The two potential drafts of the cover for the book:
The two potential drafts of the cover for the book:
Hi Everyone
Hi Everyone, I'm very happy to be here. My name is Kevin and I'm a high school English teacher here in Japan. I used to blog a lot and sometimes write short stories for English language learners. I also am interested in basic reading research. So I was thinking about combining all of this together to try and put together a sample chapter of a book which contains: 1) a very short story of 500-1000 words with ~90% of the vocabulary consisting of the most frequent words of English 2) two to three pages of theory about how reading skills are developed and how reading the short story can help develop those skills 3) a series of activities to be used in lessons, or by a parent with their child, or by a group of friends which is also based on the theory in part 2. The completed chapter will, I hope, be about 8 to 10 pages and will serve as the template for the rest of the book. I'm also really excited to spend time with other teachers who are interested in material development and...
Lovely title and cover (plus theme!)
ReplyDeleteI love the subtitle! Although it's also super long. Could you drop the "Ideas for" at the beginning? Just start with "How to Help..." etc.
ReplyDeleteThen. I'm wondering what the images have to do with reading, or falling, or loving to read, or helping others. I think you'd want something to suggest at least one of those. Falling is the hardest, because an image for falling, like, I don't know, falling down, isn't a positive image, and it's not what you mean.
ReplyDeleteYou'll also have discovered that landscapes are hard to put words over, as they're busy... you're especially limited by that subtitle (which I like!). I wonder if you could go for a landscape that has a lot more solid-ish space at the top--a sunset or sunrise over a mountain, for instance? Starry sky?
Also--if you use your D., put a period after it. :) Lose the "by" (on version 2). No italics (version 1's title). Make your letters as big as you can. Remember that most people will first see your image in a thumbnail.
You should also decide if you want people on the cover or no people. I looked around a bit for images of people reading with others--it's mostly parents and children. But from what I read of your WIP, it's not particularly aimed at children. You could even go for a book with no people at all... there are lots of variations on stuff like this (I searched on depositphotos for "magic book"):
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/P2bSJkmtFWEIpIkGgkeGnln4vuesn6HJJgntsF4v3NdyzluABea1YX-lYdZnBejNs2Tyn9rUENToHg=s0
Also some things like this (though it would be harder to get a title and long subtitle on):
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/UYUX6KvFiMKur4r0tCkA436zstFtCTwHt2zOqtdmcqadBfKaXkV5fbL1P8ZAr_DgbGx04fJGUBNKTg=s0
Title.. .Falling Into Stories?
ReplyDeleteYou could also have an image below a solid area for text... This isn't polished, I just took the comped image (so it's not downloaded, thus the resolution isn't as sharp) and put it on a plain background (perhaps not the right color, but...) and added some text. I only spent like 10 minutes on this, just to give you an idea. I don't know what color you'd want for your name... black got lost, but I'm not in love with white. Dark orange, perhaps? This particular photo series had designs with other seasons, too, I just took fall because of your title. (If you like that idea, of a book opening into nature, I'd be happy to get you an image).
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Q72ax59ERMRtaQng9UGse7QpzkHYKytDG6dScZ8RxfTiEZUqgHmIdJOdoo5d8Rsqno9uoJ3lOJ6l6g=s0
Dorothy, thank you for all the advice. I don't just want to grab the cover you made, but it's so tempting. Anyway, I'm going to give it another shot and see if I can't put something together with your advice.
ReplyDeleteKevin Stein If you’d like the high-res copy of that photo (of the book that opens into fall), I’d be happy to get it for you. It did seem to fit your title rather perfectly!
ReplyDeleteI did the rest of it on Canva, so it would be easy to create something like that only better there.
ReplyDeleteReally enlightening discussion. Thank you Kevin and Dorothy. I did think the original covers were fab but I can see now there's scope for making it even better.
ReplyDeleteDorothy Zemach Yes, I prefer that title.
ReplyDeleteI will agree with Dorothy about the subtitle and the images. One more thing - something I noticed when I was experimenting with my covers - I don't think titles in italics look very good (I rejected mine in italics). But then, it may be just my taste.
ReplyDeleteI love the discussion as well. Unfortunately, Falling into Reading doesn't mean anything to me, doesn't grab me...
ReplyDeleteBecoming a Reader
Learning to Love to Read
For the Love of Reading
Love to Read