My part autobiography book front page cover

Last updated on 1st May 2019

My part autobiography book front page cover pic is given below. Initially I will use it for the ebook. But same/similar cover will be used for the paperback later on.

Note that I have done this by myself using Pothi.com cover creator facility as well as graphics and other apps. So it is amateur stuff :-). But I think this will do.

[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.]

My Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2475837775966118, associated with this post, has some comments and modified front covers. I have given below only the text part of the update on the post (the additional pics referenced in it have to be viewed on the above Facebook post):

Update: I think I will work on covering up the yellow patches in the 2nd pic on the right. Even if the patchwork may be apparent, I think the yellow stuff needs to be removed as this is the cover page. The inner book pic I think should retain the yellow patch to keep the pic authentic without any touch up.

Further Update: Attached my first attempt at patching up and having an improved cover page pic.

Update on 29th Apr. 2019: I received a suggestion that black background is not good for the cover page and that I should consider more colourful and soothing. I changed the background colour to red (perhaps more appropriate for Hindu spiritual stuff even if not a soothing colour like some shade of blue) instead of black. Note that I have 3 books with me now (bought in the past few months), which use black background on the front cover page. I think this was one of the factors that influenced me to try black. Another reason I thought of black initially was that I felt the 3 photographs which are the vital image components of the cover page, will get highlighted well with a black background. The red colour shade that I have used now does not reduce the contrast between the pics and the background significantly. The pics still stand out. Now the shade of Red I have used is not exactly a soothing colour but it is a Hindu spiritual colour and so I think it is appropriate for this book of mine. Please see attached pic.
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A later Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2476622525887643, has additional modified versions of cover page. I have given below the text of the post and of some comments on that post.

What background colour should I use for cover page of my part autobiography?

I am in a mixed up state of mind now :-(.

My initial approach was to use black background. See first attached pic.

But then there was a suggestion to avoid black and use something soothing and colourful.

I thought of red which is not soothing but is colourful and perhaps suits the theme of Hindu spiritual aspirant. See second attached pit.

Later I wondered about red background. I felt maybe it is just too loud.

So I tried some other colours brown, violet etc. Note that the 3 pics of me are a separate combined pic with its own background. Changing its colour to suit background colour of the whole page involves significant effort in Microsoft Paint which I am using (I want to keep it simple and not get into GIMP kind of more complex image manipulation programs).

So in these initial efforts I have usually not changed the inner pic colour which sometimes is a contrasting black or red. But in one or two pics I have attempted to use a soothing colour like Lavender inside the inner pic.

As I see all these pics, I have to confess that I am more comfortable with the first black background cover page. Black-and-White story - no frills. That cover page suits the way I have written the book - plain English without too much finery and being plain & straight (telling it like it is, as American folks say).

Confusion! I was never good at this arty stuff. I used to fail in Drawing & Painting in school (in Cardinal Gracias High School in Bandra (E)) and then go to the Drawing & Painting teacher and request to be passed as I had done well in other subjects, and he would give me grace marks and get me over the passing marks line! He was a Mr. Gore from Virar, if I recall correctly. Nice guy who would feel somewhat frustrated with me ... Now I am feeling frustrated with myself with this cover page work! Ha! Ha! Such is life! I should have paid more attention to drawing and painting class in school.

If readers have any views about this, I would be glad to know them.
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[Two persons commented saying they liked the black background colour cover page. Another said red background is catchy.]

A person wrote that all the designs are boring and that I should use a designer's services asking for background of positive vibes. The person also mentioned using Bhagavan's robe, Abhaya Hasta ...

I responded (slightly edited):
Thank you for your valuable dissenting views. I value constructive dissent like the one you have given. Here are my views on your input.

1. About "handpicked by the Lord": Bro. I do not consider myself to handpicked by Bhagavan. I have many human flaws which Bhagavan (while in physical form) showed me that he knew but which he tolerated out of his goodness and compassion, and always tried to put me on the path to improvement. So I am just a struggling spiritual aspirant who was fortunate to come under the Divine Umbrella (Divya Chatra Chaya in Hindi) of Grace of our beloved Lord Sathya Sai.

2. 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.

3. 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).
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In response to another comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
Bro. --Name-snipped-- - you seem to be much more knowledgeable about this area than me. Is it possible for you to locate somebody who can do what you have suggested? I will provide you the inputs and I can pay the charges for the person. We will then see what we get and take a decision. What do you say?
...
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.
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In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
Don't know graphics design myself barring rudimentary stuff in Paint. 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 idemnity agreement 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.
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