More book covers
Winkletter • 29 Nov 2024 •
I was just making book covers, myself. Now a publishing company known in the indie publishing world has released a new tool for making book covers. While I think I can do better myself with a tool like Ideogram, this is going to be a game changer for many indie authors. I signed up and used the 60 free bonus credits to try out the process.
Super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Step 1: I uploaded my unpublished, unedited “trunk” novel and the system read through the book gathering information about it.
Step 2: The tool creates representative images based on scenes in the book. (A good cover designer wouldn’t be so literal, but this is a tool for authors who want to see their story on the cover.)
Step 3: I used the tool to make variations on chosen images. It allowed me to change book details and scene details on the new images, but I went with the original data.
Step 4: I found one I liked and created an audiobook version. It just extended out the edges to make a square. Look below and you can see the seam.
Step 5: I can download images directly by right clicking, or use the tool. It costs extra to use the tool to download, but it adds an upscale step.
Step 6: I had a few credits left so I had it generate some new scenes and variations, including a spooky cover.
Overall, it has a great deal of potential. It’s able to pull in data from the book itself and include its own image data on publishing trends to define the style. While I have more options available with other tools, this product is perfect for writers who just want to write and can’t afford a professional designer. This is how to make an AI product.
- Publish Drive Publishing Assistant: A publishing tool for generating metadata and cover art.
- From Manuscript to Market: Video of a seminar the company recorded to demo their product.
By the way, all the details in the covers below reflect the contents of the manuscript. The main character lives in a yellow house near a lighthouse.
Comments
@jasonleow It could work, but my gut tells me it would benefit greatly from the existing social proof. Trends are always changing and are specific to genres and even regions, so it takes a good bit of domain knowledge.
Authors feel a lot more out of their depth with web design and managing a website, though. They redesign their website reluctantly and don’t do more than update an events page afterwards. I feel there are opportunities there or with social media.
Off the top of my head… a tool that takes your dull, boring book event announcement as input. It adds some spice to it, and creates copy for your website, email, and social media posts leading up to the event.
@jasonleow Here’s an example of a marketing AI that I heard an author talking about. AuthorScale lets an author upload a manuscript to make AI-designed slides promoting their book. It can be linked directly to their TikTok account.
@Winkletter Wow nice. I’ve seen tools like this before but not in the author niche. Very cool. Really makes me think!
Oh cool idea actually! AI + book covers could be a cool niche SaaS to bite into… Do you think as a standalone SaaS it could work, or does it have to be part of a whole publishing workflow like publishdrive?