About

Why do you call your business Octopi Covers? What do octopi have in common with cover art?

When you think of octopi, the first thing that comes to mind are its tentacles. They use their tentacles to grab things and hold onto them. And that’s what you expect a cover to do for you and your book: to seize readers and hold them.

Covers are the first thing a reader sees. They are your first chance to get readers interested in your book and entice them to read the back cover copy or an excerpt. The last thing you want is someone to pass by your book because the cover does not capture them. An Octopi Cover’s tentacles won’t let your readers get away!

Octopi also have other useful strategies. One of these is the use of camouflage, which involves the ability to actively change patterns and colors. And Octopi Covers offers exactly that: whatever cover you need, for whatever genre you’re writing in, for whatever story you want to bring in front of readers, we are able to come up with the ideal pattern, color, image, and appearance.

And did you know that octopi are “among the most intelligent and behaviorally flexible of all invertebrates”? Who wouldn’t want these traits in a business partner?

Discover the power of the octopus today and contact us for your cover art needs.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camouflage)

 

I think you got the name wrong. Shouldn’t it be ‘octopuses’ instead of ‘octopi’?

I’m no grammar geek by far, but a lover of the Latin language. Though, that’s not correct either, I fear. The form octopi was created by English speakers out of a mistaken belief that octopus is Latin and hence pluralized with an -i ending. (Actually, the word octopus comes from ancient Greek, where its plural is octopodes.)

Still, while octopuses is far more common than octopi and the use of octopi can’t be justified on an etymological basis, it is not wrong. It is old enough and common enough to be considered an accepted variant and a favorite among fans of quirky words. I love quirky.

(Source: http://grammarist.com/usage/octopi-octopuses/)

 

Hey, don’t I know you also as Croco Designs? How is Octopi Covers different from Croco Designs? As far as I know, Croco Designs does cover art too. So why Octopi Covers now?

Right, it’s me. Namely, Frauke Spanuth.

When I officially started Croco Designs back in 2007 most of my design work for authors revolved around website design and promotional designs for, e.g., bookmarks or ads.

While I was working as a freelance cover artist for Loose Id at the time, and then later for Ellora’s Cave, author-commissioned covers were a rarity. I think I designed a cover for a story once or twice a year.

In recent years, with self-publishing taking off successfully and becoming more and more attractive to authors in comparison to traditional publishing, I experienced a rapid growth of interest in cover design services from clients. In 2013, I designed about twenty covers for self-published titles each month.

The design services I offer didn’t change so much as the interest in one of those services in particular. I felt it was finally time to create a site dedicated only to cover art to pay tribute to the interest and the questions I received about this service. On the other hand I was afraid to take away the focus from the other design services I offer because I still enjoy creating bookmarks and the occasional website design. So in the end I decided to launch a new site under a new name instead of creating a subsection to the Croco Designs site.

Another goal of Octopi Covers was (and still is) to reach/attract a broader audience. While in the beginning almost all authors I worked with were (Erotic) Romance authors, I also work these days with authors writing (Urban) Fantasy, Young Adult, and Thriller/Crime/Mystery books. I am still madly in love with the romance genre (and always will be) but I also want to encourage other authors to reach out to me. It’s like being an author with two pen names, one for Romance and another one for non-Romance books.

These days, Octopi Covers my online shop where you can purchase premades, vouchers and other services I offer.

 

How do I credit you?

Cover Design by Octopi Cover

Cover Design by Frauke Spanuth of Octopi Covers

Or if you don’t like octopi, you may prefer crocodiles:

Cover Design by Croco Designs

Cover Design by Frauke Spanuth of Croco Designs