Podfic Cover Art

Many podfics include cover art. Originally podfic was often played on mp3 players, which could display album art if an image is attached to the audio files. Thus, fans made cover art for podfic, especially for the podbook (m4b) format. Even though podifc can now be listened to on a variety of devices many fans continue the tradition of including cover art. Many podficcers create their own cover art, but often another fan may provide the art. 
==History==
Widespread use of cover art in podfic is mainly the result of listeners with art or design skills wanting to give something back to podfic fandom. Some podficcers also possessed these skills, but many did not. The other factor is the rise of podbooks.
In the beginning (2007?), podfic covers consisted of an image that incorporated the title of the story and the name of the author, but not the podficcerA 2010 Amplificathon post includes a discussion about including the podficcer's name on the cover: Podbooks vs mp3s, post by cybel, 30 August 2010.. Cybel was a prolific early podfic cover artist, who made many many covers as part of the podbooks she created for podfic posted to Amplificathon; much of her work relied on using fandom-specific images of recognizable characters. Podfic covers evolved quickly. Covers began including the name of the podficcer. As of 2014, podfic cover artists use a variety of sources such as fandom-specific screencaps or publicity stills, non-fannish stock photographs, original photographs taken by the artistExamples: See Bessyboo's 2012 cover art for becquinho's podfic of Presque Vue by Rageprufrock, in which she combines a picture she took of her own sneaker with images from the film Inception. Bessyboo has also used herself as a model for photographic cover art, for example on Paraka Productions. See also the cover art for or be drowned in blissful confusion, posted in 2010. The anonymous author created the cover art for the podficcer by photographing blank audio cassette tapes with the title and podficcer name scrawled on them., original photographs of original craftsSee reena_jenkins's 2012 cover of Tightly Knit, for which she knitted a scarf before taking pictures of it., existing fanart by another fanartist, or new fanart drawn for the occasion. Some cover art is text-only.For example, see eosrose's 2012 cover art for a Thor podfic, King of Fools.
==Meta Topics==
There has been debate over whether cover art is a necessary addition to podfic, or whether the enthusiasm for covers is discouraging to podficcers who lack graphic design skills. Podfic already requires multiple skill sets (audio editing, acting, etc.), and cover art represents an added burden to some fans. Meanwhile, other fans enjoy making cover art. Some listeners have said that the cover art is why they downloaded a particular podfic or that it is helpful for identifying podfic on their devices.
Some podficcers will explicitly invite cover art on their podfic, with the tags Cover Art Welcome and Podfic Cover Art Welcome on ao3, though both are non-canonical tags.
==Styles==
Podfic cover art has incorporated a variety of different elements depending on the cover artist's skills, preferences, and available technology.
*(usually) square
*text only
*multiple fonts/fonts as art
*screencap, publicity still, or other photograph from the source
*creative commons or other stock imagery not of the source material
*original photography by the cover artist
**photograph of a fan
**photograph of scenery
**photograph of an object created for the cover art
*existing fanart used with permission
**fanart created to illustrate the story being podficced
*original drawing by the cover artist
*animation (usually for display online, not included in the podfic itself)
*manips or collage 
==Examples==
===Screencaps===
File:Jeeves Has A Theory Podfic Cover by cybel.jpg|Early cover art by Cybel featuring Jeeves and Wooster. (2008)
File:Athelas.png|Cover art by Cybel for tinypinkmouse's podfic; uses a photographic image from the film Thor. (2011)
File:HSR coverart 5x5.png|Supernatural cover art by lavishsqualor for Podfic Big Bang; possibly a screencap of the Impala. (2012)
File:Might as well kiss the monster, laugh and fuck until you're dead by krw.png|Teen Wolf cover art by krw for a group podfic that includes the names of all the readers. (2013)
File:Work of art ver2 big.png|Cover art for a hockey RPF fic by xancredible using a photograph of Sidney Crosby.
File:Step Up Your Game.png|Cover art by elrohir using an image from the official MDZS donghua.
===Fanart===
File:Written by the Victors-Podfic.jpg|An early example of cover art by lim; an SGA group podfic. (2007)
File:Sweeterdreams full.jpg|Cover art by yue ix for a Merlin podfic that was never made; fanart drawn specifically for the cover. (2011)
File:What Has Eight Tentacles and Isn't Allowed to Eat Pie Podfic cover.jpg|Cover art created by Tenoko1 for What Has Eight Tentacles and Isn't Allowed to Eat Pie?, using fanart by Pappcave (2014)
File:AwesomeLadiesPodficAnthologyVII.png|Cover art by bessyboo for a later anthology; includes silhouettes of podficcers as well as female characters appearing in the anthology. (2017)
File:Ftsctwhaottgtrocover.png|cover art by Annapods for a Star Wars/Hawkeye aural not!fic; Annapods uses stickers to indicate metadata such as ratings and whether the podfic was a gift. (2018)
===Photo manipulations and Edits=== 
File:Beltane.jpg|Cover art by Cybel for Winkingstar's Merlin podfic; no podficcer info included. (2009)
File:Far Along This Road Cover by sandrainthesun.png|Elaborate photomanip as cover art by sandrainthesun for an American Idol podfic by klb. (2010)
File:Cover for Might I Have a Bit of Earth by theopteryx.jpg|Bandom cover art by theopteryx; seamless blend of black-and-white layers including two photos of MCR members and a starscape, with a splash of red for contrast. (2013)
File:The Act of Creation Will Be Your Salvation podfic cover art.jpg|Cover art for The Act of Creation Will Be Your Salvation by Reena Jenkins, this was included on the AO3 page for the podfic (2013)
File:The Will of Heaven.png|Cover art for a Word of Honor podfic by elrohir featuring an image of the main characters in the character for "heaven." (2021)
===Collage===
File:This Never Happened Cover by aneas.jpg|Cover art for This Never Happened by Aneas and a rare non-square example of cover art. (2011)
File:AwesomeLadiesPodficAnthologyII.png|Cover art by bessyboo, one of the many readers of this podfic anthology; mosaic of many photographic images, plus one fanart image. (2012)
File:Tranqilize cover art.jpg|Cover art by flyingthesky for a podfic read by Lunchee featuring a set of 4 QR codes which can be scanned to provide general podfic information. (2013)
File:When the Lights Go On Again podfic cover.png|Podfic cover by fire_juggler featuring many Marvel characters. (2015)
File:The only way out cover.png|Cover art by BrickGrass for a MDZS fic featuring a collage of the three characters in the podfic.
===Non-fannish Photography and Images===
File:Torch - ghosts (by cath) 4.png|Cover art by the podficcer (Cath) that uses a non-fannish photograph. (2010)
File:The Tower.jpg|Cover for eosrose's podfic of The Tower. (2011)
File:The Alexandrian Solution by happyhanabi.jpg|The cover by happyhanabi for The Alexandrian Solution, a Teen Wolf podfic. (2012)
File:Btdatdbs cover.jpg|Cover art by flyingthesky for Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. (2012)
File:Cover for Ring by Lunate8.jpg|Cover art by Lunate8 for Ring. (2013) 
===Text Only===
File:SPNAnthologybyMerry.jpg|Cover art by Cybel for SPN Fics Written by Molly aka Merry. (2011) 
File:Cover swedish leafs big.png|Cover art by xancredible. (2019)
Edna-mayfair-lil-cover.jpg|Cover art by juniperphoenix. (2022)
==Meta/Further Reading==
*PODFIC COVER TUTORIAL SERIES: The Basics (Part 1) by bessyboo (Aug. 7th, 2011)
*Cover Art Day! (somewhere in the world...) by busaikko (Jul. 25th, 2013)
*Amplirecathon: late Podfic cover art recs (8 recs) by yue_ix (Jul. 31st, 2013)
*twitter thread (2015-03-15)
* by lavenderfrost (2016-03-04)
*Auralphonic podcast #22 Cover Art (2016-09-16)
* by ItsADrizzit (2018-06-01)
*Behind the Pod episode: , featuring lavenderfrost and yue_ix (2019-11-10)
==Other Resources==
*Podfic cover art tag at AO3
==References==
Category:Visual Art
Category:Podfic Fandom Glossary