Improved version of part autobiography ebook cover page
Last updated on 3rd May 2019
[To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]
[Note the above pic has a blue border at the top (part of bleed area) which I will remove later on. This pic was generated from pdf output of Pothi.com Cover Creator which seems to have added some bleed area on some edges.]
1) Avoids black background which a few commented unfavourably on.
2) Uses a Nature pic of soothing if somewhat muted colours, as the background pic for the whole front cover which I think is much classier than any background colour alone.
I have some brighter coloured nature pics as well which I could consider using, but I think that raises the risk of the bright colour dominating over title, sub-title and author name text as well as my three pics.
Further, I think I am a somewhat muted and low-profile guy. The background image pic for my autobio being somewhat muted in colours is a very appropriate choice IMHO. I mean, I am a habitual back-bencher and blend-into-background (silent witness/observer watching the drama of life :-)) guy. Therefore this nature pic is very appropriate for my autobio cover page.
BTW the nature pic is of Enumullapalli (also spelt as Yenumullapalli) lake, near Puttaparthi, taken by me using a Nokia E-52 mobile phone camera, sometime in 2014 if I recall correctly. Here's the link for the original photo which I have shared on Google Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PCgxeSDfDkUPyL8x7.
Feedback on previous versions and some additional points from me, are given below:
1. Regarding including Prasanthi Nilayam or Sathya Sai associated themes in the cover page design: I have accumulated enough enemies now with my whistle-blowing and other activism work post-Mahasamadhi. If I include Prasanthi Nilayam or Sathya Sai related themes in the cover page, I have the serious concern that some of these enemies of mine will say nasty things about it. Since Swami's name would then come into the picture, I will feel pained. I don't want to have such pain. If the cover page has only my stuff and nothing associated with Swami, my enemies, hiding under fake Facebook Ids, can say whatever hateful things they want to say about the cover page and about me, I won't be bothered by it.
2. Regarding using a designer (and soothing color pattern): Pothi.com's cover page creation charge (they do it rather than me using their program to do my own), if I recall correctly, is Rs. 1500. I can afford to spend that money.
But I have been in Do-It-Yourself mode throughout my first and now close to finishing second self-published book. The cover page for the first book took huge effort as I was using rudimentary Paint, and was new to various calculations of widths of various parts of cover page, bleed area etc. So I stumbled many times. But today I have a lot of the stuff figured out. And the cover page for the first book (using a Nature background image) was generally liked, I think.
I think I will go through this struggle now for the second book. With the nature pic addition to my cover page attempts for this book (see attached pic), I see the light (a workable approach) in making the book cover pleasing as well as having pics of me not being overshadowed by the background image (which was one of the reasons why I thought of NOT using a background image for this cover page initially).
The class that a soothing background image can bring to the background of the cover page simply cannot be matched by any background colour choice - that's a big learning for me (late yesterday night/early morning today).
3. An important concern that crops up when we use external designer's services is copyright. We need to be sure that whatever the external designer uses, besides pics and text we give, is not copyrighted work of others.
One of the dangers in self-publishing is that the entire legal risks are borne by the author. So, even if by mistake, an external designer uses a small graphics item which is claimed by another as copyright, in our cover page, then the legal challenge (and expenses involved to face it) will have to be faced by me, completely. In fact, the self-publishing company, Pothi.com, if it does get dragged into the matter, will charge me its lawyer's fees too! I had to online-sign an agreement which included a vital indemnity clause, with Pothi.com on those lines, before they agreed to put up my book on their web store (book selling website).
With cover pages that are created completely by me, even if I face any legal challenge on it by somebody else, as I have direct knowledge of the matter, it will be easy for me to defend myself in court (in India). Once I use an external designer's cover page, I have to take on additional legal risk exposure.
4. About having my pics in the back cover instead of front cover: What I have noted about biographies and autobiographies is that a pic or pics of the subject are put up on the front page. I think that makes some sense for me as a reader as if I am reading a bio or autobio I would like to straight-away see the name and face of the person whose bio/auto bio it is. If the book is not a bio or autobio then I think it is common for pic of the author being put up on back cover page (and NOT on front cover page).
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Readers may want to visit my Facebook posts, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2475837775966118 and https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2476622525887643 which have pics of various cover pages I created as well as comment (feedback) interactions.
The Facebook post corresponding to this blog post is: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2477242655825630 which already has a few comment (feedback) interactions.
Given below are some comments from above Facebook post:
In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
I am an amateur photographer - just point & click guy :-). So the HD camera suggestion is not in my sphere of capabilities :-). Thanks for the other parts of your comment too.
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In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
I do not want to promote this book, in general, and among Sai devotees in particular. I just wanted to make it available for ****interested persons*** especially any young unmarried spiritual aspirants who are interested in stories like mine.
If some Sai devotee reads my book and likes it, he/she may talk about it to some other Sai devotee - so if the book really interests Sai devotees, it will get known through word of mouth slowwwwwly. I am very fine with the slowwwwww part :-). Jai Sai Ram!
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In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
Thanks sister --name-snipped-- for your valuable views. I have retained my friendship with only a couple of --snip-- persons. ... Anyway I don't want to take HD pics. Just manage with the pics I have. The objective is a reasonably nice cover page and NOT a perfect and superb cover page. Perfect and superb require equipment and skills which I do not have and do not want to run around trying to organize. ... Within my Do-It-Myself sphere, I am exploring improvements, if any are required, to make the cover pic reasonably nice (and I repeat not really perfect and superb).
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In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
Thanks for your comment.
No pics of earlier days with me now. I would have loved to add some 60s and 70s pics to my autobio, at least in the inner content. ... As I moved to spiritual sadhaka phase in 2002, I cut down on my worldly possessions. BTW I used to live in a small rented room on Samadhi Ist Cross Road, which I would say was like a missionary cell and tried to keep my stuff down to two or three bags/suitcases. So some of my old pics would have gone out then.
Later, due to health and other challenges, I realized that I need more stuff, and also later moved to a small ownership flat in Puttaparthi with a small front room, a mini kitchen, a bedroom and balcony. That's when I started acquiring, or to be more precise I should say re-acquiring, more possessions like bed, table, computer, some cooking stuff etc.
And then after having lived in the new flat for some years, a few years ago I had one of those periodic urges to cut down on the papers and documents I have, which I then felt as an appropriate urge for a sadhaka :-), and so got rid of a few of the old pics that had somehow not got cleared out earlier (including one of me in school days). I regret that decision. It was a hasty and wrong decision as I had already moved out of two-suitcases sadhaka mode. Fortunately, I did not throw out my old passports then :-). They are the source of my around 1985 and 1989 pics.
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