Images suitable for book covers - Keywording advice please

[John Walker]

I have some atmospheric  images that I feel would be ideal for book covers ie. Murder Mystery etc.

 

Should I add certain keywords to attract a publisher's attention?  Book Cover perhaps?

 

Any suggestions?

 

 

Edited December 1, 2019 by John Walker

[Allan Bell]

I thought of "book cover" too but the customer could be looking for photo of a book cover.

 

Allan

 

[Joseph Clemson]

I think I would try to focus on the evocative and emotional words which your pictures convey, which someone looking for a book cover image may also use if the subject or theme of their book is not a purely subjective one. You might even make these evocative keywords into supertags, if you are convinced that this is what they evoke.  I find it hard to believe a publisher looking for an image for their book cover would look for the search term 'book cover' as, arguably, nearly all photos with a bit of copyspace could legitimately have that tag. 

[John Morrison]

I tag them 'copyspace' and 'copy space'... though without much evidence that this does any good.

 

'Book cover', as a tag, would be more hindance than help, IMO...

[John Walker]

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

John

[Richard Baker]

On 02/12/2019 at 11:34, John Morrison said:

I tag them 'copyspace' and 'copy space'... though without much evidence that this does any good.

 

'Book cover', as a tag, would be more hindance than help, IMO...

 

I'm using both copyspace and copy space. But then searched for both phrases in All of Alamy Search Terms. Only the term 'copy space' was used in the last 12 months with zero for copyspace. But here are the results for the search term 'book cover concept' which shows how some of us are using it to some (or little) effect.

 

https://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?qt=book+cover+concept

 

 

Edited December 4, 2019 by Richard Baker

[John Morrison]

19 minutes ago, Richard Baker said:

 

I'm using both copyspace and copy space. But then searched for both phrases in All of Alamy Search Terms. Only the term 'copy space' was used in the last 12 months with zero for copyspace. But here are the results for the search term 'book cover concept' which shows how some of us are using it to some (or little) effect.

 

https://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?qt=book+cover+concept

 

 

 

It's not easy to know what to do for the best... except to think like picture researchers rather than photographers. And looking at the results for 'book cover' in AoA for the last year hasn't changed my mind... on the basis that if it ain't in the picture, then it ain't in the caption either...

 

I used to work on photo mags and we'd spend an inordinate amount of time, every month, searching for a suitable cover pic. And, of course, there are a few 'boutique' agencies which specialise in images for book covers. Alamy might think about featuring their own selection of potential covers, hand-picked from the collection... 

[Richard Baker]

On 04/12/2019 at 10:02, John Morrison said:

..  if it ain't in the picture, then it ain't in the caption

 

If only others followed this advice.

 

Otherwise, I have the feeling that researchers at Alamy have a decent knowledge of cover-potential imagery and might give advice on this specific. Of course, not all exterior buyers access this route and still have to manually sift through a lot of material.

[Johnnie5]

Check here for ideas.  https://www.alamy.com/category/book-covers.html