Planning Your Cover

Sara Vanderbush, my cover model for "The Comanche Girl's Prayer." Photo by Cherie Haines

As someone who has been a part of the Indie writing world for almost four years, I have learned a thing or two about book covers. The first thing is; I can't design them. I can design greeting cards, t-shirts and coffee mugs (anyone who is curious can see our Zazzle shop here) But I've tried, and it isn't my cup of tea. I am striving to NOT get my book covers on this site. 

Every genre is going to require a cover with a unique feel, composition and flavor. You wouldn't have a cartoon cat on the cover of a thriller, for instance. Here are some tips to help you with your cover planning and design.

1. Set a budget. If you are writing a book for family and friends, then you might just want to use one of your own snapshots and slap some font on it. But if you want people to take your book seriously, you should as well. My covers have cost me between $10-$170.00, and they have been worth every penny. 

2. Decide on a concept. One good way to do this is to check out Amazon listings for books in your genre. What are the top sellers? Do they use high-colored graphics? Photographs of people? Of course, you want your book to be different, but you also want people who are looking for your kind of book to want to buy it because it strikes a familiar chord with them. If you have written a clean romance, you will not want nearly-naked people on the cover. People who are looking for clean romance will look elsewhere.

3. Decide on your concept art. If you want a painting or drawing, and know a very good artist, great! But make sure you have seen their work and know the caliber of what they can do. Nothing says 'amateur writing' like amateur cover, and having to say no to someone who has spent a lot of time and effort is hurtful to both. 

If you want a photograph, I strongly suggest you figure out a way to use original photographs and not stock art. Countless authors (myself included) have had the unpleasant surprise of finding our cover art on someone else's cover. Yes, it's wayyyyy cheaper, but prepare yourself. Consider doing your own photo shoot with a model and a photographer. We had a lot of fun putting mine together and they turned out better than I could have ever dreamed. If you decide to do your own, remember, it's a photograph. If you're doing a historical, every detail has got to be right.

4. Find a graphic design artist. Even if you have a great original work of art, you still need someone to help with font and placement. 

5. There are also graphic design artists who have pre-made covers. You pick out the one you want, and they put in your title and name. How easy is that? Louis Wrift has some great stuff here: http://indigoforest.weebly.com/

Jimmygibbs on Fiverr has done some great ones for me, for 5.00!

My aunt, Connie Haines, painted these two: 

And my latest one was my original concept. My sister, Cherie Haines, took the photograph, and Elaina Lee of http://www.forthemusedesign.com/ created the cover and did the font design. 

All of the covers have taken time and care, and many of them are the second or even third designs I have used. But I'm happy with them, and none of them have bankrupted me. If you would like to look at the photographs for my next cover, you can find them here: http://angelacastillowrites.weebly.com/comanche-girl-sneak-peek.html

If you are interested in reading any of the books here, you can find them on my Amazon author page. http://www.amazon.com/Angela-Castillo/e/B00CJUELT0/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1 (two are free!)

Follow up: Just wanted to post the finished product:

I would love to hear any of your thoughts or hear your cover stories in the comments!

CreateSpace

When I published my first little book of stories and poems with CreateSpace two years ago, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was totally new to the idea of self-publishing. My goal was to put together a little collection of stories and poems, mostly for family and friends. I thought it would be as simple as uploading a Word file and a cover photo and the company would do the rest. I heard horror stories about authors who paid companies thousands of dollars got a handful of books in return.
Now I understand why.

Yes, CreateSpace is a great deal. If you are willing to do everything, and I mean EVERYTHING for yourself, you can get a paperback book, up to 180 pages long with a full color glossy cover for about 3.00, including shipping. The best part? There is no minimal order. If you only want one book, you only have to buy one book!

They also list your book on Amazon for anyone to see and buy, and you have the option to also publish your book to Kindle.

The downside? To produce an all-around excellent book, you must be excellent at many skills. You must do your own editing, formatting, and cover design. You must write your own back cover blurb (harder than you might think) and do your own Amazon description and listing.

It took me a very, very long time to figure it all out. I think my first book took at least two weeks to upload.

This time was much easier. They now have a proof reader and review so you can view your book online, page by page, to make sure the format is correct. Very helpful. They also have a template you can download that already has an embedded table of contents, headers and footers.

Here are some CreateSpace suggestions by one who has dared and lived.

1. If you mess up the template, don't try to fix it. Just download the template and start over.

2. Start the process at least a month before you want to release the book. This will give you time to order proofs and check them over for errors.

3. Don't try anything too fancy unless you are an expert. Fancy fonts and styles only give you headaches and mess up your Kindle book. If you have your heart set on fanciness, pay someone else to do it for you.

4. Keep your cover simple. Us bright fonts that are simple to read against dark pictures or backgrounds, or vise-versa. Run your covers past several people, ideally past other authors, to find out if your cover is appealing. Remember, your cover is one of your best selling tools.

5. Order a proof every single time. I don't care how good it looks online, there's a lot you won't notice until you have the copy in your hand.

6. Don't splurge on expensive shipping. Standard, in my experience, has always been lightning fast.

7. Expect quality. I have always been very impressed with my finished product.

Any questions or comments about your experience with CreateSpace? Please feel free to share!