Changing Covers

It's interesting to watch the shift in cover design over time. Even the trad publishers are realizing they need to have a design that's understandable in thumbnail size. They need fonts that are large and clear enough for the title and author name.

Even art for covers is shifting. Many use abstract patterns, objects that frame the text, or a single object for the image.

Why am I so concerned about covers?

I've updated my older series, Seasons of Magick and Bloodlines, once already, but I'm coming up on the tenth anniversary of the Justice series. Is it time to refresh the covers?

What about the covers I've already commissioned or purchased for future series? Keep them or get new ones? I hate throwing money down the drain.

There's also the creativity factor. I'm often inspired with new story ideas by viewing a piece of art. Except I may not get to that story for a year or two or ten down the line. By then, it's out of date with the market.

Or I could simply wait until that style of cover becomes popular again.

For you indie writer/publishers out there, how often do you update your covers?

More on Covers

It took a couple of tries, but I finally got Ingramspark to accept the paperback cover for Revenge Served Hot. While my formatter did the majority of the work, I needed to add the company logo and the bar code to the cover. And therein lies the problem. I spent a couple of hours figuring things out with JPGs and PDFs I could have spent writing.

It's a catch-22. Do you spend the time learning new things? Or would you be better off writing?

That's a question every indie writer needs to figure out for themselves. Most of the time, the money I spend on covers and my cover artists' time is worth the time I save in not creating the covers from scratch.

But on the other hand, I want to develop that skill set so I know what to ask for from my cover artists. So cover time is actually time I'd spend watching TV.

For example, I sprint in the evenings with a friend until 11 pm. Then I watch Colbert or Family Feud until bedtime because these days, I need the laughs. So I can listen to monologues or trivia questions while fooling around with PAINT.

The other problem is I usually don't understand stuff unless I am doing it myself. That hint of tactile learning in me is one reason I was able to homeschool Genius Kid who is 100% a tactile learner. So spending the couple of hours learning how to do paperback covers has been super beneficial for reasons that have nothing to do with time constraints.

Next week, I'll do an entire paperback cover from scratch. I'll let you know how long that takes and show you the results.

The Latest New Thing

Original Cover

I've done my own ebook covers before. I'll be the first to admit I suck at design. But I keep trying because I don't want to be stranded should something happen to one of the ladies I employ.

So I still try every once in a while. Like for a couple of my short story collections.

On Revenge Served Hot, my formatter begged me to please send her the original JPG file because, well, look at what she did to make the cover POP!

Published Cover

Looks a lot different and better, doesn't it? She also did the paperback cover for me.

In the meantime, I'm practicing with turning the cover for Practical Witches into a paperback cover. We'll see how that one turns out. I'm still struggling with converting PDF files to JPGs and back again, because the printers need PDF files.

I'm reminded daily of how much I don't know.