Anyone who’s ever chosen a book will be aware of the
importance of the cover design and the sales text – otherwise known as blurb.
In the indie-book-world where the author takes responsibility for the entire
publishing process, the blurb is unlikely to raise the stress level. After all,
it’s just words, innit? I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s thought they could do a
better job of the blurb on the back of their traditionally published books... Well,
now I get to try... but the covers? That’s a whole other ball game.
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| The Original Cover |
The cover of a book is its first and most important sales
tool – it doesn’t matter whether it’s in a shop or on an Amazon webpage, a book
has to have an eye-catching cover to draw people to ALL of the rest of the sales
tools – blurb, reviews, chart position... I don’t want to state the blindingly
obvious, but covers don’t have much to do with words, they are visual beasts, with
graphics, pictures and logos – and many writers are not comfortable in this
environment.
So what to do when it comes time to create a cover for your
first indie-publication?
In time-honoured (and game-show) fashion I called a friend, figuring
that at least I would benefit from ‘mate’s rates’ ... and I did. Unfortunately,
although my mate was a great designer, he didn’t know much about books. Initially,
I loved the two covers he designed, as they did at least reflect my notion of
the books. I had a sense that they weren’t quite right, but as I was only
paying mate’s rates I felt uncomfortable about asking for too many changes.
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| The New Cover |
Those covers lasted about a year, and it was only a bad review (for the covers, I should add, not the book) that finally tipped me over into
doing something about it... but what? I’d seen many recommendations for cover
designers while reading other writer’s blogs, but I was conscious that the
choice of designer was crucial. It was all very well agreeing a fixed fee for a
cover design, but what if I didn’t like any of those offered?
The answer came from in the shape of 99designs.com, where it’s
possible to get almost anything designed. The process is simple; write a brief,
a description of what you want designed and then post it on the website (book
covers now have their own section).
Part of the process is choosing a ‘prize’ amount in dollars, this is effectively
the fee that you will pay the winning designer for the right to use the design
that you eventually choose.
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| The Fulcrum Files |
After you’ve done that, nothing much will happen for a day,
or maybe two. And then you’ll get your first design. This is a crucial moment –
I think that a lot of the designers working on the contests on 99designs are
young, and looking to learn how to deal with clients and work to a brief. The
money is secondary; if you provide them with good feedback on their work, they
will keep at it for you. So when you get that first design, love it or hate it,
try and find something intelligent to say about it. A lot of other designers
will be watching the contest and if they see good quality feedback they will be
a lot more inclined to jump in and have a go. This is the contest that I held
for the design of my most recent book, The Fulcrum Files.
There were 136 designs from 26 different designers – the
quality of the work and the ideas was fabulous, and it was a nightmare trying
to pick a winner. Even now, I’m not sure I got the right one!
There are a few more things you need to know – the contest
runs in two stages, at the end of the first stage you pick a maximum of six
‘Finalists’ and work with them towards a finished design. It’s possible to
create a Poll so you can invite friends and readers to participate in the
process – this is the one that I ran on my final set of choices.
It may or may not help you pick a winner.
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| The Wrecking Crew |
The contest runs for a week under the standard rules, and
you have plenty of time once it’s ended to choose a winner. The support and
documentation on the website is great, so you should have no trouble with any
of this, or the handover process - paying the cash and getting the full rights
to use the design. If you need further variations (for a print edition
perhaps), the designers will probably do it for free, but the website also
allows you to commission and pay for extra work for a pre-arranged fee.
I’ve now run two contests, and chosen the covers for all
three of my indie-fiction books. Not only does it produce great covers at a
very fair price, it can also be a lot of fun as you work with the designers to
try and get exactly what you’re looking for... And just when you’ve done it,
another designer will enter the fray with an idea out of left-field that that
you’d never even thought about – and quite likely blow your socks off with the
possibilities...!