Remember the cover I posted two posts down? I was all happy with it until I tried to put it in the actual ebook. Those nice curving letters looked all blotchy once the ebook formatting software was done with it. And I realized that once the book is shrunken down, it’s not quite so obvious that it is a gas tank that the funnel is sticking out of. It’s kind of unidentifiable. So now I’m re-tweaking the danged thing with a smaller gas tank image, and no curving text. And it took me so long to learn paths!
I don’t want to unshrink the image too much, because then I have this distracting stripe (my truck has a silver stripe), and it becomes obvious that the gas tank is from a truck, and not a car.
On the bright side, I’ll have an opportunity to photograph some antique cars tomorrow. I hope there are a few muscle cars there. That would be so perfect. I’ll take about a zillion pictures of the cars not only as research for this story, but for my time travel historical as well.
I have tremendous respect for digital artists! I salute you! (And maybe I should hire one of you!)
I had a feeling you’d have that problem when it was shrunk. I suggest using more of the car so it’s understandable you’re talking about the gas tank–or in this case, the gas cover. If you see the gas cover on the side of a nice “finned” car (or something else of the era), the reader should know immediately you’re referencing a muscle car.
Also, I would suggest different fonts. Since you mentioned muscle cars, I’d look for thicker (more muscular) fonts that convey that feeling.
One idea is to stack the words. If this is a romance, make the word, “Once” in a nice girly script. Make the “O” extra large like a drop cap in a fairy tale. Then do “Upon a Gas Tank” in a bolder, masculine font, slightly offset and below the first word.
This was off the top of my head, but I’d play with that direction and see what you can come up with.
These are such great ideas. The story is not a romance, but I can still use them. I did try heavy fonts, but many of them looked too heavy when viewed as a thumbnail. I liked the way the Elephant font (the letters for “Gas Tank” and my name) appeared when shrunk.
But I can use some sort of nice script for “Once Upon a”. Love the idea! Thanks!
Don’t you hate when that happens…You get something you love and then something bursts the bubble…
Yes, but never give up! 🙂