The Saga of the Ever-Changing Book Cover

Finding the right cover for your book is a tough task. Especially if you can't afford a proper book cover designer, and if you have no discernible artistic talent whatsoever. My first idea for the cover of my book, I Am Annoyed: One Man's Rants Against This Annoying World, was simply a picture of myself with an annoyed expression on my face with I Am Annoyed written in big bold letters above my head. The first problem with that was that I don't like displaying my ugly mug for the whole world to see, which is why I don't have a picture of myself in this blog. The second problem was that in attempting to make an annoyed face in the mirror, I looked more like I was constipated than anything else. I guess if I ever were to write I Am Constipated: One Man's Struggles With a Clogged-Up Poop Chute, I'd have the perfect cover image. I tried finding stock photos of people looking annoyed, but they never looked right, plus, even though I'm not totally comfortable putting my own face on my cover, I don't want anyone else's face on there, either. So I decided a simple cover with a huge I Am Annoyed and a smaller One Man's Rants Against This Annoying World was the way to go. So, despite their ugliness, here's some examples of my attempts at creating my book cover:





                                             Really??? Dude, this is terrible!!! 



                                                 Not bad...for a four year old.

                                                 

                                         Maybe I reached the first grade level?

                             This looks okay, but it did take me a week to do this. 

 

So yeah, this was a huge struggle. Finally, though, after googling "annoyed man stock illustration,"  I found an image that perfectly sums up my annoyance. Okay, so the illustration is called "angry boy." but he can also be "annoyed," right? Plus the guy does kind of look like me. He has more hair, though. So after buying this image, (by the way, thanks to canstockphoto.com and Davi Sales, the artist), and some quick work writing in my title, here's the final cover:

The final cover. Yes, I do sort of look like this.

 

 

So there you have it. My words of advice to those of you that are trying to create the perfect book cover: be born with some artistic talent, or know someone who has artistic talent that will work for free, otherwise, I have nothing else to tell you. Thanks for reading.