The whole process of writing and publishing a book has been a huge learning curve for me – everything from learning how to tell a story, editing, social media, and publishing. Besides writing the back cover blurbs, the most stressful and difficult step for me has been developing the book cover art!
I’ve always been able to easily picture concepts and probabilities in my mind. Give me a challenge where I have to think through various issues and permutations – no problem. But, ask me to envision what a wall will look like in different paint colors – no way. I still remember my relief when we were building our current house, and my wife said, ‘Why don’t we just paint the walls white, then decorate with colors.’
Since I’d never designed a book cover before, I had no idea what to expect. I read multiple articles on what to do, but almost all said, find the right artist, give them some basic guidelines, and let them develop the design. The problem was that I’ve looked at thousands of book covers and found that I didn’t like most of them. Plus, I was targeting mine towards the younger Young Adult audience, and I wanted to give my readers a sense of what my story was about just by looking at the cover.
I had two breakthrough learnings to help me get started. The first was when my wife said, ‘I’ve always thought of your books as being about ghosts, magic, and adventure.’ I’d add historical, but her perspective helped me focus on what I wanted on the covers.
The second significant learning was when I was asking my daughter for her advice. I had laid out almost a dozen young adult books that were representative of the age group. She asked me which ones I liked, so I resorted them. It took her only a few seconds before she said, ‘You know, there is a common theme to the ones you like.’ I took another look but didn’t see it. Finally, she took pity on me and said, ‘They’re all illustrated.’ You might argue that there are a lot of YA book covers that aren’t illustrated. That’s true, but the ones that aren’t are skewed towards a slightly older audience than mine.
As my starting point, I put together my first concept document with those two principles (represent the story inside the book and make it an illustrated cover). Other things I wanted were:
- A uniform appearance across the series, both on the front cover as well as the spine.
- The book order in the series to be easily visible. I’ve lost track of the number of books where I’ve had to research the book order in the series. In some cases, I just gave up trying to figure it out and decided not to buy the book.
- Legible titles. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve seen where I can’t figure out the title from the cover because the letters were too hard to read.
- Bold, pleasing, eye-catching colors on the cover that stand out.
Because my stories are often set in UNESCO World Heritage Sites, I wanted each book to have one real place on the cover. For book 1, The Palantir, it was the High Temple at Lamanai. In Book 2, The Pair Dadeni, it is the Citadelle Laferrière.
I also decided to add the main magical object my protagonist is searching for in each book, in the center. And I wanted it to stand out.
The last thing I wanted to add to the cover was an action scene from the book with the main characters, but I don’t want to show their faces. I want to let the readers imagine what each character looks like. I found that the original covers of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books were the closest to what I imagined mine to be.
Just to get to this point took me weeks and lots of anguish. But then, when I was ready to start the process, I immediately hit a roadblock when I realized I had to find an artist who did the right type of cover design. My daughter and I looked through hundreds of artists from around the world, looking for one who consistently did the kind of work I was looking for. Out of all those companies and artists, we found only a handful that met the first glance eye test (there were a couple of others, but they were either too busy or way too expensive). And of those, both my daughter and I indexed to one over and over – Rebecacovers. But my learnings and worries were still in the early stages of getting started.
The first thing we learned is that she works in Ukraine. It’s one thing to deal with companies globally when you’re in a big corporation. It’s another thing to deal with them on an individual basis, using your own money. Many articles and a few people warned me about using overseas artists, so I avoided artists who worked in countries notorious for their scams. But I have to tell you; it’s been a pleasure dealing with Rebecca. Language isn’t an issue because she is fluent in English. The time difference is not an issue either. In fact, I wonder how she can get enough sleep because she’s very prompt and proactive in her communications, no matter when I send a message. She’s also very patient, even though I find it hard to communicate my ideas at times.
Financially, it’s easy. She works through Fiverr, which handles all the electronic payments. I’ve found the pricing to be fair and transparent. You can get inexpensive cover art, but I wanted unique, illustrated art, which is not cheap, but it also doesn’t cost a fortune.
One other thing I want to talk about before I share the current draft of book 2’s cover – the spine. I wasn’t sure what to do on the spine until my future daughter-in-law suggested I look at the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. As soon as I took it down off my library shelf, I knew that was the type of spine and cover I wanted.
So, that brings me to what I’m working on now – the 3rd draft of The Pair Dadeni’s cover (book 2). One of the other things I learned early on in the process is that the drafts of my illustrated covers are all in black and white. Rebeca took the pictures I sent her of the Citadelle, a concept of the magical object I imagined and the action I wanted represented on the cover. I doubt if she’ll ever be able to read my mind and nail the cover on the first draft (for one thing, it would require me to know exactly what I’m looking for). For instance, some of the changes I’ve asked for in the first two drafts are:
- Move the Citadelle from the left to the right side of the cover.
- Move the characters around on the sailing ship, so they’re in the approximate positions they are in the fighting scenes within the book.
- Reorient the ship at the bottom from pointing right to pointing left.
- Started fixing details on the characters. For instance, I had Rebeca change the equipment two of the characters were holding. Before I did that, though, I had to research the equipment on a 17th-century sailing ship. I also had her lengthen the hair on the girl to the left (for the next iteration, I asked her to extend it even more).
- I also had her change the right rear wheel on the cannon. Even though the line drawing is close to the original picture I gave her, there was an optical illusion that the wheel was falling off.
- I also had her change the background from the swirling pattern of book 1 to the heaving seas of book 2. It’s not complete, though. There have been several more changes I’ve already asked her to make, like eliminating the seas behind the Citadelle and replace them with storm clouds.
- Note how she left room for the title and author name at the top and bottom of the cover and the middle of the spine. They will look the same as book 1. Rebeca came up with the font and design for the lettering. All I did was ask her to put it in an appropriate young adult serif font. I love what she chose.
- The rectangles are questions Rebeca has about the positioning of the two ca
nnons I’m having her add to the ship in the distance and where I want to move the ghost who’s flying in the air and throwing a magical fireball.
- More details will be added a little later in the process, but I thought some of you might be interested in what a book cover looks like in process.
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