Say Yes to the Cover
I always say self-publishing is a lot like planning a wedding. You have to plan out your budget, save the publishing date, pick your venue of where and who you will be publishing your novel with, arrange and send ads and promos to invite readers to the big event, and of course saying, "Yes," to the Cover.
Months before contacting my cover designer I looked up book cover designers considering budget, whose creative style best fit my Theme or Genre of my novel, and as an Indie author on a budget I also had to consider deals. What could I get and for how much regarding I needed a paperback cover, an e-book cover, ads, and promos amongst other things? And blessedly I found them: Deranged Doctor Design
They had the most affordable packages and the most thorough and amazing customer service. Not to mention a magnificent portfolio. After months of consideration I e-mailed their Senior Project Manager, Kim, regarding my needs, who in return e-mailed a brief questionnaire listing my book synopsis, blurb, tagline, what I had in mind for the cover, and didn't want on the cover, what symbolism was relevant to the story and so on. They really flushed it out so that the designer could indeed be able to understand and tell the story just by the cover. And really Marushka, my designer did. She brought my story to life and will continue to do so I look forward to for the rest of the trilogy.
Her lovely work on Worthy:
Marushka is known for her use of color, bold font, and engaging backgrounds. That's why I chose her out of the DDD team. She totally caught the romance in Worthy, it's mystery, and it's danger. In the cover design questionnaire DDD asks that you provide links to covers in your genre that reflect the style or feel you want for your cover.
Months before contacting my cover designer I looked up book cover designers considering budget, whose creative style best fit my Theme or Genre of my novel, and as an Indie author on a budget I also had to consider deals. What could I get and for how much regarding I needed a paperback cover, an e-book cover, ads, and promos amongst other things? And blessedly I found them: Deranged Doctor Design
They had the most affordable packages and the most thorough and amazing customer service. Not to mention a magnificent portfolio. After months of consideration I e-mailed their Senior Project Manager, Kim, regarding my needs, who in return e-mailed a brief questionnaire listing my book synopsis, blurb, tagline, what I had in mind for the cover, and didn't want on the cover, what symbolism was relevant to the story and so on. They really flushed it out so that the designer could indeed be able to understand and tell the story just by the cover. And really Marushka, my designer did. She brought my story to life and will continue to do so I look forward to for the rest of the trilogy.
Her lovely work on Worthy:
Marushka is known for her use of color, bold font, and engaging backgrounds. That's why I chose her out of the DDD team. She totally caught the romance in Worthy, it's mystery, and it's danger. In the cover design questionnaire DDD asks that you provide links to covers in your genre that reflect the style or feel you want for your cover.
These are the covers I chose:
Though these are all YA urban fantasy, paranormal romance novels, they all had that darkness I was looking for in my cover. A tone of darkness, romance, mystery, and even sexy. I didn't want people on my cover. I wanted it to be symbolic. I wanted the title to be bold and curvy. I wanted the teardrop to be the main focus. I wanted the dagger to bring that sense of danger and of course, the setting. The city of Atlanta, where my story is set. Everything you see in the cover is an important element to the story, even the color. Given my instructions of tone, elements, color, cover examples, and requests Marushka came up with a gorgeous cover. Looking at the cover examples, you can see clearly where the inspiration came from. And I am so proud of it. I can't wait for you to make the connections in the cover to the story yourselves.
Stay lovely,
Siobhan
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