It seems to me that less and less e-pubs are using in-house models. How do I figure that out? Well, I was wandering through stock photos for images to use on some book trailers and I came across lots of pictures I have seen on many upcoming e-book covers from publishers who I thought used only a stable of models. No, not conclusive evidence but it did surprise me how little work would be required in banging out a cheapie cover using a stock photo than relying on a studly pool of talent employed to be cover models – and a lot of e-pubs do…or did. I expect it's a sign of the financial times and that it would be cheaper to buy a bunch of stock photos in bulk then employ in-house models. I have to wonder though if patch and paste and obvious computer generated covers, while cheap, do more harm than good for an author and the company.
Another thing that interested me about covers was when I heard, from a couple of different sources, that some cover models aren’t interested in posing as gay on a MM cover. I can understand that. Now I don’t care if you’re black, white or brindle, who you love or worship or if you think red nail polish is better than blue – blue is actually better – but to my mind if a male cover model has a certain time frame where he can utilize his physical assets to make money, then it’s completely up to him to represent what he wants and can make a living from without being tagged as any one thing or the other. I think that’s fair. You have to do what’s right for you and maybe that’s another reason some e-pubs have moved away from in-house models to patch and paste floating torsos and body parts slapped on a front cover.
People do judge books by their covers. We’re human. We do that. If the cover is cheap is the company the same?
www.amarindajones.com
www.amarindajones.blogspot.com
Be daring...read an Amarinda book
Another thing that interested me about covers was when I heard, from a couple of different sources, that some cover models aren’t interested in posing as gay on a MM cover. I can understand that. Now I don’t care if you’re black, white or brindle, who you love or worship or if you think red nail polish is better than blue – blue is actually better – but to my mind if a male cover model has a certain time frame where he can utilize his physical assets to make money, then it’s completely up to him to represent what he wants and can make a living from without being tagged as any one thing or the other. I think that’s fair. You have to do what’s right for you and maybe that’s another reason some e-pubs have moved away from in-house models to patch and paste floating torsos and body parts slapped on a front cover.
People do judge books by their covers. We’re human. We do that. If the cover is cheap is the company the same?
www.amarindajones.com
www.amarindajones.blogspot.com
Be daring...read an Amarinda book
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2 comments:
Depends upon the quality of the final work. Stock photos can sometimes be better than relying upon a stable of models and using their photo shoots - in a sense, that's using stock photography, just your own stock. if the cover artist has talent and possesses all those little techy skills he or she should possess, a cover using stock photography can be every bit as good, IMO.
Do any of the ebook publishers besides Ellora's Cave have their own cover models? EC's the only one I knew that did.
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