This weekend I spent some time configuring one of my short stories for e-book format so that it can be sold separately. It already appears in the e-book anthology, Tales From Ocherva. So I really didn’t have much work to get it into shape. But the cover was another story.
I have struggled to find a look that works for the e-short story format. The cover has to let the reader know that these stories are set in the Starstrikers Universe and that they are not novels. The cover price will be .99 cents, as low as I can go on the Kindle. But the covers themselves must not be mistaken for full novels. They have to suggest the novels in concept but be their own individual designs.
I decided to go with a color stripe on the left that highlights the universe they are set in and spells out that they are short stories. The font used is also from the novels. But it’s the backgrounds have given me fits. My latest version is using a simple star field. But I have considered many ideas for background images, from the dunes of Ocherva to various characters to starships. I may still change my mind on this, but at this time I will stick with the stars. It is simple, it conveys Sci-Fi and it recalls the star field on the center stripe of the Starstrikers novel.
When you shrink the cover down to postage stamp size, you can still read the title and the author name. Perfect. The color of the stripe is green, which is the designated color for the First Generation, the time period the story is set in. Green stands for peace as the Federation is at peace before the Great War starts. The cover is super easy to reconfigure for a different short story title. Just change the title and depending when the story takes place, change the color of the stripe.When you intend to crank out a dozen or more of these covers, you need to keep them simple.