The Cover Design Process

One of the things I love about being with a small press is the cover design process. My understanding of the larger presses is pretty much that you give them some ideas and they come back and say “here’s your cover.” And even if you hate it, you love it.

My publisher is pretty open to suggestions. And so far I’ve been very thrilled with the artwork they’ve come up with. We’re working on the cover for Serenity to Accept, my September release now and this weekend I got a few of the ideas they’re kicking around and I’m just loving the model who’s representing Karin. (Serenity to Accept will follow the format of Wisdom to Know and Courage to Change with the hint of a person on the left and a scene representative of some important setting for the rest.)

There’s still a little work to do with nailing down the scene (you know, the bulk of the cover) — turns out the ideas I had weren’t translating well into a cover (too busy, the text got lost, etc.) I appreciate that they humored me. Now we’re refining and I hope to have a cover to reveal very, very soon.