My book, a science fiction novel, is being published. I need a design for the cover, and have decided to have a competition for the cover design.

Here are some simple facts about this competition, so please read them carefully before you decide to enter.

1. I am a graphic designer myself, and perfectly capable of designing the cover and creating the cover art. So this competition is being done to give people in this community the opportunity to design a cover, and if they win, to have this cover displayed all over the world, and on the internet, in any place this book is being sold. On the cover they can add their name as the cover designer, and their website.

2. I am not paying for the cover design, or the artwork. If I had to pay for this, I would just do it myself, as I am far too poor to afford to pay for it. I will however, come to any arrangement with the winner as far as free models, promotion, etc, go.

3. The prizes in this competition are:

a) You get to put your name on the cover, and your website if you have one.
b) You get a free copy of the book.
c) You get to add this to your CV, and have the right to list this as commercial work you have done.
d) You will be allowed to choose any ten models I have created and download these for free. You can look at the type of work I have done here: http://www.vanishingpoint.biz/memberpage.asp?memberid=36
e) You will retain the copyright on the artwork and design, with certain restrictions, such as not being able to sell this to a publisher or reseller that will prevent it's use on the book. This means you can still display the artwork on your website and online galleries, and may still personally sell copies of this image. This right you normally lose when your artwork is chosen for a book cover.

1. This competition is meant as an opportunity for the users and members of this community to do something more than just add images to a gallery, but to get their name and design released to a wider audience. This competition is not being done to take advantage of home designers, to steal your artwork, to get the cover done cheap, or any other alterior motive. If you do not like the terms of the competition, or think that it is unfair that I am not paying for the design, then do not enter.

So, if you are happy with the above conditions, then this is what you have to do to enter.

Go to the website: www.helgarddebarros.com

Under the downloads section, you can download the first chapter of the book (the entire book is 22 chapters).

This will give you an idea of the style of the book, and will introduce the heroine of the story.

Then under downloads you can download:

• a photoshop template with all the printers guides, text and sizes.
• an instruction list, which will explain the template, sizes, formats, submission guidelines, etc, and also contains all the legal requiremants and conditions.
• the back cover text as a word document.

On the website you will also be able to download a few short stories for free, look at how your cover design will be used on the website, and maybe find a bit more useful information.

On the website is also a section for fan art. For entries which do not win, but which we like, we will ask permission from the artists to include those images on the fan art section.

PS The deadline is the 31st of August, so if you want to go for it, there is no time to waste.

reads first chapter

Huh? She has eyelashes but no hair?

congrats on the upcoming book release!
no time to lose!  as a non-artist I can't enter, but there are hundreds here
who can do a good job for ya.

No eyebrows too?

Helgard,

What I read was pretty good. Please let me know when the book is published and for sale so I can obtain a copy.

Yours,

Daidalos

Miss Nancy - thanks, been a long road to get it published. Only took six years...

TheOwl - lol, if the only thing that you found interesting in the whole first chapter was her lack or presence of hair I am a much worse writer than I thought... :-)

Daidalos - Thanks, I will let you know. Should be about three months before it is out.

From what I read, it looks like a good book. Hope it works out for you.

Darn, I wish I had time to try my hand at it!
So many cool things to do, so little time.

Congratulations on getting published Helgard!!!!! That's a pretty tall order.

One of the top artists here does book covers, I'm pretty sure. I don't know if he'd be interested in a contest (he might, he enters and usually wins Rendo contests), but you may want to drop him a note and alert him to the post. AFAIK, he doesn't usually read forums.  His user name is calum5 - super nice guy too. You ay know him already.
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?username=calum5

Big congrats on getting published Helgard.
I totally agree with Conniekat8 by the way,  Calum5 would be a great choice as a cover artist.

That is an interesting tale thus far....I will definately pick up a copy when it is available.

--Rebekah--

Quote - Miss Nancy - thanks, been a long road to get it published. Only took six years...

TheOwl - lol, if the only thing that you found interesting in the whole first chapter was her lack or presence of hair I am a much worse writer than I thought... :-)

Daidalos - Thanks, I will let you know. Should be about three months before it is out.

No no noo.... I like your writing, its just I like girls with hair you know..... hair.... girls.... hair... you catch me? Anyway is your book final? Is it already in the printing phase?

Personally, I have always had a thing for girls with no hair, lol. Two of my ex-girlfriends had shaved heads. Maybe it was a teenage youth spent listening to Sinead 'o Connor and watching Sigourney Weaver kick Alien butt that did this to me...

Woo! Congrats! 

I've read the first chapter and I'm very impressed. I can't wait to read more :)

LOL!!! Okay! Okay! XD

But at least there should be eyebrows!

Come to think of it, if she will be wearing armor a skin head is reasonable, so that there won't be problems of accidental hair tugging when a helmet closes in.

Owl, why don't you try your hand at writing a story and post it for us?

I already have one actually. A fantasy not sci-fi. Not yet finished because I am thinking of revising it because my hero's journey is getting more and more complicated. I have gone more than 24 chapters at 5-8 pieces of 8.5 x11 size paper a chapter and its not even a quarter of the whole story.
It is not going to be a book so my applause goes to Helgard for getting printed takes alot of talent and trust. My plan to mine will be using poser. Right now I am looking at animation and effects so I can present it as an entire movie.

Good luck to you all! Wee!

It's pretty good, but I can't get a real feel for Miriam's character.  She's been through hell, but how does she react to other people? The only thing I could pick up on was she was a bitter survivor who was a real loner who never really knew love.  If the novel's main push is a humanizing of an 'outsider' character, it'll work pretty damned well,IMO.

Anyway--I'm still trying to absorb all the information.  You really crammed a huge amount into just 14 pages! Whoosh! I'm stymied where to start a pic at not knowing what the main antagonist is going to be, or what parts all the various alien species are going to do in the novel. One image stands out from all the others, where her life changed at the meeting of the previous wearer.

It's well done, and I have an image in mind. I'll post when It's ready to eye-ball.

Out of the running. My system cannot produce an image of required print size. Fiddle-faddle.

Oh well...good luck with the novel!  I'll be looking forward to it!

Out of curiosity - who did you publish with, and why is your publisher not doing the cover?

Silke - my publisher did do a cover, which I thought was awful, it was just an abstract design. So I asked if I could have till the end of the month to come up with something better.

I was just going by the PDF file with the rule, and the PSD file. If smaller will work, then I have something. Off  to render!

The background picture can be created in any way. It doesn't have to be rendered. It can be a photograph that has been manipulated (a photograph you own the rights for, anyway), or a large render, or a collage of smaller renders, or one small render on a background, etc. The idea is to sell my book and make me rich, lol, or at least to cover the costs...

I'll do my best to make you rich!:lol: I'm working on it, greedy one! :laugh:

My book is being published and I too am in need of an illustrator.

I could do it myself but P7 is giving me grief and my paintings just wont do it justice...

So I'm with ya on this one

@ SirensTragicMuse--
Good form would indicate that you start a new thread with the details.. Further discussion of your needs here would be a thread hijack..  This is Helgard's thread between him and those interested in doing something for him, or at least wishing him well.

Many might be interested in doing the same for you if you set up similiar conditions or offer pay. Myself included! :laugh: )

@ Helgard--I'm doing a commission for money right now, but will be back on the illustration for your cover ASAP. Should be Saturday, at latest.

Could a posting of WIP's be to your taste?  I'd rather do one to the taste of the author, than random contest pics.  Then you could give feedback.  My workflow and mentality is set up to produce like that.

Is that acceptable?

Joelgaine, I am fine with that.

SirensTragicMuse, I feel the same. I know I could do a cover, but I am the first to admit that while I may be a jack of all trades, I am a master of none, and whatever I do, someone, somewhere, could always do a better job.

congradulations on being published Helgard ,
i rekon i might like to take a crack at the cover too .

I had a suggestion from the DAZ forums, so I have decided to give everyone who enters a copy of the book in digital download version. That doesn't mean if you send me a stick figure as an entry I will send you a copy of the book, lol, but for all serious entries I will. But don't tell my publisher, lol.

Sounds good to me! Working on it. :laugh: Be the only way I could read it.  My eyes are screwed up and I can't read regular books.  At least I'm not blind anymore, so that's an improvement. LOLOL

SirensTragicMuse
Congrat's, What kind of book are you publishing? I do covers.

Helgard- A book is a lot of hard work. Six years...WOW  Good luck!

JOELGLAINE- You're right. I'd rather do one to the taste of the author, than random contest pics.
**-

**

@ SirensTragicMuse--
Good form would indicate that you start a new thread with the details.. Further discussion of your needs here would be a thread hijack..  This is Helgard's thread between him and those interested in doing something for him, or at least wishing him well.

Did I not say I was right there with him? I was pretty darn sure I did.
See postings like the above are the reasons why alot of people leave.

Helgard understood what I meant why can't you, **JoelGlaine?

**

Hi Helgard

Congrats on your book.

Hi SirensTragicMuse

Sounds great about your book, too.

Hi JOELGLAINE

I believe an apology is in order.

Fine, I'm sorry. I don't care. At this point I'm not in my right mind. I have my little brother's funeral to go to. I was trying to concentrate on this contest to keep my mind off the unfairness of his death and it did,'t work.

Three IED's and a sniper attack and more crap happened to him than I can imagine, and he was saafe and in Germany. He died on the 18th from pneumonia.  I need to grieve and not interact with anyone for the next little while.

Sorry if I pissed anyone off.  Helgard's a big boy and can take care of himself.  He never needed me to watch out for him.

JOELGLAINE- I'm sorry about your loss.

Hi JOELGLAINE

I'm sorry about your loss.  Sometimes though grieving needs to be shared between friends.
My case...the therapists has told me I need to get a wheelchair prescription for my son.  Seems he's having more trouble walking than what they anticipated. 

I'm not enough of a designer to do justice to this. It's not the same as being an artist. (I'm also doing writing.) It does sound a bit odd, in that it's unusual for a publisher, even a tiny publisher, to apparently abandon control of the cover design. Of course, print-on-demand is changing things a lot. It's much easier to self-publish, without risking a garage filled with unsold books, and it's much easier for somebody to be a tiny publisher. Folks: general warning. It's a very bad sign if you have to pay the publisher. Helgard, I hope it works out for you.

AntoniaTiger,

The publisher did not abandon control of the cover, lol, they designed a cover, I did not like it, so I asked them to give me till the end of the month to see if I can come up with something better. They still have the final say on the cover design, and thay are still involved all the way. So far I have shown them the five images that were submitted, and they have agreed that we will most probably get something better from the community than what they gave me, which was just an abstract design of swirling colours.

Nowhere did I say that I have to pay my publisher, hee hee, if I did this would not happen, as I am far too poor to even pay attention...

Helgard
Will you be posting the contest submissions somewhere before choosing a winner?

I gotta say that the first chapter was terrific! Who's the publisher?

This is not for the contest since it's mostly just a lighting study using bagginsbills advice and shaders, and I never got my ADD to sit still enough to read the first chapter (wish it was available in audio)

Just wanted to share that you guys made me leave hair off of this lady on purpose.
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1733217

(Which later got me in trouble with someone whom doesn't like them hairless... LOL, just can't win!)

I am going to be gone on business for two days, so please don't panic if I don't reply to e-mails or get back to anyone before Friday. Still a few days left, and the competition is still wide open.

Sounds like a good story from this first chapter. Look forward to reading more. Character sounds enchanting. Downloaded all the data and will look to see if I can come up with something.
But I may have missed it in this thread but what is the deadline for this render?

Deadline is the end of the month. I am off on my trip now, speak to everyone in two days time.

 well...darn!
Not enough time left for me. Wish I had known about this sooner. I always miss the good stuff.

Ok, one more day left, so if anyone has anything, now is the time to start sending...

just mailed my design to your  hotmail addy , hope it comes through ok

Yes, I got it, thanks. It's really good.

Just got back from out of town.  Don't have any time left. Well crap.  Good luck on the book.

 Same problem Joel,  no time.  oh well, had a neat skin idea too.