Finding the POP in Your New Cover by Martha Reed

One of the perks and/or curses of being an independently published author is that I get to decide on my own cover design. I’ve heard of cover design disasters from traditionally published big house and small press author friends, and I gladly own this role.

Luckily for me, I hired a terrific graphic designer early on with my first Nantucket Mystery. Also luckily for me she’s put up with my nit-picky backseat suggestions for my succeeding five novels.

I find equal parts of joy and terror in designing a new book’s cover. Joy because this step in the publishing process means my new book is really happening. Terror because this step means that my new book is really happening.

I strive to stay calm. Independent publishing is simply a matter of unwavering dedication (i.e. "too dumb to quit") and internal fortitude.

Since I’m fresh from the book cover design fray with The Seven Gates of Guinee, my third NOLA Mystery due out later this year, I’ve decided to share my cover design experience. It’s a different form of creativity, and one that I enjoy.

STEP ONE: I send the designer a concise summary of the story so she gets a general idea of the plot:

The Seven Gates of Guinee. Four university students vanish in 1977. The cosplaying gamers were last seen performing bogus red magic Voodoo rituals around NOLA’s historic French Quarter.

STEP TWO: I gather my own cover ideas. My initial imagining showed two Voodoo veves (i.e. graphic representations of Voodoo spirits AKA "loas"), an NOPD Police badge, and St. Louis Cathedral. The iconic cathedral hints at the French Quarter, and the NOPD badge plants a seed (or an Easter egg) about the mystery to come.

Next came a tricky modern question I’ve never run into before when the graphic designer asked how I felt about using AI generated images. Giving it some thought I faced an ethical dilemma: Who was I to tell a fellow creative which tools they should use? That felt like telling a painter which colors to put on her pallette because you wanted her painting to match your couch. Plus I wanted her to have some fun.

My solution was to decide that I was okay with her using AI images as long as she was comfortable with me including a new disclaimer on my copyright page that read: “All text was 100% human generated. AI imagery was used on the cover design.”

For Version 1, she sent this:

At this point fate stepped in when an historically damaging windstorm swept western Pennsylvania. I was left without WiFi or power for seven days. During that week, Mystery Writers of America held their annual Edgar Award ceremony in New York City. The award presentation contained AI generated imagery, and the resulting firestorm of negative membership response settled the question for me. I cancelled any use of AI imagery on my covers at this time.

Back to the analog drawing board.

Next, she supplied these images for Version 2:

Hmmm. I felt the first preliminary wiggle. There’s something in the second one I like. The cathedral feels sinister. It looms. I asked her to continue working with that one.

Version 3 below still seemed too cluttered and busy, but it was starting to feel like it was in the ballpark (which by the way is one of my favorite feelings when you know you’ve got a hold of something with the potential of it being really good like a great fresh new metaphor.)

Next up: Remove the veve, spin the police badge a little, enlarge the title a bit, and let’s see what we’ve got. We’re almost there.

Bingo! This version feels eye-catching and dynamic. It pops!

One final bit of quality control (QC) was my last step. I compared the new cover design to the two existing NOLA Mystery covers to make sure it fit in with the existing branding style. Voila! We’re done. That’s it!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my creative process. What's your experience? Do you design your own covers?