Cover Ideas by Merrillee Whren

 

Last month I talked about the name for the ranch in my latest work in progress. Writing this book has been a slow process. In the past I have written much faster, but I'm finding more time for other activities. However, I do plan to finish this book as time allows.

 

When I started writing many years ago, I set a goal for myself. I wanted to write a book set in every state where I have lived. I've lived in eleven. I have Arizona (my current story) and Illinois books yet to write. Since I started indie publishing a decade ago, I usually have my cover artist make the cover. Paying for the cover is an incentive to write the book. I don't want to pay for a cover that I never use.

 

After I start writing the book, I look for photos that might be a good cover. Some covers have people. Other covers are only a scene. My Front Porch Promises series that you can see at the end of this post shows a front porch on each cover. My cover artist or I was able to find photos that would work for each book. For my current book, I was having a terrible time finding something that would work at least if the cover would represent the characters in the story. This is a story of a younger woman and a much older man. 

 

When I couldn't come up with any photos, I decided to try using AI to create pictures of my characters. It was an interesting process. This is the description I put to the AI program I was using. "A middle-aged Caucasian man with a goatee and a younger woman with long brown hair riding horses together in the Sonoran Desert at sunset with a colorful sky and saguaros in the background." I came up with this description after being less specific about the setting. The program allowed me to make changes to the picture, but too often when I asked for a change, the program would also change the looks of the characters. One of the first photos had the heroine dressed in a skimpy top. I asked for for coverage, and AI gave me less. I had to laugh. 

 

Here are some of the pictures the program created. 

 

 

 

I plan to send these to my cover artist and see what she has to say. She often comes up with the perfect idea for my covers when I am struggling to find the right direction. Maybe in the end, I'll just have a scene in the desert. I have lots of those photos.

 

What do you think of the AI productions? 

 

Merrillee Whren is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award presented by Romance Writers of American. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of forty-plus years, and has two grown daughters. Connect with her on her Facebook page and sign up for her newsletter.