I have been remiss!

[telophase]

In posting here about my premade covers over on Etsy (for SEO purposes).

I've been spending the past couple of months running ads on Etsy and making covers to see what people like, as calculated by visits and favorites. And using a plugin that I subscribed to for a year to analyze whatever stats it can grab from public Etsy stuff. Which is not TOTALLY accurate but at least gives me a rough idea of what might sell.

Also, I've joined the Etsy Black Friday sale, in which you'll get 30% off if you spend over $100. I have CUNNINGLY PRICED most of my ebook covers at $99 to tempt buyers into adding on a paperback or hardcover that way. Woo. (If it's over $99, it should be a full wrap cover already created. I also have a variety of prices in order to see what price points appeal and are workable for me, although I haven't sold enough to have any real data. :D

Anyway, here's a list of new premade covers. Apologies in advance for the terribly SEO-centric titles, but these days it's all about the ~Algorithm~ and Etsy has some specific things it responds to when grabbing listings and presenting them as search results. And honestly not that many people are judging by the few characters of the title visible in the search listings; they're looking at the picture. (Some of them have "No AI" in the title, just to see if that attracts people or not. None of them are made with AI.) You're getting the full glory of the titles because I'm hoping search engine spiders will pick them up.

In chronological order, from the oldest to the most recent.

Full wrap Regency Christmas cover, in an illustrated style:
Premade Book Cover: Christmas Regency Romance with an illustrated couple embracing under mistletoe. Customizable. No AI.

Regency Christmas ebook cover with the usual photomontage.
Premade Ebook Cover: Christmas Regency Romance with a lord and lady in front of a Christmas tree. Customizable. No AI.

Mystery or thriller full wrap cover:
Premade Thriller or Mystery Book Cover. Suspense, mystery or action. Ebook and paperback. Customizable.

Mystery/thriller/spy ebook cover:
Premade Book Cover: Thriller, Mystery or Spy Ebook Cover | Suspense | Action | Customizable

Historical Christmas romance (yes, you can tell what my biggest sellers have been to date)
Premade Book Cover: Christmas Historical Romance with a lord and lady in front of a Christmas tree. Customizable. No AI.

For a bit of a change, some rendered crowns as transparent PNGs to plop onto your characters' or photo clients' heads.
Royal crowns for queen or princess. Digital overlay PNG. Fantasy, Medieval, Historical, Romance, Magical. Instant download.

What is this? A Regency romance cover that isn't Christmas??? I disbelieve.
Premade Book Cover: Romance Regency / Historical / Victorian / Romantasy A woman standing in front of an atmospheric morning landscape

Then I branched out into romantasy and dark romance. Here we have my currently Most Popular (as judged by favorites) cover. It has never had a different title, so I'm judging this a Success for Etsy searches and am pretty much using the formula for the others. Sorry!
Premade Book Cover | Romantasy & Dark Romance | Fairy Tale | Fantasy YA Aesthetic | Ethereal Atmospheric Design for Young Adults

These next two were an experiment to see if I could replicate the uncanny valley feel of AI images using 3D renders and the type of post-processing in Photoshop that turns people's skin plastic. Visually, I succeeded, I think. Are the covers popular? Not that much, mostly because if you've got a person's face on the cover it's got to match the author's mental image of their character so it's a harder sell. But I proved the concept, so they fulfilled their purpose.
Premade Book Cover | Romantasy & Dark Romance | Fairy Tale | Elf | Fantasy | Ethereal Atmospheric Design
and
Premade Book Cover | Romantasy & New Adult | Fairy Tale + Dark Romance | Fantasy YA Aesthetic | Atmospheric Ethereal Design for Young Adults

Back to the formula of the popular one above, with flowers and a sword this time.
Premade Book Cover: Romantasy | Fantasy | Flowers & Sword | Dark Romance | Aesthetic | Atmospheric | Ethereal

I wanted to try to picture a rose frozen in ice. I did it, stood back and went "Um...yeah that's absolutely the cover of a spicy romance, not a sweet one." (If you ever wonder if the entendre on the cover of a romance is accidental...no, they know damn well that it's there.)
Premade Book Cover: Romantasy | Dark Romance & Fantasy | YA | Young Adult | Aesthetic | Atmospheric | Frost and Ice

Replicating the popular one without copying it exactly.
Premade Book Cover | Dark Romance | Romantasy & Fairy Tale | Fantasy YA Aesthetic | Ethereal Atmospheric Design for Young Adults

And the one I finished today, a more flat illustrated look. I learned how to make seamless patterns in Photoshop with this one!
Premade Book Cover | Romantasy | Fairy Tale & Dark Romance | Fantasy YA Aesthetic | Atmospheric Custom Design for Young Adults

If you ever wanted to know what my most popular items are, they're these, digital backdrops of Santa's toy workshop. I got the most sales during the height of the pandemic as professional Santas and grandparents wanted appropriate Zoom backgrounds for calls with kids, and then a few sales at the end of each year since as photographers professional and amateur wanted backdrops to composite their subjects into for holiday photos.

Digital Background - Santa's Toy Workshop Christmas Scene, Festive Holiday Backdrop for Photography, Instant Download

Digital Backdrop - Santa's Workshop Christmas Scene, Festive Photography Background, Winter Wonderland Backdrop

Comments

[adafrog]

Good luck.

[telophase]

Thank you!

[jenett]

Oooh, such pretty things. (Not that I need to do this for covers, obvs.)

Etsy asked me for my opinions as a buyer earlier today with a survey, and one of the things I was very vocal about was "I want to support actual artists making actual handmade art. I really want a way to filter out generative AI stuff and I am likely to buy a lot less on Etsy until that (and the equivalent handcrafting things) are a lot easier to filter on.

[telophase]

Thank you!

There should be a way in the future to weed out (properly reported) AI stuff as when I upload a listing there’s a box to check if I used it in creating the thing. They have a note that the information doesn’t do anything right now but might be used in the future.

I bought a pack of flat lay book mock-ups on Etsy to use as images in listings (because the algorithm seems to prioritize listings with more), and didn’t realize until after I used one that some of them were made with AI. And when I re-read the listing, it was noted there near the bottom, where I missed it, so I can’t complain. But I’m not going to review it because I can’t give it a 5 because AI and I can’t give it less because I misread the listing.