Help Annabelle Thénet-Ritchie with a new book or magazine cover

Education

Educator of French language and culture

I am a French teacher and have written a book unpacking French style for English-speakers around the world. The book, called 'A la francaise', is written to appeal to 25-55 year old women who love all things French and want to know how to more fully immerse themselves in French culture. In the book, I teach them about French food, wines, home decorating, the Arts, French fashion, relationships, and the French language. The book's market is women who already possess a sense of discerning taste. so, I need a book cover that will appeal to the modern woman who likes the good life. I am submitting my book to Smashwords as an ebook, but I am also keen to have some copies printed to sell at L'Alliance Francaise around Australia and at seminars I would like to give based on the book.What I really need now is a great piece of design for my ebook and for my printed book. I need a designer to create a file for my ebook which, according to Smashwords, needs to have dimensions of 1600 pixels wide by 2400 pixels tall. For the printed book, I would like to make my book 6 inches wide by 9 inches high. The design will need to allow for an uncertain spine width at this point, but as a guide, the book is about 32000 words, which I think will be about 120 pages thick.I am keen to avoid a cover which has kitsch elements such as berets, baguettes and bicycles, or images of the Eiffel Tower. I am interested in more cutting edge design. I really like the poster images for the Australian L'Alliance Francaise French Film Festivals conducted each year. I recommend you google 'Australian French Film Festival' to see images used over the last few years. They have in common the dominant use of black and white, with one element being in blue, white, red to signify French eg the woman's ear-rings, or polish on her nail, or on her lips or tongue, or her scarf. I thought the 2013 image and font was excellent. I also looked at silhouette images on Shutterstock and thought #69280462 was a very strong image, but I don't want to have to pay extra for the finished design, so please don't use any photostock, unless you vary it considerably and ensure I don't have to pay extra. Just look at the film festival poster and the image above as inspiration. I want my book to have a predominantly black cover, possibly gradated, with a strong silhouette image that appears to be hand painted. The image is probably just of a woman's face (and possibly hand). The face needs to be that of a woman of sophistication. Be careful not to make her look too young and innocent. There is significant white space in the design and a hint of blue/white/red to indicate a French connection. These colours can be together (eg on her ear-rings), or separated. I really like the idea of a fairly minimalistic silhouette with red lipstick.  The challenge then is to add a touch of blue - perhaps a finger to her mouth or chin with blue nail polish, or blue eyeshadow, or blue eye, or ribbon etc. However, I do not want to restrict your creativity here, so please feel free to be 'avant garde'. The most important criterion by which I will be judging the design is how impactful the image is. I appreciate evidence of real design skill and I know my target market will recognise this too.For the font, I do like the way the 2013 French Film Festival poster has a simple font that looks hand drawn.On the ebook cover and front cover, the following elements are needed. The title of the book is 'A la francaise'. Please note that it is a capital 'A' to begin with, and as such, does not have a grave accent on it as it would if it was lower case. The word 'francaise' has to have a cedilla accent below the letter 'c'. The tag-line to the title is 'It's French for style!' I think we need an exclamation mark. Start with a capital letter for the word 'It's'. Keep the style all lower case. Perhaps the word style could be in cursive script and might need a capital 's'. Put my name as the author as 'Annabelle Thenet-Ritchie'. Note the surname is hyphenated, and the first 'e' inthe word, Thenet, has to have an acute accent on it.Smashwords requires the ebook image to be a .JPG or .PNG format. A .PNG file is preferred. Smashwords is also adamant that the image for the ebook must be in RGB colour (not in CMYK). However, the image for the printed book cover needs to be in CMYK. For the printed book cover please have the same front page design as the ebook image. On the spine, written downwards from the top, please write the title of the book, followed by my name in smaller letters.On the back cover, please insert the words below, following the set paragraph style as shown. Please bring the margins in slightly. Put the first paragraph in a cursive script with slightly larger letters and do this as well for the last sentence/third paragraph. Note that the second paragraph has been altered in this update of my design brief: French style is about effortless elegance, a joy for life and a passion for all things beautiful. It is how life is meant to be lived! Annabelle Thenet-Ritchie has spent the last twenty-five years teaching Australians of all ages the finer points of French language and culture, including as a teacher at l'Alliance Francaise. Born in Mauritius, and tertiary educated in Australia, Annabelle holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in French, a Graduate Diploma in Education and a Master of Education in International Education. She has travelled widely in the French-speaking world, and now, in this, her first book for English speakers, Annabelle shares her extensive knowledge and personal stories to enrich your language with a smattering of the right French phrases, and teach you how to wine, dine, dress, decorate, love, and enjoy the Arts just like the French - no matter where in the world you live. Annabelle lives with her husband, Robert, on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. If you are passionate about all things French, this book is for you! Please use part of the image from the front page on the back page to provide some visual support to these words. At this stage, leave a generic place for the ISBN/barcode as well. Lastly, at present in my book, I have a boring glyph of a fleur de lys, and would love it if you could provide me with a little black and white image I can insert in the ebook and printed book at the start of each chapter, using an adaptation of the image on the front cover, or a little glyph to separate the chapters in my ebook.  I've attached two images, but please also google Australian French Film Festival.

I just want to express my sincere appreciation for the effort you are going to to help me launch my first book successfully. I am a publishing novice, so trust the files you provide will be in the appropriate format. I will provide as much feedback as possible, and am excited to see what you produce. hope you enjoy the challenge! Regards Annabelle

Every design category has flexible pricing for all budgets. Book cover starts at HK$2,299.