The Cover Designer
The first thing a reader does with a new book or unknown author is see the cover. If the cover makes them curious, then they look for the blurb…and if it intrigues them, now they want to buy the book.
Let’s be honest—one of the most thrilling parts of seeing a book come together is when it’s bound with a cover. Not only was I excited and nervous to find the right fit for a cover designer, but trying to figure out the right price point to budget for the something so important. Since there is no denying that readers definitely judge a book by its cover, I personally put aside 40 to 50% of my budget toward finding someone who would do a good job, take my vision, and hopefully make it better. I wish I had an eye for these things and could do it myself, but once again I know my strengths!
The reason that the book cover was the third box on my list was because I knew it was another thing that I was outsourcing, so I needed to have someone who worked within my timeline. The editorhas a schedule to work with, and so does a cover designer. To be honest, my initial plan was to release my debut this summer, but the designer I liked I was booked and wouldn’t be able to get to my project until summer which meant having to push back my timeline. Honestly though, it was a big reminder that for my first book, in particular, I didn’t need to rush! I still chose to work with them and it allowed me to slow down the whole process and really learn as I go, which has been great. I know that you sometimes want to click publish right away—as soon as possible—but remember, you really don’t HAVE to do that. Take your time. Research! You, and your book, will be better for it in the end. Especially since later you might be on tighter timelines to get the next books out to your readers. That’s the goal right…that readers are begging for more books from you and you’re writing like the wind to get the next one out.
How do you go about finding the proper designer? First off, do not only contact one artist and be done with it. There is more to it than that. Sometimes there are the artists rights to consider and, if you as the author, will have the rights to use their work on your book and for promotional purposes. Yes, that’s correct—the artist still owns their work unless you buy it from them so keep that in mind. (No, you cannot find a random artist’s work on Pinterest, copy it over to your book cover, and be done with it!) You also need to remember that it is more than art, but also a typesetter and formatting that may also come into play. The cover for a e-book is different from a paperback or hardcover book. Some artists only do the graphics, while others might do it all. So make sure to ask those questions and have those things included in your quote.
The first mistake I almost made: I was about to sign a contract with someone until I found out their quote wouldn’t include the typesetting (the font and design for the title, author name and so on). While I loved their work, that put them out of my price range because I couldn’t afford to hire a separate artist.
I contacted cover designers that I’d found on social media using the hashtag #coverdesigner, and #typesetter, as well as #fantasybookart. There are probably more specific ones, but that was my start. In particular, I also looked at the #portfolioday on twitter where I found some great fantasy, and other genre, cover artists. I also went to Reedsy because they have an abundance of resources as well.
But it’s more than contacting them with your idea, if you’re lucky enough to have one, for a quote. Make sure you look at their portfolio and that they are well versed in working on books in your genre and in the current market. Which means you also need to look at the books in your genre and be aware of the covers not only you love, but caught your eye—and why they caught your eye. That’s right—more research! Have your comp titles for your book ready too because it will help a designer give you an idea of a quote if they know what you would envision your book being next to on a shelf.
And one final thing that I considered (trust me, there is probably a lot more so I’ll update, or feel free to share your own insight), was if their package included promotional tools that I could use on social media. It helps so much to have the options already ready to go that you can work into your website and other areas of marketing.
Hope this helps get you started! You can also use the search engine for cover designers and I received a wide range of options that, personally, for me became overwhelming. Social media was a lot easier for me to navigate, as was reedsy.
Resources:
#portfolioday - the next one is April 11, 2023
