Just a note, for the next three weeks I will not be available. 

Just another note, all these photos are mine. Bros, mine. Seriously. I photographed and edited all of them. Edited badly, but still, I made them.

Last note, that monster is five different people. Not all of them were white. 

For graphics there is the main poster, the background image, character profiles, and then the additional in-case-you-didn’t-know-what-this-looked-like pictures and links. Right of the bat, these pictures aren’t necessary. When I do a review I don’t even score the graphics. I might see that you have pictures and a poster, but it doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t affect the overall quality of your writing.

Posters: They’re the first graphics you see when you click on a story and they really do set the mood. I don’t spend too much time looking at them unless they are well made. The only problems I have with posters are when they are too distracting or they spoil the story. For instance, in the case of a group of people eventually falling in love with someone and the poster depicting those final pairings, or the poster have a baby when they have a child in the last chapter. Things like that, I believe, shouldn’t be done.

Otherwise, whatever when it comes to posters. They just don’t matter.

That being said, don’t just use any old picture off of google and not edit it. The purpose of the poster is to draw readers in where your ty writing couldn’t. How is a simple picture going to show readers how dedicated you are? It’s counterproductive in that case, so don’t use a poster at all.

About requesting posters, I’m very bad about it. I can’t articulate what I want in the poster and I’m bad at finding good high quality pictures. The amount of effort I put into finding images is just google searching the names. And as confident as I seem, I am actually very shy when it comes to new people, so I have trouble telling someone that I don’t exactly like the poster they made and I end up stuck with a y edit.

I avoid requesting for posters as much as possible. In fact, I just avoid making new stories as much as possible. The last new fic I made was last year and I make my own posters for that one. Yup, I created all the posters for Tattooing the Pain Away. I end up getting bored on my own and edit the poster to my latest liking, even if I don’t have a new chapter…

It’s such a hassle asking for a poster. On AFF, you are asking for a poster, I really think you should do your research. Try and find some other graphics this person has made and see if they are to your taste and see if they can vary up their styles. Some posters, they’re not bad, but they look similar to other ones, texture on texture, the people, some decorations, and then the title in a nice font. It’s really not that hard to do if you have the template.

Know exactly what you want. Think of the feeling, think of colors. Your poster has to match the mood of your story and the storyline. This is why it is very important that you know what is going to happen in your story and you plan ahead. If you can’t do this, you poster will be way off and lacking.

Make sure you use high quality pictures. As someone with experience in photoshop, I know how hard it is to manipulate low quality pictures. Avoid google pictures, find blogs that have their photoshoots, or heaven forbid, look on tumblr for some good ones. Don’t use someone’s already edited image, of course! Also, stay away from those really common pictures that you see in every other poster for this person. Match their ages and their images! It’d be weird if the character is twenty and has blonde hair but you used a picture of him when he was sixteen and had black hair.

Follow the regulations of the person or association you are requesting from. If they say credit them and put a link to their website, do that! Otherwise they could blacklist you and delete your poster! It will happen! Once you have a poster, you have a poster. Use it for at least one chapter.

To graphic artist, I understand you are busy, but you are doing someone a service and you need to do it on time and make it good quality work. If the author doesn’t like something they should be able to ask for some changes without getting threatened.

Chapter Posters: I really don’t see the point of these either unless the fic is actually just a bunch of oneshots about different people and the pictures are used just to differentiate between them. Again, with these people tend to just use unedited pictures and it is just as pointless. Often times, these images don’t even represent the story, just people.

Do a good job representing the story itself!

If you look back on some of my chapters, you will notice that I have changed some of the chapter images. For chapter 4, I did a simple word edit, the laws of a fanfic. Another for chapter 6, the purpose of reviews. One for chapter 7, about oneshots. Lastly, one for chapter 10 and comments. All of them have reflected what the chapter was actually about.

Backgrounds: Don’t. They are often distracting and don’t match with the story whatsoever. You can barely even see the picture in the first place! I’ve seen romance fics with a bouquet of roses half showing and tiled or weird witchcraft items in supernatural stories. Don’t request a background and don’t use them.

Character profile: Don’t do them. They take up space, they’re pointless, and they’re stupid

Random Photos: Images are not supposed to be a substitute for your writing. If you think your readers do not understand what something looks like, do not insert the picture into the chapter or link to the image, just write about it! It’s your job to make the readers understand!

Clothing –look at the clothing, write about it. Write about the color and how the fabric falls on their body, perfectly framing their muffin top! Rooms –look at the room, note the lighting and furniture, write about it. Try and be creative with a mahogany theme and picture frames of the beach. Generic objects –describe their purpose, write about what they look like, and assume your readers know what a European passport looks like.

It’s so incredibly useless that I can’t describe how unnecessary it is.