AI Book Covers

This is the cover for the Teardrop Edition audiobook for my novel, If I Tie U Down.

One morning, I woke up with this brilliant idea. I decided that I should have two editions for all my books. The first edition is the first edition. It has been made with a cover that I paid for. Usually, it's from at least one artist. Sometimes, I have an artist for the background and another artist for the foreground. Sometimes, it's AI, but it's an expensive AI generation that I paid for on an individual basis. But on this one morning, I woke up and decided that I was going to list my first edition books for $1.99 for an ebook. and $2.99 for an audiobook. The Teardrop Editions would be free (or as free as I could make them) and the cover images would be generated with Canva AI.

If I Tie U Down is a contemporary romance novel on the wholesome side about vandalism and pranks in the inner city.

Now, if you look at the image closely, it's an image of a couple that is handcuffed together. His hand is to the far right and her hand is to the left. Now, if you look at her hand carefully, you'll notice a problem... and then another problem. She has two thumbs and they're both coming from the back. Her hand is kind of manish, but we'll let that go. The extra thumbs sneaking up from behind her knuckles are the real problem. No one's hands bend that way. No one's thumbs bend that way. Her thumb should be over her knuckles like his hand instead of poking up weirdly from the back.

It should be known that I was working on a lot of AI generation for this image and when working with Canva, you can't make adjustments to a favorite image. The most you can do is say that you like a particular image and have them generate three more images sort of similiar to the one you like. It's far from perfect.

Now, for this image, I had a really hard time getting the AI to give me a man with pink hair. In the novel, Fletch, does not have pink hair. He's a red head, but when I worked with the artist on the creation of the first cover, we decided to make the image pink and black and white. When I went to make an AI image, I wanted it to look kind of the same so that it didn't look like a completely different book. You can see the influences. It's mostly pink and black and white.

Secondly, I had a tough time getting the AI to give me a man that was clean shaven. Fletch didn't need to be perfectly clean shaven for the book. There is a discussion about his facial hair in the text, but he's mostly clean shaven and I wasn't a fan of the images I got that had him with a pink beard or with a black beard. The AI struggles with the words: NO BEARDS. It also struggles with the concept of NO TREES. It pumps out a lot of trees... even in pictures meant to contain cement walls and vandalism.

I really liked this image because it makes a few things extraordinarily clear:

1. This book is a contemporary romance novel. A cover needs to show what genre it is without anyone reading the title. That's textbook graphic design. So, I liked that.

2. Shannon is not showing any cleavage. My book is not a racy, smut-driven book. It's a sweet romance about real love. Sometimes, the AI goes completely insane showing huge cuts of big bubble breasts. With a cover like that, someone is going to get the wrong idea. And I DO NOT WANT TO GIVE THE WRONG IDEA. It angers the review gods. People need to get what they expect.

3. Looks kind of dirty. I mean the background. That's important. This is not a billionaire romance novel and I need to communicate that effectively. It's a city street kind of novel. No billionaires. No glitz. No limos.

4. The extra thumbs. If you read this book, you would understand why the extra thumbs are so perfect for this. I know AI has a tough time with hands and fingers. It really doesn't get them... BUT! I love that I can take advantage of that for this book. If I had been advertising a book that was less of a comedy, I wouldn't have allowed it... BUT!

I LOVE IT! They look the same! They look like whatever they're in, they're in it together. He looks hot and bothered. She's looking like you're interrupting them, and it's so perfect for them!

This version of the book is free all over the place, but I'd recommend picking it up on GooglePlay Books, because it's free there without paying any distribution fees. You can get it as an audiobook or an ebook. If you check it out, please leave a review. Remember how I called reviewers 'gods' earlier?