Art

True Creative Motivation

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Motivation is critical to an artist.  Motivation is what drives you.  Motivation is about what you want to do and why you want to do it.  When all goes dark, motivation is the spark that can light your way – or light a fire to burn down obstacles.

Thus motivation and understanding your motivation is critical to any creative effort.  Being “in touch” with your motivation can drive you and guide you – and help you set and reach goals.

Of course we’ve also felt lacks of motivation.  Of having our drives vanish.  Of not knowing “why.”  Loosing motivation is equally dangerous, but there’s something worse.

There’s finding your motivation isn’t your own.

Many times friends and I who are writers, artists, and other creatives discuss why we do things.  The funny thing is, we often have very different goals and reasons.  This takes us all in different directions, but also helps us know where we have common ground or learn from contrasts.  However, now and then we find our motivations to feel wrong, or encounter fellow creatives whose motivations seem shallow and unhelpful.

Something that came up in a recent conversation was this – some creatives are motivated by other people’s motivations.  They’re doing thier work, driven by what drives others, having assumed “I do X so I should be motivated by Y.”

A few examples:

  • Writers who think they must make a living at it.  However, there’s many ways to make money, so why use writing?
  • Artists who want to work in a specific industry because “that’s where everyone goes” – missing the many other options.
  • Cosplayers who assume they have to follow in the footsteps of the Big Names.
  • People who assume that liking games means they should be in the games industry.

Now and again me and my friends find people motivated by what they think their motivation should be.  It rarely goes well for such people – they’re not driven, they’re not embracing their creative lifestyle, they’re not engaged.  Hell, in many cases they just stop caring.

As a creative, find what really motivates you.  It may shock you.  It may disturb you.  It may not even be there, requiring you to do some hard thinking or go on a kind of vision quest.  But having real motivation means you’re really engaged in your work.

Don’t operate off of stolen motivation.  Creativity is unique, personal and intimate – so your own motivation will unique, it will be part of who you are, and it will tie deep into your life and experiences and goals.

 

Steven Savage

Book Cover Musings

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

As I edit A Bridge To The Quiet Planet (Motto: “Sorcery, Science, Sarcasm”), I’m back to practicing book covers. I’ve been doing more of my fake book covers, with attempts at colorful kitch and e-book pulp action. I’ve realized I want to get better because I’ve got more books coming out – though my “tentpole” books are best with professional art.

I also realized some of my other books desperately need a cover update, so if you start seeing some of my older or smaller stuff look different, you know why. This has led me to get all philosophical about book covers, and you get to read about it.

Actually, this is pretty good stuff if you’re an author.

Royalty Free Art Grows Over Time

CanStockPhoto and Shutterstock are great resources for royalty-free art cheap, but even free sites like Pixabay have good resources – and think how more and more is being made over time. Every artist who joins, every upload of that “thing in the portfolio I haven’t used,” every additional piece, is another resource to be used. Over time, there will be more art available to users.

That would mean that in time it may take more searching but *the perfect piece of cover art will be more likely to be out there over time.* Also this means the perfect piece is just going to run you $8-$15 (as of 2018 numbers). even in my experiments, which use free sites, I’ve been surprised how I could find close or near-perfect art to my vision.

Cover Art Resources Keep Growing

I tend not to use stuff like Canva, etc. that let you build book covers I like the control of learning and of building my own templates. But these resources are out there and there’s more and they’re getting better. It’s going to be easier to make a good book cover over time.

Combine that with the above truth of more and more art being available and it’s going to be easier to have a half-decent cover for your book – at least an ebook.

Cover Art Ages

It’s weird to think how some of my books that looked appropriate for the time look a little aged or just poor right now. I can also see which styles may last versus which may become outdated.

For instance, now the trend of covers for fantasy and sf that are abstract or minimalist or symbolic is kinda wearing thin on me. I miss the covers that looked like they should be posters on your wall.

Also, some trend-jumping is going to be problematic. Remember how many things looked like Twilight Covers? Have those aged well? How many trendy things won’t work a few years down the road?

Cover Art May Matter More

When you see how people can make their own covers, how there’s more resources, and how art ages, I think good book covers matter more and more. At some point the market changes, the competitors ramp up, or your style is outdated.

Maybe authors need to consider swapping out cover art every two years or so. Of course if we do that then the value of art changes and it becomes far more a disposable commodity.

This Changes The Market For Cover Art

At this point I see that the market for cover art is changing and may change more rapidly. This is going to affect artists.

A good piece of cover art can run you $300-$1000 right now. Meanwhile a premade cover like you see at GoOnWrite might be $30-50. Something from CanStock Photo applied to an existing template may cost you $8.00.

If art becomes a variable commodity, the value changes – as is what people will pay for it.

Going Forward

Not sure if I found some massive magical trend (or if I’m seeing something everyone else has seen), but it’s something I’ll be keeping in mind. All we authors have to live with what’s happening – and decide where to invest our time.

 

– Steve

A Writer’s Life: Cover Me 4: Electric Thermador

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Man, been awhile since I did one of these?  Yeah, I got all tied up in that Personal Agile stuff, and overdid it.  So back to a more diverse blogging diet.

I wanted to do a final roundup of my experiment to make 30 book covers to practice my skills.  Last time I noted I actually got a request to do a “pro” book cover and did so.

So first up, here’s where I am:

  1. I did do over 30 covers.  Not all of them were worth posting, others I’m saving as I may actually write these books.
  2. I did slip the last month or so as I had so much else to do.  I probably need to keep practicing.
  3. I did prepare some mockups for future covers.
  4. I did get another request, and plan to keep pursuing those.

So overall, goal reached.  I had over 30 covers done, learned a lot, and feel I’m a much better artist.  But I can’t let this slip – it’s clear I have to keep practicing, which means making covers for myself, making mockups, helping others, and of course doing my own practice covers.  I do plan to keep doing smaller books and other ones where I can do my own covers, so it’s a skill worth keeping up.

Am I a professional?  No.  I can make professional-level work with time, but it takes a lot of effort – that pro-level cover I did for a co-worker took a prototype, a draft, and a final edit for a simple cover.  All-in-all it was probably 6-8 hours work.

Was it worth it?  Oh heck yes.  If you plan to publish a lot, especially if you’re doing a lot of works or doing smaller works (like ebooks only) it’s probably worth trying.  It may work for you if you take the time and have the skills – otherwise, though, seriously, hand someone the money.

Now a few lessons on covers from this roundup:

  1. Fonts.  Seriously you want a range of fonts, and want to know the usage rights.  Yes, there’s google fonts and what’s on your computer, but if you’re real serious, you may need to purchase a few.
  2. Style.  It’s imperative to look at other books that fit the kind of cover you’re making to learn trends – current and past.  Some things change that you need to keep up on – and some are constants you can’t miss.
  3. There’s really few truly simple book covers.  When you look close at many simple covers, there’s tiny bits of precision, from a font choice to a mild outline to a subtle shading in a text divider.  These subtleties are invisible unless they’re missing – then you notice something is dull.
  4. Photo usage rights are a tad complicated, so you want to read up on them.  If you’re using a picture of a live model, the rights can get real complicated; the basic rule is you can’t make suggestions about that model in your cover.  Ever wonder why many books have someone from behind, or the side, or below the neck?  It’s easier.
  5. Practice is really necessary to get good book covers.  It’s it’s own skillset, and even if you are an artist or designer, you might not be as good as you think if you never did a cover before.
  6. An amazing amount of book covers kinda suck.  If you can make or get a good cover it’s worth it.
  7. Finally, this was a great project.  I recommend trying it yourself!

There you go.  Thanks for being with me during this journey – and I’m sure there’s more practice covers to come!

– Steve