In life, there re two ways t make yourself look better.
One is to actually make yourself look better, which requires hard work, effort, and talent.
The other is to try to make everyone else look bad so you look relatively better.
This cover was drawn as a personal favor to me by someone who was trying to help me with my book. I happen to like it, though I eventually used another cover by the same artist for the book, which can be viewed here:
My reason for switching is because the new cover is truly disturbing, and the book revolves around the Delaware Water Gap, not Indian River, which the original cover depicts.
Many Zombie book covers are fairly generic and tedious, and while this cover may not be your cup of tea, as a matter of taste, the artist itself is great, and here is their website.
Since this seems to be the snarky comment site, let me just say FU in advance and avoid some sort of Internet dispute. I can’t believe people are still commenting on this early cover, or I would have let this go.
In life, there are two ways to improve:
One is to realize that you need to up your game.
The other is to lash out at anyone who tells you that what you’re offering TO THE PUBLIC, FOR MONEY is lacking.
Whether the cover was drawn by a personal friend is immaterial, because you can’t position yourself between the cover and every potential reader and say, “Now, don’t judge this by objective standards or you’re going to hurt someone’s feelings.”
Ah, so you’re going to avoid “some sort of internet dispute” by saying FU before grabbing your marbles and running home. Bravo. You have now just cemented yourself as a amateur from the “everybody gets a trophy” generation, instead of someone who actually could survive as a professional.
Give up now, P.J. Come back when you’ve grown the necessary callus to have some skin in the game.
Your reply made no sense to me. It didn’t address my post at all. It’s as if you were replying to an imaginary post inside your brain. The subtext here is hire you to do covers or get ridiculed by you and your friends. I like both covers the artist did for me, both the first one shown here and the current one. I switched them for reasons already stated. Some people love the covers, some don’t. People are allowed to disagree about art, though I think you view this differently. As for me being calloused, I actually try not to be. I know this is hard for a fifteen year old kid who figured out how to make a website to understand, but you will someday.
Heh. I simply answered the points in your initial post. The only reason that my reply didn’t make sense to you is that you’re an smug, self-deluded idiot who’s intent on doubling down on his idiocy, and the “subtext” you read here is entirely absent from this site; it’s only present in your sub-standard consciousness. “Fifteen year old kid” — gosh, that’s a good one. I cower before your acerbic wit!
By the way, the cover that you claim isn’t current? As the link above shows, it’s still for sale.
Now go tell the rest of the internet that I’m a meanie that gave you the badfeels. I’m done with you.
I suggest you reread it because the failure to understand it is clearly on you.
NOBODY on this site offers cover designing services, neither Nathan nor us, even though there are designers among us. So please, get your basic information down before you start writing nonsense, you’ll save yourself from looking like an idiot.
The subtext here is actually “don’t sell shit.” If you want to be a professional author (apologies if you don’t) you cannot ask people to give you money for a substandard product. It’s like you’re trying to sell a smelly, chewed up flipflop at a price of Jimmy Choo and then yell at people when they tell you you’re trying to sell them crap. Nobody is going to buy your smelly, chewed up flipflop.
I’m going to tell you something in a completely well-meaning but honest manner: neither this artwork nor the other one is professional enough for a book cover. Your friend playing with crayons and ball point pen is nice and all, but crayons are not a professional media for a book cover, unless the art is of a mind-blowing quality, like this, this, or this. I know some people are not able to judge the quality of artwork, so let me tell you, honestly, your friend’s artwork is lightyears behind any of the above examples. It’s not even in the close range of ‘not really good but acceptable’ category. It’s just not. No amount of convincing that it is can change that fact.
Now, you can do two things with the info I gave you. You can shout till you’re blue in the face at me and every other person with eyes that the art is actually good, it’s just that none of us can see the brilliance of it, or you can take this criticism and use it to MAKE A BETTER COVER. Which do you think is easier, changing the entire world’s perception of what good art is, or changing your cover to something acceptable? I can tell you right now, it would take nothing short of a lobotomy to convince me, and I’m pretty confident that goes for the rest of us, that this cover or the other one is not crap.
If you don’t want people crapping on your book, then don’t make it crappable. It’s as simple as that. The way to shut us up is not by arguing here like a three-year-old with your fingers stuck in your ears, it’s by making your cover so good we can’t find a fault with it. Right now your covers are such easy pickings it’s not even funny.
Naaman Brown
7 years ago
I could post a link to the Internet Butthurt Report Form, but that would be mean and snarky, so I shall refrain.
Looks like they’ve finally updated it on Smashwords, squishing it BY HALF in the process. And someone either has a really bright screen or a serious eye problem if they think darkening it that much makes it look better.
Dear Jon, PJ, or whoever the hell you are,
if you’re going to make a cover, then you START WITH THE DIMENSIONS IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE IN. You don’t make it whatever, and then deform it to fit the required dimensions. If you can’t even figure out something as basic as that, you really have no business designing a book cover. Although, the fact that it looks better deformed doesn’t really go in your favor.
Zombies? Where?
Behind the trees. They learned that trick from bigfoot.
Flying the damn helicopter. That’s why it’s auguring in–the survival of the occupants is just NBD.
Drawn by an actual zombie!
In life, there re two ways t make yourself look better.
One is to actually make yourself look better, which requires hard work, effort, and talent.
The other is to try to make everyone else look bad so you look relatively better.
This cover was drawn as a personal favor to me by someone who was trying to help me with my book. I happen to like it, though I eventually used another cover by the same artist for the book, which can be viewed here:
My reason for switching is because the new cover is truly disturbing, and the book revolves around the Delaware Water Gap, not Indian River, which the original cover depicts.
Many Zombie book covers are fairly generic and tedious, and while this cover may not be your cup of tea, as a matter of taste, the artist itself is great, and here is their website.
http://sckelleyartist.weebly.com/index.html
Since this seems to be the snarky comment site, let me just say FU in advance and avoid some sort of Internet dispute. I can’t believe people are still commenting on this early cover, or I would have let this go.
Dear, Dear PJ:
In life, there are two ways to improve:
One is to realize that you need to up your game.
The other is to lash out at anyone who tells you that what you’re offering TO THE PUBLIC, FOR MONEY is lacking.
Whether the cover was drawn by a personal friend is immaterial, because you can’t position yourself between the cover and every potential reader and say, “Now, don’t judge this by objective standards or you’re going to hurt someone’s feelings.”
Ah, so you’re going to avoid “some sort of internet dispute” by saying FU before grabbing your marbles and running home. Bravo. You have now just cemented yourself as a amateur from the “everybody gets a trophy” generation, instead of someone who actually could survive as a professional.
Give up now, P.J. Come back when you’ve grown the necessary callus to have some skin in the game.
Your reply made no sense to me. It didn’t address my post at all. It’s as if you were replying to an imaginary post inside your brain. The subtext here is hire you to do covers or get ridiculed by you and your friends. I like both covers the artist did for me, both the first one shown here and the current one. I switched them for reasons already stated. Some people love the covers, some don’t. People are allowed to disagree about art, though I think you view this differently. As for me being calloused, I actually try not to be. I know this is hard for a fifteen year old kid who figured out how to make a website to understand, but you will someday.
Heh. I simply answered the points in your initial post. The only reason that my reply didn’t make sense to you is that you’re an smug, self-deluded idiot who’s intent on doubling down on his idiocy, and the “subtext” you read here is entirely absent from this site; it’s only present in your sub-standard consciousness. “Fifteen year old kid” — gosh, that’s a good one. I cower before your acerbic wit!
By the way, the cover that you claim isn’t current? As the link above shows, it’s still for sale.
Now go tell the rest of the internet that I’m a meanie that gave you the badfeels. I’m done with you.
I suggest you reread it because the failure to understand it is clearly on you.
NOBODY on this site offers cover designing services, neither Nathan nor us, even though there are designers among us. So please, get your basic information down before you start writing nonsense, you’ll save yourself from looking like an idiot.
The subtext here is actually “don’t sell shit.” If you want to be a professional author (apologies if you don’t) you cannot ask people to give you money for a substandard product. It’s like you’re trying to sell a smelly, chewed up flipflop at a price of Jimmy Choo and then yell at people when they tell you you’re trying to sell them crap. Nobody is going to buy your smelly, chewed up flipflop.
I’m going to tell you something in a completely well-meaning but honest manner: neither this artwork nor the other one is professional enough for a book cover. Your friend playing with crayons and ball point pen is nice and all, but crayons are not a professional media for a book cover, unless the art is of a mind-blowing quality, like this, this, or this. I know some people are not able to judge the quality of artwork, so let me tell you, honestly, your friend’s artwork is lightyears behind any of the above examples. It’s not even in the close range of ‘not really good but acceptable’ category. It’s just not. No amount of convincing that it is can change that fact.
Now, you can do two things with the info I gave you. You can shout till you’re blue in the face at me and every other person with eyes that the art is actually good, it’s just that none of us can see the brilliance of it, or you can take this criticism and use it to MAKE A BETTER COVER. Which do you think is easier, changing the entire world’s perception of what good art is, or changing your cover to something acceptable? I can tell you right now, it would take nothing short of a lobotomy to convince me, and I’m pretty confident that goes for the rest of us, that this cover or the other one is not crap.
If you don’t want people crapping on your book, then don’t make it crappable. It’s as simple as that. The way to shut us up is not by arguing here like a three-year-old with your fingers stuck in your ears, it’s by making your cover so good we can’t find a fault with it. Right now your covers are such easy pickings it’s not even funny.
I could post a link to the Internet Butthurt Report Form, but that would be mean and snarky, so I shall refrain.
http://sckelleyartist.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/0/0/11002210/555723_orig.jpg
This is the actual final version of the fdraft you post. Obviously, the final version is much better than the draft.
If you see the draft, that means somebody bootlegged the book, because it is not used anymore.
Dear Jon Sebastian who has the same email address as P.J Kelley,
You’re still not listening.
The cover I posted is STILL FOR SALE ON SMASHWORDS. It’s the version that was uploaded for sale by P.J. Kelley himself. Click and see.
Looks like they’ve finally updated it on Smashwords, squishing it BY HALF in the process. And someone either has a really bright screen or a serious eye problem if they think darkening it that much makes it look better.
Dear Jon, PJ, or whoever the hell you are,
if you’re going to make a cover, then you START WITH THE DIMENSIONS IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE IN. You don’t make it whatever, and then deform it to fit the required dimensions. If you can’t even figure out something as basic as that, you really have no business designing a book cover. Although, the fact that it looks better deformed doesn’t really go in your favor.