Update on my poetry book

By Hrald (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons
 I've blogged about it here and there, but for those of you who missed it: my goal is to self-publish a short collection (111 pages) of poetry this summer via Amazon's CreateSpace.  The corollary is that I want to do as much of the work as possible (and save $$$), including formatting and design.  I finished the interior formatting (and my love/hate relationship with page numbers), but the cover art is threatening to put me behind schedule.  In fact, as of tomorrow, I am decidedly behind schedule.

After some research and debate, my criteria for the cover are as follows:

• It must be classy and something between classic and contemporary.
• It must appeal to both genders and preferably a wide age range (within the intended audience, poetry readers).
• It must be relatively eye-catching at full-size and thumbnail-size.  
• The title must be readable at thumbnail size.  
• I would like it to wrap around the whole book, especially since I'll likely leave the back cover blank.  Thankfully, CreateSpace provides an awesome template for the cover art, so I can design my wrap-around cover without too much anxiety.  <3
• Last and greatest, it must reflect the book's contents, at least adequately.

Now, if I were to begin all over again on a new project, I would definitely start with a blank canvas and figure out the text first.  It was irritating to not have that set-in-stone from the start.  In the last day or two, I've finally designed the title text to my happy approval, with the help of the lovely font Raleway. I'm suddenly tempted to use it for some of the interior formatting, too (but we'll see if my ambition lasts).

The artwork...I had a new idea today that I will look into tomorrow or Monday; it has to do with a photo on a different computer, though.  Up till now, I've come up with some "ok" art--clouds and such--but nothing quite right for my picky tastes.  

What are some of your favorite book covers?  What are some of your LEAST favorite book covers?

Matthew Pearl's books have splendid covers.  Vintage Classics covers are (most of them) works of art.  This set of The Lord of the Rings is beautiful (and based on Tolkien's own cover art!).  I'm afraid cover art is more important to me than it should be, but mostly because I know how unpleasant it is to get a library book with boring, embarrassing, or just horrible cover art.  Or, looking at a book and feeling like the cover is misleading.  Books with cheerful-looking cover art and depressing back cover blurbs--I feel instantly suspicious.

July 8 UPDATE:  ¡Cover art completed!  ^_^   I'm back on schedule.