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November 9, 2009 by Travis Jonker

Create Your Debut Picture Book Cover

November 9, 2009 by Travis Jonker   21 comments

darkwizardcov

YA has been done. Fantasy is yesterday’s news. It’s time to do something for the kids. Above is my debut picture book cover.

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What will yours look like?

CREATE YOUR DEBUT PICTURE BOOK COVER

1 – Go to “The Name Generator” or click http://www.thenamegenerator.com/

Click GENERATE NEW NAME. The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Picture Book Title Generator” or click http://www.generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=243

Click CREATE TITLE! This is the title of your picture book.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type the last word from your title into the search box followed by the word “drawing”. Click FIND. The first suitable image is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Gettin’ creative is encouraged.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

If you create a cover, let me know – I’m going to post a reader gallery soon.

coversweek

Covers Week continues tomorrow with an interview of cover-designing wiz Chad W. Beckerman. Click here for a full schedule of events.

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About Travis Jonker

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. riddleburger says

    November 9, 2009 at 10:13 am

    I tried, Scopester, but what I created was such an abomination, I just couldn’t go through with it.
    Is it fair to start over again? Perhaps “Cody Dahood’s” second work will be less offensive to all that is decent…

  2. Scope Notes says

    November 9, 2009 at 10:20 am

    A do-over is certainly allowed! However, abominations are also welcome.

  3. Melissa (Book Nut) says

    November 9, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    I played along… my cover is here.

  4. MotherReader says

    November 9, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    Thanks for the diversion. Here’s mine:
    http://www.motherreader.com/2009/11/randall-warm-frog.html

  5. riddleburger says

    November 9, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    I had gone to flickr earlier, not the flickrcc site. So now I have something that’s not an abomination at all:
    http://riddleburger.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/what-im-reading-now-swine-flu-edition/

  6. Jennie says

    November 9, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    These cover challenges are such fun.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinningjennie/4089891463/

  7. scrumptious says

    November 9, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    I am loving these cover games! I’m really looking forward to all of Cover Week, here. I had a much harder time with this one than the YA and Fantasy covers, but here it is, in all its trippy glory.

    I don’t know if you are still updating the YA gallery (and is there a fantasy gallery? I didn’t see one) but I would love to have my YA cover added amongst all the amazing work there!

  8. scrumptious says

    November 9, 2009 at 5:50 pm

    Yikes! That didn’t seem to work. Here’s the link to the post with my picture book: http://ya4oa.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/coming-soon-to-an-imaginary-bookseller-near-you/

  9. Jim Randolph says

    November 9, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    Fun one!

    http://www.teacherninjas.com/2009/11/corey-short-pirate.html

  10. tanita says

    November 9, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    Oh, the horror.
    Mine is here. Thank you so much for coming up with distracting silliness — just what I needed for a freezing cold, blah, gray day.

  11. allegore says

    November 9, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    This was hilarious! I can’t wait to see them all. Here is mine:

    http://allegore.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/my-debut-picture-book-cover/

  12. Erin Broderick says

    November 9, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    Very fun!

    http://msbrodericksbookblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/arno-ugliest-bicycle.html

  13. Miriam Tuohy says

    November 9, 2009 at 9:17 pm

    Man, those are funny. But what I would really, really love to see is a draft (at least) of the book content! because some of those sound awesome 🙂 That would be a real challenge.

  14. Scope Notes says

    November 9, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    I agree. Adding a plot synopsis should be the unwritten 6th step.

  15. Patti says

    November 9, 2009 at 9:48 pm

    Here is mine! http://oopswrongcookie.blogspot.com/2009/11/create-your-own-picure-book-cover.html Fun fun fun!

  16. Boni Ashburn says

    November 9, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    Thanks for the fun, Scope 🙂 Love these!

    Mine’s here: http://boniashburn.com/blog/

  17. BookMoot says

    November 10, 2009 at 4:17 am

    So many possibilities. Great fun. Here is one of them.
    http://www.bookmoot.com/2009/11/my-debut-picture-book-cover.html

  18. C.K. says

    November 10, 2009 at 11:51 am

    I’m happy to see another one of these! So much fun! Here’s mine:

    http://ckkellymartin.blogspot.com/2009/11/create-your-debut-picture-book-cover.html

  19. whaleweigh says

    November 12, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    This was so much fun! Here’s mine: http://sassyshelver.blogspot.com/2009/11/quincy-wooden-octopus.html

Trackbacks

  1. Gallery: Debut Picture Book Covers « 100 Scope Notes says:
    November 9, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    […] To the brave men and women who assembled their debut picture book covers, we salute you (click here to give it a try). What follows is a gallery of the results in all their good, bad, and ugly glory. I’ll be […]

  2. Coming soon to an imaginary bookseller near you… « The Rebel Angels step out at Twilight in their Traveling Pants says:
    November 10, 2009 at 2:20 am

    […] To celebrate “Covers Week,” 100 Scope Notes has put up a new game, this one to create a children’s picture book cover. While my previous two covers came together with ease, I had much tougher time with this one. An […]

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