The Creation of a Book Cover

Silvina asked a question on my "Where Does The Time Go" post that I thought might work better as a post itself instead of a comment back. She said: I'm curious about book covers. How exactly do you choose a book cover? Do you contact an artist? I love that she asked.

I am fortunate that I come from a creative family. My mother was/is an artist, specializing in Alaskan landscapes mostly. One of my sisters paints, another's a florist, another is crafty...the list goes on. Before I got back into writing and publishing I actually designed and created specialty greeting cards for people. It was an awesome job but not overly profitable and I am so hands-on that I printed them all myself which also meant folding, cutting...it was all a bit overwhelming.

Anyway...because of all that, I design my own covers and many of those for other books through the publishing company. Some, like Sharon E. Cathcart's "In The Eye of The Beholder" are designed by artists (James Courtney created her cover). Jaimey Grant designed the cover of "Deception" with an occasional "try this" or "try that" from me. My children's book "How Sadie Learned to SMILE" uses a cutout from one of the illustrations in the book. I created several backgrounds for it using that same illustration and bounced them to the illustrator until we agreed on one we liked. Video producer Patrick Sipperly designed the cover for our collection of short stories: "Time Out On A Roller Coaster". It was a concept he came up with and I happened to like.


I spent some time this summer creating book covers for several of my works in progress. Many of you know I hurt my back and was unable to sit to work for long. Oddly enough, I was able to hover over a mouse at my graphics computer so...that's what I did. I spent a lot of time browsing the pages of a site called Dreamstime looking for my characters. I would then pull them into the template I use and play until I got it right. Dreamstime has comp images you can use for free to see if they will work. At that time you buy the ones you like and the annoying watermarks go away :) An example would be this cover for one of my novels. It isn't finished but hopefully you can see the swirly watermark on the couple and on the girl in the frame.



Notice too that the front of the book is on the right and the back of the book is on the left. There's also that "dead" space on the back (To the right of the girl) where the bar code will go. You have to be careful about that...not putting anything there that you don't want covered. To see this in more detail, check out my OneStopPublisher.com Cover Creator Page. I don't have a lot of covers on there, though. I need to update it. I'll do that in my spare time!!!

Let's look at another cover. It's for an upcoming book of mine called "The Escort"...at least that's the working title. The cover (along with the lovely watermarks) shown here is basically 3 photographs sandwiched into one.


















How was I able to look at those three pictures and decide they would work? I don't know. I guess that's the artistic side. Other than some minor tweaks, I do know, I love this cover and it expresses exactly what I wanted to express about what might be inside.

Now, do be aware that when you use sites like Dreamstime and others you may run the risk of others with the same pictures on their covers. Vicki Hopkins, author of "The Price of Innocence" has commented that she's seen her photo art on three other books, I believe. I personally love Vicki's cover and think it fits her book, so to me...it's a who cares.

The man in my Escort book (he's not the escort, by-the-way) can be found on another cover as well. Take a look at this one by Miss Mae. You know what? I'm okay with that because as much as he might depict her character, this man is my character as well. He fits too perfectly for me not to use him. Her book, "When The Bough Breaks" won a Best Young Adult Novel award and also a Best Cover of the Month Award. I've heard from a very good source that it's a worthwhile read. I can personally recommend "The Price of Innocence" as well.


Some artwork doesn't need a lot. Take the picture of the sword, for instance. We turned it into a cover for a soon to be released novel by Richard S. Wiggins, Jr. titled "Kilaal's Sword"...I sent the author a bunch of sword pics and asked which one. He chose this and I got to work. According to his instructions, the sword needed jewels placed strategically in the handle. That was actually the hard part. The cover turned out pretty good, in my opinion. The author liked it and that's the most important thing to me.

So, in answer to your question, Silvina, if an author does not have an artist in mind, I usually tackle the project myself or with one of the other designers through the publishing company. I would say that I'm not so sure I choose a cover or if, in many ways, it chooses me. More often than not, it has a lot to do with the author's tastes, the fortune to stumble across a great artist or perfect photo and a whole lot of intuition. Covers are as personal as the words on the pages they cover. I'd urge every author to browse sites and make a file of covers that catch the eye. Take a tour of your library or local book store. See what jumps out at you. Most of all, when you begin creating your own cover, whether you do it yourself or with the help of a professional, have something created that you love. If it doesn't touch you, how will you be confident enough to present it to others? The ultimate goal is to sell your book. You have to love your cover and believe in the contents to do it.

Creating A Book Cover

You know the old cliche about not judging a book by it's cover. Well that was obviously not written by the person who came up with "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." That's exactly what a book cover has to do; make an impression that will either make the reader pick it up or, at the very least, take a second look.

I love cover creation. Not bragging or saying I've made the best (yet :) but, I truly do enjoy it. For several years I created customized specialty greeting cards through my Awesome Messages company so I have a bit of graphics design experience. Again not wanting to toot my own horn but the cards were really awesome! I painstakingly designed around each and every photo that was sent to me....very time consuming and not overly profitable. Still, I enjoyed it and it showed through in my work. I actually still do cards on a request basis. In fact, my friend Bridgette - nominated for teacher of the year at Madison Middle School here in Bartlesville, OK and well deserving of the title - emailed last night and said she needs new cards. "We" usually design around photos of her three awesome dogs. She gives me free rein and gets back cards that are uniquely hers.

Anyway, the card creation has helped me greatly in book cover designing. While Pat did a wonderful job of creating the cover for our Time Out On A Roller Coaster book, I have designed the covers for the rest of my books as well as all the books published through my TreasureLine Books Publishing company; a part of http://www.onestoppublisher.com/. I use an old graphics program, the same one I used for my cards, called PictureIt. Some of you may know it. It's an old Microsoft program that I have no idea why they did away with except that PhotoShop came on the scene. I have PhotoShop too but have yet to learn to use it much. Not exactly true. I use it as a pdf converter! Kind of expensive for that but we do what we must, right?! :) I'll learn to use it...eventually.

It's no secret that I self-publish using Amazon.com's CreateSpace. I have no complaints thus far about using CreateSpace. They're reasonably priced, quick, give a direct line into the Amazon.com sales channels and they have templates and modules to help you along the way. They'll even do it all for you....for a hefty price, but if you're a do-it-yourselfer or can find someone like me who can and is willing to help you or hire out at an affordable price to do it for you, then you can be on your way to a hold-in-your-hand book in a snap. It's exciting to hold that first book in your hand though I have to say, just like children, you don't love the ones that come after any less. You'll find yourself looking it over, caressing the cover as you proudly display it before friends.....

Ah yes, back to the all-important cover..... I don't want to discuss what makes a cover stand out as much as I do the actual creation of a book cover. What makes a person take a second glance is most likely personal preference. I might look at a book and love the cover and it do nothing for you. All authors would love to have their books catch the eye of everyone that walks by. Most likely, that's not going to happen. I spend a lot of time going to websites and looking at covers trying to determine what I like; what would make me pick it up if I could. My friend, author Melinda Richarz Lyons, recently published a young readers fiction novel through my TreasureLine Publishing (then AM Publishing) titled Murder at the Oaklands Mansion. I created a couple of different covers for her, fell in love with a wrap around cover I did and she chose a different one! That's okay. Ultimately, the author is the main marketer of his/her own book and has to be comfortable with it. You can see both of those covers on the Cover Creations page of my One Stop Publisher website. She chose the basic layout. I loved the blended cover at the bottom.

CreateSpace allows you to download a template for the cover. You can create your own from scratch as well and they will give you the dimensions. Don't get confused here, the template also allows you to completely create your own design. It merely provides you with guidelines such as where the front and back cover meet the spine, bleed area, etc. They also offer free cover designs but I found them extremely limiting and frustrating. If you've used them and liked them, I'd love to know!

CreateSpace allows for users to download their cover templates in a couple of different formats. I use the png because that is what my graphics program accepts and I am comfortable with it. Once you download, the designing begins. My latest book release is a collection of faith-based short stories exploring pivotal times and journeys in our lives called Becoming... (now available on my website at reduced Birthday savings until February 9th, btw!). The cover for Becoming... is a simple pink rose against a brown rock background. Simple is an understatement because that cover has 19 levels! That means there are 19 pieces that make up the cover of that book and each one has to be placed and worked in.

The cover of my first children's book titled How Sadie Learned To SMILE, illustrated by friend and awesome artist Christina Janzen, has 18 levels. I consider it a Basic Cover as opposed to the more intricate Blended covers though, as you can see, it still has lots of pieces. The cover for A Marriage of Necessity has 12 levels. I'll try to post some of those covers though you won't be able to see all the levels, just the finished products.

I'm sure there are a lot of different ways to create a book cover and I KNOW there are tons of businesses out there willing to create them for you (most charge an arm and a leg that you may or may not make up through the sales of your book). Most importantly though, it all boils down to creating or having a cover created that you'll be proud to hold up before people and say "this is my baby" and that you are comfortable with. That goes for all covers because books truly are judged by their covers though it's good to remember all eyes won't look at that cover exactly the same.

Now let's see if I can get some of those cover samples on here....the front covers, at least.