Overdose | covers v1

requester's guide

This is a chapter for all you newbie requesters, or the requesters who think they know how to request, but actually don't. 

WARNING: This will be a longer, more in depth chapter. Also I, myself, am not a good requester, which is why I started making graphics to begin with. So bear with me and if you think I left anything out feel free to comment. This is my personal opinion on how to request based off things I've seen/experienced while making graphics on wattpad.

COVER TYPE

There are three main cover types. Minimal (vector), simple and manipulated (manip). If you don't know what these are, I give some basic explanations in the faq chapter of this book. If you still have questions about them you can also look at the examples given in the rules/examples chapter. If you don't know what they are after that, I'm not sure I can help you.

Sometimes you won't know exactly what type you want. So if you give two types that you'd like me to try out, make sure you give ideas for both types of covers because what might work for a simple or manip cover may not work as a minimal cover.

TITLE/SUBTITLE/AUTHOR

Pretty self-explanatory. But here are a few things that designers look at when they review a request.

01. Length of title/subtitle. Depending on how long (or how short) your title is makes a big difference on how a cover will turn out. One to three words, in my opinion, is the best length for a title. Something like 'the extraordinary journey of jack wilde' is an example of a title that is too long. Words like 'journey' and 'extraordinary' are, by themselves, long words and won't fit nicely across a cover to begin with. Then to add even more with it ends up making a cover look cluttered and unorganized.

That is not to say that all long titles don't work, there are just very few instances that all words fit well together. Same goes for subtitles. Use a short statement (ten words at most) or it will end up taking up too much space that could be left for the title and or imagery.

02. Author name. Designers prefer actual names. 'Nina Evans' (yeah, chaosdearest- I'm using you as an example <3) is a great author name. It looks professional. There are no numbers or symbols and it isn't too long/too short. Examples of not so good author names: 'deb' or 'schoolgirlaesthetic_345'.

SHORT SUMMARY

There is a reason I put 'short' before 'summary'. What I'm looking for are key plot points or what you believe is the most important thing about your book that I need to know and that will help with creating ideas for the cover. So that does not mean four paragraphs with dialogue in between. Just a few lines about the main character(s) and what events help shape the main theme(s) of the plot.

GENRE

I don't normally ask for the genre of the book in my forms, but a lot of designers do. This is self-explanatory. Whatever genre you categorize your book as on wattpad you put it here. Some designers have specific rules stating that they don't make graphics for certain genres, normally being: werewolf, vampire, lgbtq+, anime, which I assume is why they ask for it because sometimes people like to request for a genre anyway even when it states specifically that the designer doesn't make it.