I love to play around with Photoshop and QuarkXpress. Usually, I design magazine pages, seeing as that’s what I learned, but every now and then I try and design a book cover.
What better excuse than a NaNoWriMo project like Pomp & Circumstances to practice a bit?
Below are two covers I threw together within a few minutes, just to get a feel for it all again. It’s been a a while since I last used QuarkXpress. They’re not official or anything, just mock covers to work out what to keep, what to get rid of and what to improve on.
The story is, at its heart, about a young man with a prestigious background, who falls from grace due to drugs. So have a look at the covers and tell me what you think.
Mock cover for my NaNoWriMo 2014 novel Pomp & Circumstances. Photo by Dan Mabaix.
A mock cover for Pomp & Circumstances. Photo by MatDur.
It’s poll time!
Anything you’d like to add? Let me know in the comments!
Study. Read. Write. 
Neat idea to design a cover for your NaNo writing project. Just another way to play around this month — with words AND images. All the best.
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I went with the chemistry set in the window only cause it’s the. . . lesser evil so to speak? Basically, if I saw that first cover I’d not think the story was about a man or about the little bit of information you provide. The first one looks much more like a regency romance novel cover. I think as a start the chemistry set in the window is a good one, but it still needs something more. I’m also not sure on that font or the positioning.
All that aside, this is a brilliant idea! I want to do it myself, but nobody has provided me with an idea where I can get public domain images. =(
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Well, it was just a doodle, haven’t done anything in QuarkXpress for a while. I do have the perfect picture in mind, but can’t find it!
I did reblog a post yesterday about sourcing free images. It has a couple of links in it that might be useful to you.
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Honestly, I’m impressed you did one in general. I’ve never tried a cover. This will be my first attempt if I can find images I want to use. And oh, I’ll have to find that post! That could be really useful. ^_^
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