote from: deathsled on September 12, 2019, 08:52:50 AM
Not finished yet by my artist. Here is a draft of my proposed book cover. Thoughts?
looks great!
Quote from: deathsled on September 13, 2019, 09:52:21 AM
Thank you gentlemen for your input and I agree with your assessments on the Cobra. Trying to get my artist to add the sidepipes and he said he isn't finished with the car yet. To use his words..."Still a lot to do here with the foliage, a night scene, but I still wanted some color in there. I felt blue for the car best stould out, black did not work at all.
Much to do left on the car, rims, driver, clean up of car body curves.
Some work on cleaning up the dragon as well, removed the " bat wing ears" took up too much room, and I felt this looked for demonic and menacing."
The Tail of the Dragon souvenir shop has agreed to sell my paper copies of this book at their store. I am also looking into selling my book at gas stations and automotive repair shops. Wal-Mart and Target I am less certain about. They might look at me sideways thinking..."where's your agent" and "who does he think he is?"
Best,
Richard E.
Please let me know where I can buy a copy when it comes out in paper.
Steve
As far as the taillight "trails"are concerned,light doesn't behave that way,smoke maybe...
Otherwise,very cool.
Richard, I like the design concept and I have worked with artist draft renderings before so I realize it is a work in progress. Although the tail light blurs are not realistic at this time, to me they gave the impression of an impending crash. Your title invokes a "cost" (Toll) imposed by the Dragon. What greater cost for an automotive junkie than a crashed Cobra? My mind instantly recalled the recent pictures posted on another thread here of a Cobra (CSX3232) that crashed in 1968 tragically taking the lives of two young men. Not that I've ever owned a Cobra, but for the grace of God, that could easily have been me on more than one occasion. I'm not sure what your other stories are about, but the loss of life is the ultimate toll. Your cover art can capture that split second of time right before impact.
That's my 2 cents anyway. ~Kevin
I thought about the tail lights in similar terms, but will keep the blurs as a fantasy rendition to connote speed. I'll see what the artist does with the rest. Everything can easily be tweaked and changed with the software used by artists these days unlike the past.
I drove the Tail of the Dragon in 2017 and it can be treacherous. If your mind deviates from the road the rest of you will as well.
Here's a link to photos taken of the 2016 Shelby Mustang I rented. Killboy is a professional photographer who takes everyone's photo at key parts of US 129...
https://killboy.photoreflect.com/store/Orderpage.aspx?pi=04RK02UY020566&po=696&pc=858
Scroll backwards/forward on photos. I highly recommend this road to all of you.
I will have some copies of the book for purchase on saac while others will be diverted to the Tail of the Dragon gift shop and others still to local gas stations and/ or auto repair facilities.
Quote from: 557 on September 14, 2019, 01:16:59 AM
As far as the taillight "trails"are concerned,light doesn't behave that way,smoke maybe...
Otherwise,very cool.
It does if you use a slow shutter speed.
Looks great Richard. Well done mate
Cheers
Thank you Lad and all you gentlemen for your input. Doing final edits tonight on the novella portion of the book with short stories to be interspersed. Tomorrow on Amazon, I will be offering two more of my stories for free download, but Amazon won't let me promote the free for more than 5 days. So I will have to do it on a rotational basis. I'm stuck on the first two until December before I can offer another free promotion on Drag Lake or The Shroud of Mercury. I've not tried this before but was surprised at the number of downloads I got in those five days. I'll post the two new stories on a separate thread once Amazon activates the promotion. I was getting downloads from all over the world, Germany, the UK, one from India and of course the US. It is an honor for me that anyone reads my books.
Final proof on the cover. The Cobra isn't perfect but in the words of Shelby once more, if the car is great the name won't matter but if the car is lousy the Name won't save it.
Addendum: I was hesitant to run my new artist through the proverbial gears but I am trying to get him to eliminate that horizontal bar on the safety loop. The fender flares are pretty radical but I'm leaving them as is. Make too many changes then it creates some other area that needs fixing.
Quote from: deathsled on September 15, 2019, 09:02:01 PM
Final proof on the cover. The Cobra isn't perfect but in the words of Shelby once more, if the car is great the name won't matter but if the car is lousy the Name won't save it.
Addendum: I was hesitant to run my new artist through the proverbial gears but I am trying to get him to eliminate that horizontal bar on the safety loop. The fender flares are pretty radical but I'm leaving them as is. Make too many changes then it creates some other area that needs fixing.
+ 1 looks great
Looks good 8)
I especially like the tail-lights.
I like it, congrats.
Thank you gentlemen. I hope my writing lives up to the cover.
Final final on the cover. I had the artist remove that horizontal bar on the safety loop. It was that irksome to me I needed it gone. As I mentioned before, I'll live with the artificial fender flares..
I give myself to the end of the month to have 100 of these books in print. Many will be going to the gift shop at the Tail of the Dragon in Deals Gap. I will retain a few to sell locally at gas stations, automotive repair facilities and anywhere else that will accept them for display. Anyone on saac interested I will reserve a few as well. I am fronting all the expenses for this project. It is daunting but at the same time exciting. And thank you to all who downloaded my ebooks. In addition to the US and Canada, I was getting downloads from far flung regions of the world like Germany, UK, India. I was pleasantly surprised.
The cover is finished by the printer and I just sent the approve. "Treadheart" on the back cover is a logo I drew and adopted as my own personal Jolly Roger in life.
Tail of the Dragon store is taking ten copies. It's been a fun project in my life.
Best,
Richard E
when available we will purchase one, please advise
Quote from: deathsled on October 01, 2019, 11:56:14 AM
The cover is finished by the printer and I just sent the approve. "Treadheart" on the back cover is a logo I drew and adopted as my own personal Jolly Roger in life.
Tail of the Dragon store is taking ten copies. It's been a fun project in my life.
Best,
Richard E
Will do so and thank you.
The books just arrived today. Diggypod did amazing work. I need to build a website. Sending down ten tomorrow to the Tail of the Dragon store as they requested.
I will be doing a book signing today in Bloomingdale, Illinois at Half Price Books from 12 pm to 4 pm. Everyone welcome who are in shooting range...
Quote from: deathsled on October 03, 2019, 09:39:56 PM
The books just arrived today. Diggypod did amazing work. I need to build a website. Sending down ten tomorrow to the Tail of the Dragon store as they requested.
I missed this post previously. They really turned out nice!
I'm selling books here. Inventory is moving. A bit taken aback by the response at this bookstore. I'm more accustomed to angry people who come to my office and I sell them legal services. This is a most refreshing change let me tell you.
Best,
Richard E.
Winding down here. Will put up a website soon. People like ebooks because I got a number of requests as such.