One thing that can make or break the book you have been writing for so long is the cover. You can see what can happen if you go to: ‘Evolution of a Book Cover’ page. One advantage of Partnership or Self Publishing is you have input on the design of your cover, something you do not have if you go the conventional route.

The down side is the artwork either has to be royalty free or you commission an artist to do it for you as I did for my first book Guardian.

So why not produce your own book cover? Even if you are not an artist it is possible to produce a good cover with only a few hours work (how long did it take you to write your book?).

DAZ Studio Start Screen
Poser Start Screen
Below are examples of how a picture of a female fantasy character is built up. Once you have a character you are happy with you just place the required scenery around it. The first picture is the basic starter figure
Below is after I have added the detail body rendering, face makeup and eye detail. (The body is anatomically correct hence the black blobs which I added using photoshop!)
Picture three I am starting to add the clothes
The clothes are slowly built up and conformed to the figure. If you don't conform them they stay where they are when you do the posing. (As happened to her knickers. I forgot to conform them to her and when I put her into a pose they were left behind hanging in mid air ;-)
The fitting of clothing is complete and I have added the hair. You can see an error with the hair it pokes through the helmet!
Next I have added some colour to the clothing and put her into a pose, which is just a simple selection process. Note the light angle, which is also adjustable. (Hair is still wrong).
Below is the face detail. You can change and move everything. Notice I have fixed the hair, which is all done using simple sliders on the control panel
So what is stopping you? I cannot draw for a toffee but I can produce pictures like this very quickly.

If you want to see some alien and character art I have produced please go to www.guardianscifi.com
There are several types of 3D rendering software available such as DAZ 3D or Poser. The one I have used is Poser 7 which costs around £150 ($200). DAZ Studio is FREE and is very similar if not as elegant. They both use the same 3D models so it really does not matter which one you go for. I use Poser because I had purchased it before I found out about DAZ Studio.

The actual artwork has already been done for you. You can buy or find free clothing, props, backgrounds and manikins of every shape or form (some examples). Whatever genres you write for (In my case I needed Fantasy art work and Science Fiction Art work) there will be something you can use. The most important thing is the picture you end up with is yours to use as you see fit!

The software looks a little daunting when you first open it. What you need to remember is for the purpose of building a book cover or character for your cover only a few of the available features are used.
This is the first draft cover for my next book. You must agree it is quite acceptable and I am no artist!