Experiment As We Go: Covers

So, I said that our Red series was going to be an open experiment-as-we-go adventure, and I meant it! An awful lot goes into trying to self-publish a story beyond the act of writing the story, and I’m going to post about it all. These posts might bore you to tears if you’re only interested in the final product, but if you like seeing its journey, well…you got it.

Note before we start: as this is about cover art, there will be an awful lot of images, and some of them a bit on the sexy side, so be careful where you browse.

Today I’m going to talk about covers. We happen to be lucky, in this regard, because I have a copy of Photoshop that I’ve spent 12 years becoming adequate with. This is not some kind of faux-modesty thing here–in twelve years I’ve probably learned how to use 50% of this program. I learned so much at last year’s Creative Direction workshop…if you have any interest at all, it is worth the money a hundred times over. The instructors are some of the names you’ve seen on some of epublishing’s most stunning covers: April Martinez, Anne Cain, Chris Griffin and Croco Designs. Seriously, check it out.

In this particular instance, I’m going to admit it. The covers came first. Sometimes I peruse stock photo sites and save pretty pictures, but on this day there were three that just really were calling out to me. I futzed around while I was on the phone with Donna doing some plotting and eventually I tentatively showed her my masterpiece entitled “fakes.jpg”

They’re not much. They’re small, blurry, watermarked and sloppy. Oh, and there’s that thing with the titles. But I liked the idea of them, and when I showed them to Donna she said the fateful words, “That makes me want to write…”

(Side note: so much of what we do starts with one or the other of us seeing something and saying, “That makes me want to write [monkey pirates]/[shapeshifters dealing magical drugs]/[pioneer werewolves]/[okay not the monkey pirates].” It’s like an illness!)

It turned out that a few of the ideas we had kicking around on the back-burner chose that moment to fly together into an irresistible concept. Best of all, it happened to be one that we’d considered doing as a free-read serial before, to the point that I’d even designed a blog template for it. So now we had an idea, a publishing plan, and covers! (I’m going to pretend it was that easy, and that we didn’t dither for several days over abandoning the idea of self-publishing because generally speaking we do enjoy getting royalty checks and letting someone else do the work.)

Oh wait, did I say we had covers? No, we had tiny, crappy quality cover mockups! So away I went to dreamstime.com where I secured high resolution copies of all of the pictures in question. Then I had to make a few choices.

Clearly they were a series, but were they the kind of series that had to go all in order? Would they be stand alone? Did they need a series name? When you’re self-publishing something, no one is going to make important branding decisions for you. It’s up to you to make sure you’re putting forth a product that is going to make some sort of cohesive sense. (Ack! Pressure! It burns!)

Here’s what I started with, and where it ended up…

Cover #1: Yes, she’s wearing plastic wrap. It was not the funnest thing ever.

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Cover #2: You’d think this was the easiest one, but that shirt wanted to be ugly pink.

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Cover #3: The first one I did. That dress started it all, I swear.

All in all, the covers weren’t that complex. There’s very little photo manipulation (some changing/extending of backgrounds) and the font is also very simple. I would say their biggest weakness, overall, is that they don’t scream paranormal! futuristic! shapeshifters! More clear is the fact that these are going to be sexy, intimate stories, and in this case I’m hoping that is sufficient. (Though hey, shout out if you’re reading this: would you be surprised/dismayed to discover that these were not contemporaries? Well, except for the last one…)

My favorite part about the covers? The hands. I think the theme of these three covers is the many ways hands can show intimacy. Possessive, protective, comforting… I really dig the hands in these.

So, so far in our self-publishing adventure, I’ve shelled out ~$15 to secure the three stock photos. So far I’d say we’re ahead of the game budget-wise, and it’s clearly a better deal than if we’d had to pay someone to create them!

Speaking of budgets, there’s something you can love your publisher for–and believe me, during this whole process I’ll be drawing your attention to a lot of these things. Covers are expensive. And absorbing the cost of them isn’t the only thing your publisher does. A good publisher is going to have more insight and insider knowledge about sales trends than your average author. There could be a well documented (if quirky) trend that books with oddly spaced, plain blue font won’t sell. I rather doubt there is, but there could be, and I don’t know about it. So there we go, two for the con column: branding & cost.

The pro column? Well, we got to make them exactly how we wanted them. Even if they don’t sell, they are so fun to look at. At the end of the day, I’m going to call this one a draw.