Whether wrangling with words or photographs, I love images and the emotions they invoke. So as I toyed with ideas for the book video and cover for A Bridge Unbroken (set to release Spring 2014), I spent hours locating the perfect photos, colors, music, and words to adequately portray the story and its theme of forgiveness.
For the book cover, I started off with this photo, shot by my youngest sister. I liked the ruggedness of the old bridge, but the thing that really caught my eye were the rusty nails popped up from weathered boards. Unfortunately, the photo looked nothing like a book cover to me, so I hopped on over to PicMonkey.com to tinker around with it.
First I cropped the pic to take out the wire in the distance. I also zoomed in on the nails, and then spot-lighted them, by softening the background. Next I played around with fonts for the title, series name, and author. 
I even shared it with friends and readers on Facebook to get their invaluable feedback. The only problem? The cover was bland and practically disappeared in thumbnail size. So I tinkered some more.
Finally I found a solution by adding a dusk effect. All of a sudden, the cover popped, the perfect representation of the storyline.
What do you think of the final result?
Finding photos for the book video proved to be an even bigger challenge. My all-time favorite place to find free, royalty-free photos is Stock.xchng. But I’ll be the first to admit the photos aren’t always grouped in a way that makes them easy to find.
I downloaded close to fifty photos, but finally settled for the pics below–only cropped and doctored–to get that back roads Texas feel, reveal two hurting characters, and represent the storyline. Notice the color scheme and use of shadows and silhouettes. I wanted to stay true to the cover colors, but since the book also contains a thread of suspense, I needed to show that through the photos.
Photo Credit: Stock.xchng
After assembling the photos, I googled free, royalty-free music for book trailers to find an instrumental clip I thought fit well with the Miller’s Creek Novels that was also an appropriate length. The video was assembled with Windows Movie Maker. Here’s the final result for the book trailer:
What about you? Do images inspire a story in your heart and head? I’d also love to get your input, advice and feedback on the book cover and video in the comments below, and I’ll even reward you for sharing your thoughts! Oh, and if you’d like a sneak peak at the first chapter of A Bridge Unbroken–still not completely edited, mind you–CLICK HERE.
Leave a comment below to enter the drawing for a Kindle copy of the Miller’s Creek Novel of your choice. (Books are stand-alone novels, so it’s not necessary to read them in order. See links below for more info.) The winner will be chosen via Random.org on Saturday, March 22, and announced on Sunday, March 23. IMPORTANT! Be sure to leave an e-mail address so I can contact you if you’re the winner (and so I can send you your free book).
Texas Roads ~ A hurting seeker searches for home.
A Path Less Traveled ~ A grieving widow regains faith in the midst of tragedy.
The Way of Grace ~ A justice-seeking perfectionist discovers grace.
Pilgrimage of Promise ~ A couple revisits broken promises through a dusty stack of unopened love letters.
A Texas gal by birth, Cathy enjoys spinning tales set in the fictional town of Miller's Creek, Texas, where the folks are friendly, the iced tea is sweet, and Mama Beth's front porch beckons. When she's not writing heart-stirring stories about God's life-changing grace, you'll find her feeding her reality TV addiction or working on yet another home improvement project in the mountain cabin she shares with her minister husband of over thirty years. Her latest novel, A BRIDGE UNBROKEN, is available at Amazon. You can find out more about Cathy and her books at www.CatBryant.com.
Cathy,
Thanks for walking us through your creative process. It was inspiring! Like you, I’m a big fan of PicMonkey; I use it for my blog posts. I’ve also found photos at 123RF.com, but the free ones are small. I also invest in photo packages at iStock.
Thank you for showing me what all goes into making a book cover and video. It was very interesting. I would love to win a copy of one of your books.
susanmsj@msn.com
I’ll definitely have to check out the photos at 123RF, Beth! Thanks for the mention. I’ve purchased special photos at iStock before. Gorgeous photos!! I seriously have to be careful when I hit a photo site, ’cause I can literally spend hours!
Have you entered, Susan! I truly enjoy the creative process. Thanks for dropping by! :)
I am very much looking forward to the book, and I adore the cover! The nails reminds me of a picture I took of a church pew in Cades Cove, TN. It was barely poking out, but it looked so much different from today’s uniform nails, that I felt compelled to snap it into memory by film. :)
butterfly_brooks@hotmail.com
IMHO, those little details are what make a photo memorable, Brooks, and your photo sounds fascinating. Thanks so much for dropping by! :)
The pictures are wonderful! They fit the images I have of your books in my head perfectly!! My daughter loves taking pictures and is really good, I will have to give her the sites you mentioned.
Thank you, Sharon, and thanks for stopping by. Be sure your daughter knows how addicting these photo sites can be! ;)
Wow, a woman after my own heart. My husband and I love photography and as an author I use our pictures to stimulate memories for my books and find inspiration sometimes in unusual places. Excellent work :)
Yay! Kindred spirits! :) It’s fun, isn’t it, Sarah? And you are so right. Inspiration can come when I least expect it and in the weirdest of circumstances Thanks for the encouraging words, and for dropping by!
Thanks for showing your approach to the design, Cathy. Not only is it a very appealing cover, but also a clever marketing for your new book. :-) Yes. I’m a writer and copy editor. But I’m also in photography for many years. So I guess I’m entitled to say something good about the change you did from a flat B&W image to a compelling image for your book cover. Well done. :-)
If you’re interested in some of my former photojournalism, then go to my old photography website at http://www.maerkerphotos.com. This website will not exist much longer as I take it down in about 8 weeks. Most of the images are still in my archive anyway, and I have uploaded only a small selection of countries (Israel, Thailand, China). Those two poor people on the editorial page were ‘shot’ in San Francisco.
It’s too time consuming to run my copy editing small biz – and – to expand the online photography presence. So what’s the point of keeping it? I’ll rather create some coffee table books with travel stories from different countries and offer them as Print on Demand (POD) or use my archive otherwise for some book covers.
The more as the majority of my archive is still on Ektachrome slides, and only 20 percent of it is shot sheer digital. That means even more work to put them online, as I would have to digitize everything and make it web ready. :-)
– Hans
Beautiful work, Hans. Looks like you’re quite the traveler. Best of luck with your coffee table books. I’m sure they’ll be gorgeous! Thanks for dropping by! :)
Cathy, you did a fabulous job with that cover! It’s gorgeous.
Blessings,
Andrea
Proofreader/Writer
andrearenee2004@yahoo.com
writingtoinspire.blogspot.com
Thanks, Andrea! I’m really tickled with how it turned out. :)
Cathy, I love how you’ve done the cover art and trailer. I’m very impressed by talented authors who can write and create the graphics. Thanks for sharing your process with us :)
Thanks, Narelle. I can get lost for days tinkering with photos… wish editing were that way for me… *sigh* Anyway, glad you enjoyed the post! :)
I love your video about the book. I can’t wait to read it!
Thanks, Dawn! Glad you liked it! :)
Cathy, I would have never thought to do a photo video to the synopsis of the story. Great idea. Your video is very effective. Kudos…Well done.
Thanks, brightflute! I was amazed at how it helped cement the very heart of the story. The video proved to be helpful in many way. Thanks again. :)
Cathy, I love the top picture. You are correct in the vast difference between the before and after effects. The original is beautiful and to me insightful, but after you changed the lighting, Wow. It gave a whole new perspective. I did not realize or maybe just had not thought about having to purchase the cover pictures. There’s alot more than I realized about putting a book out.
Blessings
eppersonkatrina(at)yahoo(dot)com
I was amazed, too, Katrina. I think that’s why I like to tinker around with photo editing at places like PicMonkey. One simple effect alters not just the photo, but our emotions. Books are the same, aren’t they? One small thing can happen in a story that changes everything… Thanks for dropping by!
Love the cover Cathy. Can’t wait to read whats inside :)
I shared and tweet and liked.
Blessings
Diana
joeym11@frontier.com
Thank you, sweet friend! I appreciate you sharing the news! :)
Cathy, Your cover is great! It’s a book I’d pick up off a bookshelf to read. And your trailer is impressive! I’ve been trying to come up with a way to do one for my book without having to make an actual video, and you have inspired me! Thanks so much, and keep writing!
Thank you so much, Peg! Glad to give you some ideas! :)
Cathy, I love how the cover looks. It is eye catching!
Thank you, Cheryl! I think so too. Hope others feel the same! :) Thank you for stopping by!