6 Tips for Finding a Cover Artist
Back when I started thinking of self-publishing, one of the first things I researched was cover artists. I’d decided that if I couldn’t find an artist who could create the kind of quality cover I wanted, I might have to come up with a different list of pros and cons for my “Should I self-publish?” list.
I’ve said since the beginning that my requirement for self-publishing was producing a book equal to those traditionally published. If I couldn’t meet that benchmark, self-publishing wouldn’t look nearly as appealing.
So in my usual over-thinking/over-analyzing way, I uber-researched the cover artist landscape. *smile* And I figured some of what I learned might be helpful to others.
Here are the six steps I went through during the cover art aspect of my publishing journey. Even if we traditionally publish, we should follow this list at least to Step #2. Traditionally published authors usually don’t have a say in their covers, but the better we understand trends, design elements, and what we like or don’t like, the better we’ll be able to fill out the “cover information sheet” many publishers use as a starting point for designing a cover.
Step #1: Keep Our Eyes Open
We should pay attention to self-publishing tips and recommendations unless we’re completely against self-publishing and know we will never go that route.
(Not as a hybrid author, publishing both under the self and the traditional banners. Not for novellas or short stories. Not as freebie side stories for a series. Nothing. Ever, ever, ever.)
If we can’t put ourselves into that category of never, we’re better off keeping our eyes open for self-publishing tips, options, and service providers.
Similar to Step One of how to find potential editors, our first step of finding a cover artist is to gather names or links of every artist we come across:
- friends who do cover art,
- recommendations from friends or social media,
- artists who have done covers we love,
- artists who win awards (such as Joel Friedlander’s monthly cover design awards),
- answers on forum posts about cover artists, etc.
I’d always kept the idea of self-publishing in the back of my mind as a possibility. Because of that, when I came across blog posts giving shout outs for various freelancers, I bookmarked that post and/or the freelancers they recommended and stuffed them in a “self-publishing” folder in my browser bookmark manager.
By the time I started my research, I already had over 50 cover artists bookmarked and several more posts with links to other artists. This gave me a huge head start in my research.
Step #2: Decide What We Like and Don’t Like
I’m not a designer. At all. So I was clueless about what I wanted for my cover.
In writing, we usually want to avoid clichés. However, our cover design needs to give a sense of our story’s genre.
In other words, cover design clichés are often necessary—and good—for attracting our target audience. Unfortunately for me, most of the cliché cover designs for my genre wouldn’t work for my covers, so I was a bit stuck for ideas.
(Tangent: The vast majority of paranormal romances feature a paranormal hero and a human heroine, so their covers highlight the hero with a bare torso shot and a hint of their paranormal nature, sometimes with a woman wrapped around him. Half of my Mythos Legacy stories involve a paranormal heroine and a human hero, so that cliché doesn’t work for my series.
Also, I write characters of different races and appearances, and as I’ve bemoaned before, it’s difficult to find diverse stock photos. So the stereotypical “clinch” cover of the hero and heroine in an embrace would be difficult to maintain over the whole series.
Other paranormal romance covers—those featuring shifters—include a photo of a wolf, bear, or whatever the character shifts into on the cover as well. Not all of my stories involve shifters, so that cliché wouldn’t work over the course of the series either.
I wouldn’t be surprised if my non-cliché covers hurt me in genre sales, but I still haven’t thought of a better way to approach this series. I break the stereotypes in many ways, and I guess I’m okay with that. *smile*)
To gather ideas, I scanned Amazon’s Top 100 Bestsellers for my genre and categories. A handful of covers didn’t follow the clichés as much and appealed to me. I started a secret Pinterest board to collect book covers I liked.
After collecting over 20 book cover images that I liked (and noting the things I liked about them), I was able to notice patterns. I had a fairly good idea of what elements appealed to me, and just as importantly, what elements, styles, or clichés I wanted to avoid.
This step doesn’t mean that we’re trying to do our designer’s job, or that we won’t listen to what they have to say (they are the expert). Rather, the purpose of this step is two-fold.
First, we want to know what style of cover art we’d like our designer to be good at so we can do a better job of narrowing down our list in the next step. Second, a stronger awareness of design elements can help us give our designer better feedback, such as being able to express why we like or dislike a rough design mockup.
Step #3: Review Artists to Get a “Feel” for Their Style
Once we have an idea of what we like or don’t, we can start narrowing down our big list of potential cover designers. I skimmed through the online portfolios of the artists in my saved list to get a feel for their experience, focus, skills, and style, as those are all potential reasons to eliminate them from our list.
They might…:
- Work in the Wrong Category: Some artists might have experience only in non-fiction covers, and we write fiction, or vice versa. The design trends for the two are very different.
- Not Have the Right Genre Experience: While some artists might specialize in our genre, others might not have any experience with those clichés or trends. An artist who’s skilled enough could research and come up with something great, but if we see that they only do one genre (a genre that’s not ours), we don’t have any evidence that they can branch out.
- Have the Wrong Style: Some artists work strictly with photos, and others might go for cartoony illustrations. Some design great text-focused covers, while others focus on the visuals. In this case, they might be a skilled cover artist but just have the wrong style for our book or genre.
- Lack the Necessary Skills: Some artists’ PhotoShop skills aren’t any better than mine (i.e., crap). Some design covers with blah font choices. Some create overstuffed, cluttered covers. Etc. We shouldn’t eliminate a cover artist just because some of their work falls into this category (for all we know, an author client requested those blah or cluttered covers), but we should take a closer look to see if their other covers show a different story.
Step #4: Make a Short List of 3-10 Artists
Once we’ve narrowed down our big list of potential cover artists, we want to start on our “short list.” These are the designers with the right skills and style for our project—that we trust would be able to come up with something that would work for us.
However, one reason we might have to eliminate an artist that we love is because they’re not available. Many cover artists are closed to new clients or don’t have an opening when we need one. For these, we might want to keep a “follow up later” list in addition to our short list.
Step #5: Prioritize and Contact
With our short list in hand, we can then start prioritizing who we’d want to work with. There are several factors that might go into that prioritized list:
- Price: For many of us, the artist we’d most like to work with might be beyond our budget. We might still keep them on our short list, however, because if all our other options fall through, we might work harder to figure out a way to afford them.
- Best at Style: Maybe there’s one artist where we love every one of their designs—not a clunker in the bunch. Or maybe they already have a pre-made cover we think might work if they can just tweak xyz.
- Timing: If we’re fighting with deadlines, we might prioritize based on the earliest available artist (or one with a workable pre-made cover).
Once we have that prioritized list, we can start making contact. If artist A doesn’t work out, we can move on to artist B, etc.
Step #6: Prepare for Issues
No matter how much we prepare, we’re likely to run into problems. An artist might have just filled their schedule. Or an artist we love might drop the ball or never return our emails. Or they might change their prices or design focus to no longer be a good fit.
Know that none of that has to be the end of the world. Things can go wrong, and we can still be okay.
When I started my research project, I wanted to have one cover artist for all my series books so they’d have a consistent design for branding. Anyone looking at my covers so far would probably assume that I have had only one cover artist.
However, I’ve actually had four in some shape or form. One’s schedule changed before she even started mockup, one went on sabbatical, one filled in for an emergency on a print cover, and one I’m working with now.
At some point in time, trends might change in my genre, or my designer and I might come up with another approach to working with my series. So our covers might not stay the same forever either. Again, not the end of the world.
The point is that my research helped me understand my options for artists and for designs. Once my designer #2 and I came up with the “template” for my series covers, the others were able to run with the design because I knew enough to be able to describe what I needed.
Often, when working with a designer, the hardest part is communication. What we see in our head, or what we like or don’t like, can be difficult to explain. Writers and cover artists almost speak a different language sometimes. So the more we’re in-tune with them on how their job and the design process works, the easier it is to come up with a design that will work for us. *smile*
Have you worked with a cover designer? What was the hardest part about finding the right artist? What was the hardest part about working through your project? What would you do differently next time? Do you have any tips or advice to share?
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Hi Jami!
I’m actually working on my own cover design. I’m adept with photo shop and have a creative eye, so I’m trying out my talent. But unless I can make a cover that equals that of traditionally published covers, I won’t be putting it out there. I know how important a fantastic image is. And if it’s not up to par, it’s not going online.
Great suggestions for finding an artist, by the way! And I’ve loved your covers since you released the first book!
Have a great day 🙂
Tamara
Hi Tamara,
That’s a great approach. If we think we might be able to design a cover ourselves, it doesn’t hurt to try–especially if, as you said, we don’t post it unless we know we’ve succeeded. 🙂
One caveat I’d mention for others coming across this idea is that we might not be good at judging the quality of our own cover design work (just like writing–LOL!), so before deciding whether it passes muster, we’d probably want to get honest feedback. There are a couple of cover critique sites we can try (here’s one I know of and there’s probably a thread on kboards as well).
Good luck to you! Thanks for sharing your approach, and thanks for the kind words! 😀
One other tip for working with artists. Please don’t ask them if they can work for a cheaper price than what they have stated. In the very rare cases that their prices seem exorbitant it might be alright to ask why they are charging such a price. Most freelance artists undercharge so they can get jobs.
Hi Davonne,
Great point! Writers and cover artists are both artists, and we know that people often don’t value our work.
Just as we’d probably feel insulted if someone told us to our face that our book wasn’t worth X amount of money, that’s what asking for a cheaper price can feel like to cover artists. Those artists who charge twice as much as others usually do so because they can–they have more clients than they need, etc. Those eager for the work are likely already charging an amount that they hope will get them the job.
Thanks for sharing that tip! 🙂
While I do understand (and respect) the core point Davonne makes about not devaluing what cover designers and illustrators (which aren’t always one in the same) do, we have to consider the big picture.
Indie authors do have to work within a budget, and since most freelancers require payment upfront, this can put many authors in a bind who don’t have a few grand or millions to throw around. Especially when we stress the “quantity” of books writers need to build an audience and momentum.
This is why I sometimes worry the evolving push to be an indie or “Hybrid” author is leaving authors short on cash (and/or connections) behind. It’s hard to think “One book building on another book” when just producing ONE BOOK at the pro level is a long, slow, crawl.
This is why I get huffy when authors stress quantity like that alone is enough. Sadly, it’s not.
As I say over, and over, and will say again, there’s a BIG difference between writing 10 books and those same 10 books being of equal quality.
In no way am I saying that we should take advantage of anyone, but I think we have to put this in perspective. Too often when authors and illustrators talk business, we mistake “Necessary frugality” with “Being Cheap.” They’re just NOT the same. Period.
Jami, you’ve made this point to me time, after time, after time.
Hi Taurean,
I don’t disagree–quality alone isn’t enough, and being frugal is a fact of life for many of us. However, as I mentioned with a similar point in my “finding editors” post, the bigger list we have of potential cover artists at the beginning of this process, the better our chance of being able to find an artist that hits the 2 out of 3 issues important to us in the “fast, cheap, good, pick two” decision.
I’ve seen authors talk about finding a cover artist on Fiverr for $20-$30 dollars. Will most cover artists be that price? No. Will most at that price be professional level? No. But if we’re willing to take the time to search every corner of the internet, we have a better chance of finding what we want.
So while I agree with your points, I also don’t want people to see these issues as “deal-breaker” obstacles to their goals. It is possible to find artists in the under $100 range, but it might take a lot of time and digging to find one that’s a good match for our needs. Thanks for the comment!
I guess my experience just differs from yours on this point, Jami. We may just agree to disagree on certain points, but I still hear and respect yours and Davonne’s side of it. I hope that gets through. I know what you’re saying, Jami, and again I get and agree with where Davonne’s coming form I just felt I had to say something here because I’ve read too many articles on this topic (and its various sub-categories) where being financially limited is misread as “Being Cheap” or even scammy, and my personal experience aside, I just had to say something because I do think mistaking an author’s limited finances can be misinterpreted as simply not having the financial leverage we wish we did. Yes, you make the valid point of research, but sometimes you don’t find what you need, (esp. when stock photos just will not cut it, not to harp on that, you know…) and while not everyone charges high rates, the lack of how to pay whatever the price is (nothing short of upfront) compounds the problem, and that’s before we even get to issues of meeting deadlines be they internal or external (via traditional or hybrid publishing), and while I’m lucky my timetable isn’t super strict, that doesn’t mean I can spend a half decade or more for just one book, if my goal is to have a career with more than one book to my name. Not all of us can be Joan Didion or Marilynne… — Read More »
Hi Taurean, You make a lot of really good points. 🙂 I’m not in the children’s books space, so I know nothing about the use of in-book illustrations or the “expectation” for picture book authors to be author-illustrators–and I admit that. LOL! (As someone who draws stick figures, I very much sympathize with the author-illustrator expectation. 🙁 ) I also don’t know of any group or site that supports/enables a profit-sharing model for cover artists/illustrators the way that Audible does for audiobook narrators. It’s certainly an interesting idea, as those artists who worry about scammer authors might be more willing to do a payment plan if it was part of a larger structure. Maybe we can hope that someone comes across these comments and runs with that idea. 🙂 Back a couple of years ago, there was a hint of “cooperative publishers” in the marketplace, which I think would have helped with many of these issues. If I remember correctly, they facilitated the matching of a publishing team, while leaving the control with authors, and handled the actual publishing to make sure everyone got paid. An arrangement like that would be perfect for authors on the indie path who would be left out of the self-publishing movement due to finances. I don’t know if they didn’t catch on, or if they found it too difficult, or if too many of their authors never sold enough to ensure everyone got paid. But you’re right that the current situation leaves a hole… — Read More »
Right, Jami,
I wasn’t taking it out on you or Davonne, I just want those issues to be respected and understood, esp. illustrators and cover designers because in that respect, we authors aren’t different from them.
We want our work to matter and be paid fairly for it. But I do feel it’s important for those struggling indie authors to know that you needing to be frugal doesn’t mean you’re in ANY WAY a scammer.
You just want to be smart with your money.
The more you have to pay for, the harder that is. Even though you nor I can resolve this issue, I just wanted indie authors who read this post, and the comments afterwards to know a fellow author (who is doing the hybrid thing with his debut novel) is hurting with you.
If we didn’t care or treat what we do as a business, even though we’re not getting paid to be in said business yet, only THEN would we be the “Shady Scammers” we’re all afraid/concerned of being duped by-or Heaven forbid, become one. Not out of malice or greed, but sheer desperation.
What I said in the comments here was as much to reach out to them, not to judge or pick on cover designers, illustrators and graphic designers for protecting themselves from being burned.
Hi Taurean,
Exactly! And I understand. *hugs*
I wanted to clarify one other point, I didn’t mean to imply trad. publishers or agents always EXPECT author-illustrators in regard to picture books (or novels like mine, that have illustrations), but I do think post 2009 to now, that’s been their PREFERENCE given their guidelines. I don’t know why, though, just sharing what’s been my experience when I was still shopping “Gabriel” around before it sold. Even though I haven’t tried to sell a new book for years, I read enough about the industry to know there’s still a preference for author-illustrations, and while I can’t write picture books all that well, I have thought about exploring the comics space, though I need to read more of them and they kind of intimidate me even more than picture books, not only are they novel-length books, but the costs would be higher because half the story’s told visually, and like movies, comic writing to my baseline understanding is very close to screenwriting, and I don’t work well in that form of writing because I miss express details in the narrative you find in a book. I know illustrators work really hard and practice to be as good as they are, but I do get jealous of how they bring stories to life visually, sometimes I feel in more visual mediums, writers are less important. I know that’s not true, but it does feel that way sometimes, at least for me. There are certainly great comics/graphic novels that have a separate… — Read More »
Hi Taurean,
Thanks for the clarification! And I don’t think you’re that far off about visual mediums having different expectations of and respect for writers. Just look at any movie or TV show to see the extreme end of that. 🙂
I hear you about the trouble of finding a way to make publishing work for you. Yikes! at the 99designs price. Wow, they must have changed how they work because they seemed more reasonable when I last visited. :/ Have you gotten a chance to dig around Fiverr yet and see if any of the illustration styles would work for you?
*sigh* If I hear of anything else, I’ll let you know! Thanks and take care!
I’m SO GLAD you spoke to this, Jami, Despite my limited finances, I know I’m not in the “Never” camp, so I do have to face this in some way, but unless my finances change, I can’t publish everything myself, that’s not being defeatist, that’s being realistic for my personal author journey and its particulars. Also, thanks for pointing out that those primarily on the trad. route (barring exceptions) rarely get a say in cover design. I hope that can change when dealing with issues like you’re facing with your series. Or other more subtle forms of diversity issues that are key for your story, that not having input on can affect sales before you’re even read, and I do hope publishers over time give authors more autonomy and respect for how our books are perceived on the outside, before they can begin to read and embrace the inside we spent countless hours/decades on. Just because we don’t do cover designs for a living, doesn’t mean we’re always these divas with NO IDEA what works for our books, even if X bestseller doesn’t do it that way. X bestseller isn’t our book, and sometimes it takes being unconventional to become an X bestseller in your own right. Idealistic, yes, but it’s been proven FACT more than once a in a “Blue Moon.” With so much talk about being an “expert” we forget that we can have an informed opinion even if you don’t do it for a living. Just because… — Read More »
Hi Taurean, I’m with you about traditional publishing covers. I hope that as they have to compete with the benefits of self-publishing, they become more willing to work with authors as partners on book covers as well. As you said, it can be heartbreaking to work so hard on the inside and yet have no say in how it’s presented to the world. I’ve known several authors whose books were failures because of the publishers’ refusal to listen to the author, and I’m sure every agent has stories as well. In the old days, publishers might have been able to make the argument that they knew best how to market and present the book, but authors aren’t clueless anymore. We can know just as much about our target market as they do (if not more), etc. As you said, just because we can’t draw doesn’t mean that we’re equally incapable providing worthwhile input on any aspect of design. I’ve known some authors stuck with covers that give the completely wrong impression of the genre (horror instead of cozy mystery, etc.), and our talent with stick figures doesn’t prevent us from knowing what impression we get from a cover. If non-artist readers can form an impression of our story from the cover (which is the whole point of design), why can’t the author? Yeah… Ranting right along with you there. LOL! In fact, if I’d trusted that a trad publisher would work with me on my covers, I might have tried… — Read More »
Haha you already know my plan so I won’t say it again and be repetitive, lol. But someone on FB said something about 99Designs, and remember your suggestion about getting someone to “clean up” my drawings and design? I could try doing that. See who cleans up my design to the most professional look that also appeals to me on a crowd sourcing site, and hopefully I can find an affordable price. And I’d like to explore Fiverr, since it’s so popular! Yeah still a diva in insisting on drawing my own covers, lol. My characters are Chinese anyway so I have fewer stock photos to choose from too. ^^ Sorry I’m so busy now (applying to grad schools and stuff, yikes!) So I’ll write much shorter comments. But this is good since I don’t want to take up too much of your time as you already have so much to do everyday. D: Hang in there, Jami! Thanks for your tips above too! P.S. Agreed about the need for honest feedback on covers. On a Facebook writing group, this girl posted a cover for feedback. I liked the illustrations but disliked the title font. I hinted that I didn’t quite like it, but she later said she loved the font, especially the part I especially disliked. So I decided not to say anything to offend her, lol. Especially as basically everyone else praised her on how great the cover is. But later on this other commenter said, I’m sorry,… — Read More »
Hi Serena,
No worries! And LOL! at your feedback experience. I hope you’re able to find something that works for you. 😀 Thanks for the comment!
At least it’s easier to buy fonts than illustrations when we’re not able to do that for ourselves. Just saying.
Hi Taurean,
This is true. 🙂
Update to last reply above, I did look on Fiverr, but didn’t find style/quality of illustrations I needed, I did find some voice actors I work with on occasion for my videos, so I highly recommend Fiverr for scouting voice talent. For those getting seriously into doing video, I strongly suggest you try to build a business connection with someone you want to work long term with OUTSIDE Fiverr, as sometimes voice actors or narrators start there, but leave for platforms like voice123 or Voices.com where their fees go WAY up. One actor I worked with doesn’t use Fiverr anyone (after the first thing I hired him for) and I was able to find him again on Voices.com, but I had to pay a lot more, worth it but it means I can’t work with him as much as I’d like, so I’m hoping for 2016 I can save up and have more work done for the money. At some point, when I get more seriously with video, I’d like to work out a regular contract that financially works for the voice actors, but can fit within my (Far from idea) budget. For those who need only a few lines here and there, you can get a great deal via Fiverr. I try to have scripts fairly done and get them recorded ahead of time, this way I don’t have to be hard up for time, as while some actors give you the gig extra to get the work done… — Read More »
Hi Taurean,
Yep, I understand about the requirement for quality. Back when I created that big list of potential cover artists, I was able to eliminate all but about 8-12 based on quality alone. (And that was with me looking only at “professional” cover artists who sell mostly from their website. I can imagine the quality being even more questionable when broadening to other sources.)
Thanks for the update (and for the tips about Fiverr). It’s a difficult situation, for sure, especially when the frustrations mount. I hope some good news comes your way soon! *hugs*
In my case, Jami, I can’t rule out the cover designers I’ve considered based on quality. I’m also lucky that I don’t have a tight deadline for “Gabriel” (not that I want this to take another decade, seriously, it took nearly that long to sell it in the first place…) so it comes down to cost for me-and I fear I won’t even have ONE left that passed the quality check with flying colors. I know it doesn’t have to cost thousands or millions, but even 1k USD is pushing it for me. I’d have to NOT EAT to save up that much on my own in my current situation, and I wish (more than you or anyone can know) I were joking, but I’m not. This is why I hope more designers and/or illustrators understand that the jerky scammers they may have had to deal with don’t speak for all of us. I want this career so bad I’d gladly risk my own HOUSE (if I had one to risk) if that would mean I could pay great people what they are worth to do what my book needs that I can’t do either AT ALL, or at the pro level. Whether or not more illustrator and/or designers change their payment policies or going rates, I hope some of them who might see this post and read these comments to know that not all writers in this space- A. Want to scam them. B. Get that we appreciate and… — Read More »
Hi Taurean, Yes, this business is hard enough when trying to come up with money for cover art and editing. It’s even harder if we’re in a genre that needs in-book illustrations. The options for those struggling to pay the bills are limited, so I understand your frustrations. It’s a shame that worthy stories might never be told due to money, but I suppose any industry is like that. The only way I was able to afford to publish this past year was because of my income from side jobs. We can’t change the industry (no matter how much it might be good for it 🙂 ), but we can change ourselves. Even if you don’t feel qualified to offer services in something now, you might be able to learn something new to then offer for side income. If you feel like “you can’t get there from here,” as far as having enough money to publish, it might be time to start building bridges over that chasm. Even though learning something new to offer as a service might feel like a distraction from your goals, it might be better than the frustration–especially as most authors don’t make enough money on their first book to publish the next one right away. So this issue won’t go away anytime soon unfortunately. I know you’ve probably already been wracking your brain for ideas, and I definitely understand your frustrations. But we also won’t get anywhere by tilting at windmills either, so I’m just… — Read More »
I get the “Tilting at windmills” thing, Jami, but since I can only compromise so much, I guess I’ll have to be the “Windmill Tilt Man” for a long, long, time…(Sigh) If a year’s blazing fast in publishing, than I guess 10 years is the middle tier of speed. In the meantime, I need to finish some new material, that’s the only thing I can think to do that doesn’t require money I don’t have. But despite what some writers tell me, I just never saw the big leap from my last book to the next one, and I think plotters have an easier time of seeing this, because nothing I’ve tried to write post-Gabriel this “1Up Factor” everyone tells me happens. I also couldn’t escape the near decade revision Gabriel took, so those who warn against “over-revising” never met me, or read my work, because I’m not the “two to three draft/revise passes” kind of writer. I wish I were, but even I had more books drafted, I’d still be in the same position with how to publish them, and I’m not sure I want to agent hunt again, and there just aren’t many publishers open to the un-agented. I know a few writers colleagues have branched out into other services to boost their incomes, the problem for me is figuring out what I can offer that I could charge for. Everything I think of are things I don’t know how to do, and teaching myself would take too… — Read More »
Hi Taurean, Oh, by making the “tilting at windmills” comment, I’m not suggesting to compromise on quality. Believe me, I understand the desire to avoid that. 🙂 My point was more about how if it means waiting for a solution that might never come or taking the time (even a year or two) to find a permanent solution to the money issue, personally, I’d go for the latter. But I know that’s a tough call to make, especially in a case like yours, when you’ve already been struggling for so long and waiting any longer feels like torture. I mean, heck, in my neck of the woods, I just saw an article in the news talking about how the local HVAC/plumbing companies are so desperate for apprentices to learn the business that they’re training people with no education or trade school experience and paying them double minimum wage while doing so. (This gets back to that college-bubble issue you and I have talked about before, and how the good jobs that don’t require a college education are going unfilled because of that unrelenting push of expectations for everyone.) I guess I’m just thinking long term right now because my post today is about our long-term plans and how a solution that’s going to help us on into the future might be better than one like crowdfunding, which is more of a one-time, short-term solution. So don’t mind me, this is just where my brain is at today. LOL! As for… — Read More »
[…] read articles about self-publishing, I learned the steps of the process, and I started bookmarking cover artists and editors as I came across recommendations. I even audited an ebook formatting class and […]
[…] judge books by their covers—it is a fact of publishing life. Jami Gold has 6 tips for finding a cover artist, and Roz Morris tells her story of avoiding a book cover disaster at the eleventh hour so you can […]
Thanks for hearing me out Jami, My problem is that I don’t know what else I’m good at besides writing. I just know what I’m not good at, and yet that’s not positive, so I’ll leave it at that. Do you know anyone who’s taking/taken the harder GED? If so, how did you survive that? If not, how did you survive your college experience. It would be easier to move forward if I just pretend the issues in my past didn’t happen. But I can’t do that, because I learned things about myself I don’t regret, but even so… Why didn’t I have a passion for welding or some other “Skilled Job” that apparently a booming prospect from how you tell it and what I hear from the news. No, I had to fall in love with the arts, and all the issues that comes with it, but apparently this is what is simply part of me. But as you mentioned on T.A.A. months ago, most people in my position who didn’t go to college became entrepreneurs, but I’ve been trying to do that already, and you know how the lack of money got in the way. Now I’m starting to have doubts that I did the right thing in pushing “Gabriel” publishing because I didn’t think of these things. Sometimes “Ignorance isn’t bliss” but I’ll cut rant short here. Thanks again for hearing me out. Sometimes all I can do is cry. Better that destroying the house with my… — Read More »
Hi Taurean,
I’m not familiar with the GED, so I have no idea how bad it might be. For me, as many of my posts show, I enjoy learning, so even when I didn’t enjoy the subject or the teacher, I tried to focus on what I did enjoy. That said, there were many subjects I avoided if I could–math, Shakespeare, etc. 😉
But I will also say that I decided I didn’t like those subjects only after I’d actually tried them. I’m not sure it’s healthy to decide that you don’t like welding or something else if you haven’t tried it. Just because I love writing doesn’t mean I can’t also love other unrelated things.
Being a creative should mean that we’re able to open our imagination to possibilities, and that aspect shouldn’t just be limited to our writing. 🙂 Good luck!
Great post Jami! As a cover artist, I’ve submitted a few of my designs to Joel’s ebook design awards. It’s good to know that you and perhaps other authors find that a good place to find a cover artist!
If it’s helpful to anyone reading this post, or to yourself, Jami, you can find my portfolio here:
http://www.sydgill.com