Christian Speculative Fiction discussion

Face it. Most of us won't make a lot of money off of our books. We write them because we love what we do. Because we feel we have something important to say. But in order to put our best foot forward, we need to make our babies presentable when we present them to the world for the first time.

Since I joined the world of indie publishing in 2012, I have learned a few things about getting my books done. Some by watching others, other things by falling on my face myself. What have you decided about covers?

Covers are very important, we all know that. But how much are you willing to invest in your cover? Do you design it yourself? Do you have a friend do it? Or do you go with a professional?

What have you learned? What works, and what doesn't?

The cover tool offered by Amazon is pretty bad. And, I’m no artist. So I go to the guy who did covers when I was first with Booktrope. Scott Deyett, out of New York. Good graphic artist and reasonable $$. He can add table-top banners and other marketing materials. http://ihgraphics.com page is under redesign but has his phone.

I’ve done the fall on my face with the cover with my book and I’m still fighting with it.

What I’ve learned: searching for an app that makes covers was a mistake. I realized belatedly it was more of a fantasy thing than legit. Gave me an 89 dpi image when Amazon recommends 300.

And yes, the Amazon Cover Creator is awful. Now I’m trying to find someone who can edit Amazon’s pdf template to upload because, of course, you have to have paid for software to edit a pdf. 🙄

You have been warned. Finding an artist who can get you the right format and quality off the bat is probably the better way to go.

Great question.

I'm more of a DIY-kinda-guy, which comes out of economic necessity, and because I can't stomach paying the huge cost. Besides, I like to practice graphic design for covers (using Canva), and once I have a concept nailed down, I'll send it to a graphic artist friend of mine who checks it and smooths out the rough edges. But I love to try the design myself initially.

Alternatively, I'm also interested in 99designs which offers multiple covers of your book concept wherein you choose the cover you like the most (for a flat fee).

Once you have a cover, whether done by myself or a professional, Bookbrush is a good resource to get multiple formats made of your cover for multiple uses (social media, audio book, ebook, print, etc) for a relatively cheap price.

If someone out there has zero experience with book cover design, probably better to shop till you find someone who can design the cover. Fiverr is a good resource for finding cheaper graphic designers.

If you do choose the DIY path, make sure to show your work to others and ask for unbiased thoughts. The cover is definitely the way to grab readers. The goal is to stop them in their tracks and cause them to click to read more about your book (your blurb, book reviews, etc). Hopefully, that will result in a purchase.

I've probably done 12-15 covers since I went indie in 2012. I started off the cheapie route, by having my son design the cover and paying him. Then I tried buying the cover art on DeviantArt.com and having my son incorporate that into the cover. A little better.

I was introduced to an illustrator who was reasonable by a colleague of mine, and used her for a while, and that usually ended up costing about $500 a pop. But with book sales dropping generally overall, I decided on the last one to try "premade" covers. I was able to purchase a premade ebook cover that I thought worked for $75 and added the paper wraparound cover for another $175. But it is still an investment, one that I think is necessary.