February 1 question – If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?

Second post of the day. It’s seems to be a pattern for me at the beginning of a month.

Covers…I had a stepson do a couple of covers for me. He is a graphic artist, but not a reader so…what I was writing and what he proposed did not exactly jive. (I did pay him and no lost sleep on either side of it.) Then my dil started helping me with self-publishing and I think the covers she had worked up have been pretty spot on. Not sure what source she used for creating them.

I like a cover that is ‘ambiguous’. It relates to the story, but does not give the story away.

An example would be “Gift”. The cover is an ivory handled knife on a background of green satin. The knife is an important element in the story but not until the end is the full significance known.

“Dawning” has a cover that is almost perfect in my mind.

I got the ‘feel’ for the story driving to work one morning as the moon was still up but the sun was rising. Nothing about my drive that morning is even remotely to be found in the story, but the sky and time of day just gave a mood that fit the cover.

Laurel is a cover with a ‘mistake’. I love the look and feel of the cover…and if I didn’t mention it, you probably would not notice…the tv antenna on the roof above to the right, lol. Not exactly time period correct?

One thing I do when I’m writing is create a folder in Pinterest where I collect pictures that I feel go with the story I’m writing. I keep them hidden until I publish the book, then I cull, keeping those I feel are best as idea board of sorts. If someone looks for them, they’ll find them. There I also keep folders of potential story ideas, usually hidden.

I’m not really addressing the intent of this month’s topic, but these are a few reflections on covers that have ended up on my books.