The Evolution of a Book Cover Part 3

Part 3

The process of making a cover is always just that, a process. It isn't as easy as some may think. Not only do you have to find the right picture, but there are fonts to consider, name placement, colors… It can be a very daunting task.

In parts one and two of the series 'The Evolution of a Book Cover', I've talked about picking the right model(s) as well as setting the scene for the photographer and models to get the types of pictures you want. But now that we have the raw pictures, what happens next?

The design, of course.

Sara Eirew, my photographer, and I spent most of the day yesterday chatting back and forth, tweaking the cover. Over the course of the day we made changes to the lighting, shading, and even the type and color of the lettering. Decisions had to be made on where to put my name and since this is the first book in a new series, how we were going to tie all the books together.

The model for this cover is Helena Isaac. She was perfect for the cover except that she's 20 years old and the character she's portraying is in her 40's. We knew going in we would have to mask her age. This meant getting the pose we wanted without showing too much of her face. This all came into play not only when doing the photo shoot, but in selecting the picture, and also in designing the cover itself.

In the end, we came up with a fantastic cover for my upcoming novel, Welcome to Serpent's Kiss. This will be only my second short story, and it will be my first self published novel. I can't wait to share the cover with all of you.

If you missed the first two posts in the series on 'The Evolution of a Book Cover', you can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Have you ever had a custom book cover made? Is it something you would ever consider, why or why not? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts.