Create the next print design for Joan Sween

Joan Sween

Writer

This contest is for a book cover for a 6x9" softbound book. Come the end, I will need the front cover image for Kindle and the full cover for CreateSpace. All I need to see in this contest is the front cover, because the back cover will require no new design element, just my photo, a short paragraph of description, and possibly, but not necessarily, a repeated piece of the front design. Although finished, the book is still being formatted, and I cannot at this time give the spine width, but I will be able to by the end of the contest. So… just give me front cover now in order to select a winner, but I will need a full cover as part of the deal.

I've done a 99designs contest previously, and partway through, when I felt I had good choices, I guaranteed the contest. I assume I will do that with this contest.

The book's title is "Dealer's Choice." The author is Joan Sween. A tag line I would like to see is "Minnesota's Favorite Antiques Humorist."

The book is a collection of 50 of my humor columns as previously published in Minnesota's antiques newspaper, "The Old Times." http://www.theoldtimes.com. The column is also called "Dealer's Choice." In each column the humor arises because I pose myself as a goofy, bumbling antiques dealer who gets caught under shelves, accidentally breaks things at antique shows, accidentally sets off the shop's burglar alarm, has goofy ideas for sales, deals with difficult customers in goofy ways, has babies stick their suckers in her hair, gets customers all confused, gets lost in larger malls, falls in the dirt at outdoor flea markets, and so forth. I am not necessarily looking for a design that suggests a figure of me, but if anyone feels inspired in that direction, take note that I am overweight, have shoulder-length brunette hair, and always wear slacks.

What I definitely am looking for is bright contrasting colors, a big title readable when viewed in a small Amazon list, and anything that suggests that the book is funny. Something cartoonish might be fun. I have no objection to seeing loopy outside-the-box thinking.

My best target audience is likely antiques dealers and people who collect antiques.