Category Archives: Designing

Tales from the designer’s desk

Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery v3.5

If the title of this post is black and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. Here’s the latest addition to my book cover design efforts. I began writing the Future Fiction, Sci-Fi novel Oasis in 1992 and completed 11 drafts over the next 16 years while unsuccessfully attempting to secure a literary agent and a contract with one of the Big 6 (at the time) legacy publishers. On the advice of an instructor at the Writers’ League of Texas, in 2003 I wrote Pilot Error, an aviation mystery-thriller about airborne murder, and … Continue reading

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Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery v3.4

If the title of this post is black and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. Imagine my surprise when my niece, Carey McIntosh, asked for my help in publishing a book about her 25-years of living and working overseas. I had no idea she had written it, and as I would come to find out, neither did her immediate family. That began a secret collaboration lasting more than 11 months, and now that the book is published, I can showcase the cover in my gallery. While waiting for the manuscript, I began … Continue reading

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Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery v3.3

If the title of this post is black and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. My friend and fellow author Sharon Scarborough has just published Book 2 in the Texas Ranger Nightingale series. Not an Ordinary Death follows A Promise of Water with another murder and an investigation complicated by small town interpersonal dynamics and political intrigue.

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Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery v3.2

If the title of this post is black and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. In July, 2018, my friend and fellow writer Laura Resnik-Chavez introduced me to Danielle Jaussaud, who had reached the point of wanting to publish a memoir and needed help with formatting and cover design. Although I can’t speak for Danielle, my guess is that at the time, she couldn’t have predicted a publication date any more accurately than I. For my part, the project presented a number of new challenges, with photos, endnotes, and a cover design … Continue reading

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Tosh’s Book Ad Gallery

If the title of this post is black and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. They say you can’t tell a book by its cover; you can’t attract shoppers to your book without a good cover; and you can’t sell many without advertising. This post begins the gallery of ads I’ve designed for others over the past year or so.

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Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery Addendum

If the title of this post is black and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. When I began looking for background images to use on the cover for Geronimo’s Bones by Darrell Bryant, my initial search keywords focused on the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. The fifth image I discovered figuratively took my breath away. I immediately emailed the copyright holder and received a reply within an hour, telling me that he had received the email on his cell phone while hiking in the Superstitions on a photo shoot. I obtained a limited-use license and … Continue reading

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Tosh’s Bookmark Gallery Update 1

If the title of this post is black and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. My latest book design effort has just been published, and as mentioned in a previous post titled “Tosh’s Bookmark Gallery,” I like to offer clients a title-customized bookmark as a standard option. Usefulness of a bookmark can be questioned in a number of ways. Absent the opportunity to attend a continuing series of book fairs and signings, most authors will probably slip very few of them into a signed copy and hand it to a buyer. They’re … Continue reading

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Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery Version 3.1

If the title of this page is black, and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. Creating 3D images of book covers for advertising purposes is a nice touch, and I’ve been using a softcover template with the pages visible in front and rear quarter views.  But this morning I came up with a way to create images with a visible spine and the look of a hardcover edition in which the edge between the spine and front and back covers appears to be catching the light source, and the “groove” in the cover … Continue reading

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Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery Update 3

If the title of this page is black, and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. At the end of a previous post subtitled as “Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery,” I noted the titles of three novels currently in work with my interior and cover designs. In Update 1 to the Gallery, I shared 3D versions of the front and back covers of the print edition for one of the three. In Update 2, I repeated that share with another of those novels. This Update 3 is jumping the gun a little, because the … Continue reading

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Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery Update 2

If the title of this page is black, and/or you see the fighter-pilot header, click on the title to view the featured-image header. At the end of a previous post subtitled as “Tosh’s Book Cover Gallery,” I noted the titles of three novels currently in work with my interior and cover designs. In Update 1 to the Gallery, I shared 3D versions of the front and back covers of the print edition for one of the three, and another of those novels has just been published in digital format on preorder with Amazon. Availability of the print edition will be … Continue reading

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