A Life Less Ordinary
a CreateSpace book project by Loveofwords

Creative brief

The buyer added updates to the brief. Read them.

Author's Name

Victoria Bernadine

Synopsis

“All I ever wanted was a life less ordinary.”

For the last fifteen years, Rose “Manny” Mankowski has been a very good girl. Now, at the age of 45, she's questioning her choices and feeling more and more disconnected from her own life. When she's passed over for promotion and her much younger new boss implies Manny's life will never change, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, she's quit her job, sold her house, cashed in her pension, and she's leaving town on a six month road trip.

After placing a personal ad for a travelling companion, she's joined in her mid-life crisis by Zeke Powell, the cynical, satirical, most-read – and most controversial – blogger for the e-magazine, What Women Want. Zeke's true goal is to expose Manny's journey as a pitiful and desperate attempt to reclaim her lost youth – and increase his readership at the same time.

Armed with a bagful of destinations, a fistful of maps, and an out-spoken imaginary friend named Harvey, Manny's on a quest to rediscover herself – and taking Zeke along for the ride.

Size Info

Trim size: 5" x 8",
Page count: 373,
Interior type: Black and White,
Page color: White,
Spine width: 0.84"

Who are your readers?

Women of all ages, but may be of particular interest to women from their mid-thirties and older.

What 3 things would you like to communicate to your readers with this design?

The mood of the book - it's upbeat and melancholy and hopefully a lot of fun, too. This is a pretty broad mix, so if I had to prioritize, I'd emphasize the upbeat nature of the book (even though there are some not-so-good things that happen).

If anyone needs to read the book or a portion of it in order to get a flavour for the mood/themes/style, it can be previewed on Amazon.com. If a full manuscript is required, please let me know.

A suggestion of the genre (Chick Lit) but not a stereotypical cover so it (hopefully) stands out a bit. If possible, a suggestion of the theme(s) of the book as well - e.g., aging and the search for happiness regardless of age.

What colors do you want to see in your design?

Warm colours (e.g., oranges, yellows but not necessarily just those).

What colors do you NOT want to see in your design?

I don't want to see a lot garish colours, particularly used as the main colour in the design. So, for example, hot bubble gum pink as the main colour would probably turn me off; it might be okay as an accent, though.

Describe the style(s) you like (traditional, modern, etc.)

I'm open to any design that captures the mood/themes of the book, or (if nothing else) the upbeat feel of the book.

What content must be included in your design?

I'm really looking for the cover art, since CreateSpace has several templates that I like and could use for the text portion of the cover.

However, if creatives wish to create the entire front/spine/back for the cover, that's awesome too. In that case, the text would need to be the usual (title, author, synopsis) as well as the publishing company logo, which I've attached.

NOTE: Please leave space for a 2" by 1.2" white box in the lower right-hand corner of the book's back cover for the ISBN barcode. Images or text in the barcode location will be covered when the book is printed. Make sure you don't have any important elements where the barcode will be placed. Visit CreateSpace for more tips on book cover sizing and requirements.