Goodbye, Shutterstock

[Kasumi_Lee]

Ever since I started publishing eBooks on Amazon and Smashwords (later Draft2Digital), I've used Shutterstock not just to find images for my book covers, but also to use their Design feature to turn them into reasonably professional-looking covers. I'm definitely not a professional cover designer, but I did get the hang of picking a good image and adding the title and my name in the right font with the right finishing touches to make some pretty good covers, and I absolutely do say so myself.

Another great thing about Shutterstock was the payment structure. You can pay a monthly subscription if you like, or you can pay for a certain number of images to license and use up the allotted number you paid for as and when you need to. Shutterstock's Design feature wasn't as sophisticated as Photoshop or Canva, from what I've been told, but I never needed it to be, and I have no intention of paying a monthly or annual subscription for a service that I only intend to use a few times a year.

Sadly, it's curtains for the only reason I ever started using Shutterstock in the first place. My images and cover designs are still in my catalog, and the same payment options are still in place, but they retired their Design feature last month in a push to force people to use their AI image slop generator, which is powered by Google Gemini. Now, I'm not opposed to AI-generated cover images in principle. I have at least two published stories whose original covers I replaced with better ones made by Gemini (Amazon and Draft2Digital are both fine with AI-generated cover images, although Amazon requires you to disclose its use).

However, getting an AI to generate an image the way you want it to look is like herding cats by screaming at them. When I tried to modify an existing image I'd already licensed using Shutterstock's AI-powered editing tool (which as I said is just Google Gemini), all the same problems with getting it to obey instructions occurred: wrong font, wrong text, wrong title placement, ignoring instructions outright, unilaterally making unwanted changes, etc. Even worse, it unilaterally censored the image by adding pajamas to the underwear model in the cover image. Even if it worked properly, why should I pay Shutterstock to license AI-modified images, let alone AI-generated images, when I can get them directly from Gemini for free?

I'm still in the market for something to replace the old manual Design feature that Shutterstock has consigned to the digital dustheap, and so far Adobe Photoshop looks like the best bet. The only thing putting me off is the monthly subscription model, which would be a waste of money for someone who would use it very infrequently.

Has anyone else ever done their own cover images? I'm not soliciting design services, but if anyone has any thoughts or recommendations, I'd be happy to read them.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

The Gimp, if you only want to combine existing images with text? It can do much more as well but that much I know it can do.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I don't use fake images.

 

[Writer61]

Until now, my covers (not all published here) have been stock images from Photoshop with titles added by me. But for cost reasons, I may switch to using other sources.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Canva has a nice selection of free photos, and some basic editing tools, including a good selection of text tools. Canva pro has a wider selection of photos and a more advanced (but still looks kinda basic) editing tools.

Gimp is really fun though, or at least it used to be, I used to do quite a bit of photo editing and computer art on it. It's been about a decade since I've used Gimp though.

 

[WaxPhilosophic]

https://commons.wikimedia.org can sometimes come up with decent images. https://images.nasa.gov/ is all public domain if you do sci-fi stories. Also check out https://fontlibrary.org/ for freely licensed fonts you can use.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Has anyone else ever done their own cover images? I'm not soliciting design services, but if anyone has any thoughts or recommendations, I'd be happy to read them.

I used Photoshop, but back in the day when you could buy a copy, instal it from CD-ROM, and that was your licence. I loathe the current software subscription licences, blood sucking parasites the lot of them.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Has anyone else ever done their own cover images? I'm not soliciting design services, but if anyone has any thoughts or recommendations, I'd be happy to read them.

I create covers for each of my Lit stories (https://syleussnow.wordpress.com/erotic-fiction-by-syleus-snow/), these days mostly generating the images via AI services.

It's asking too much of any AI to do both the image and the text, IMHO. I create the image in AI (spending way too much time tweaking the prompt) then fix up the image and add the text using some other tool. Right now I use Affinity and PaintDotNet. I have no time for Gimp.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I've gotten rather good with PaintShopPro for my covers.

 

[MrPixel]

I used Photoshop, but back in the day when you could buy a copy, instal it from CD-ROM, and that was your licence. I loathe the current software subscription licences, blood sucking parasites the lot of them.

Uh, yup!

I have an older (12 years old) Mac mini as my main desktop because it will boot into the last OS that supported Adobe Creative Suite - Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. They work great and do what I need to do on the rare occasions I need those kind of tools (in my retirement).

I will admit that Affinity is weaning me from the Adobe legacy, but I don't trust Affinity since they've been mucking with the TOU and it's only a matter of time before "free" becomes a monthly subscription.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Has anyone else ever done their own cover images? I'm not soliciting design services, but if anyone has any thoughts or recommendations, I'd be happy to read them.

What features do you use?

There's Canva. You can also import your own images to Canva, you're not limited to the stock photos which come with it. Canva is free, though has a premium option if you want those features.

I've also used photoshop and Clip Studio Paint (CSP).

I would not purchase a subscription to Photoshop just to make the occasional cover. I really wouldn't purchase a subscription at all, except I use it for work.

Generally I use CSP for any art that I want to do, and will then take to PS and/or canva for the rest.

It's been many years since I've used Gimp, but it's free and I recall it being good.

 

[AlinaX]

I’ve used Affinity for years, but I don’t like their recent change in direction.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Until recently, I have created all my own covers, using applications such as Gimp along with images that I have either created myself (with my wife as the model), or using images from others with their expressed permission.

With my last two books, I have tried out getcovers dot com, and been quite pleased with the results. For a flat rate of $35, I get covers created to my specifications without the use of AI images. I have gone through a few modification regarding the layout, font styles, and the like with each of them, but they have patiently worked with me to exceed my expectations.

For one of my latest covers, for a puzzle book, I told them that I wanted a cartoonish cover depicting an adventurer searching through the wilderness for something. They took the subject of the book and created this image:




I haven't tried them for anything too graphically erotic but I saw nothing in their terms that excludes such content from their covers.

 

[Kasumi_Lee]

What features do you use?

Very basic stuff like a specific font, text outlines (white characters with a black outline so that the text stands out), and sometimes a vignette filter if the background is too bright. Occasionally, I also use the black pen or shape feature to censor any parts that Amazon or Draft2Digital wouldn't like.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Very basic stuff like a specific font, text outlines (white characters with a black outline so that the text stands out), and sometimes a vignette filter if the background is too bright. Occasionally, I also use the black pen or shape feature to censor any parts that Amazon or Draft2Digital wouldn't like.

I think the free version of Canva would suit your purposes, have you tried it? There's quite a few adjustments you can do with your base images (own or from in the app) and there's a range of fonts you can choose from.

As an example of image adjustments, I took an in-colour picture of a train at night and was able to change it to greyscale, except keeping the colour red, and then darken the image to make the text stand out more.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Yeah, agreeing that free Canva is good. The AI stuff is only available if you pay for it, but it's a lot better than using GIMP, which can be a nightmare to learn, though pretty handy once you get the hang of it.