Indie Authors Monthly Magazine For Authors and Readers discussion

I'd love advice from other writers on working with artists on book covers. I'm working with an artist where I love her other work, but I'm not happy so far with what she has in progress for my book.

Any tips? Do any of your commission more than one cover and then choose between them? I'm ready to start from scratch even though I've already paid the artist.

Did you discuss your thoughts, wishes, requirements, etc before the artist began to work on the piece? Have you shared your concerns, likes, and dislikes with the work in progress? Has she offered/refused to make changes? Has she offered/refused to start a new concept? I really can't say what your options are without a bit more information.

I go to Shutterstock and find the photo I want and then have the graphic designer get it right. For my next one, she has to make a river red for me. She said that by me finding the photo for her and describing it exactly how I want it, it makes her job a lot easier and easier to charge less. I think normally when she does a job for someone she has to kind of put together the idea. I cut that part out for her.

Here's my first one based on just a photo from shutterstock and then fixed it up.

Judy wrote: "I'd love advice from other writers on working with artists on book covers. I'm working with an artist where I love her other work, but I'm not happy so far with what she has in progress for my book..."

I think honesty would be the best policy. I imagine it would be in her best interest (for visibility purposes) if you went with her cover. She would have a vested interest in doing a good job, and if she is professional, would listen to any of your concerns with an open mind.

Disclaimer: I am not an author, however I have a close family member who is a digital painter that does commissioned work, including book covers.

I've been providing steady feedback--I gave examples of the images to use, requirements, what I like and dislike. But each update, I'm just finding it less and less appealing even though I know she's trying to please me. I'm hoping that with some filters to change the tone, the next update will be better. But certain things are of grave concern to me. She's displaying that she has no understanding of lettering for books, for example. I'm thinking of having her abandon that part and take over the lettering myself. (I have some graphic design experience. But I'm still a novice at Photoshop, which is why I hired her.)

And I can do basic covers--I did most of my own except for the cover illustration for Heart of the Witch (I did the lettering) and the fairy and troll for my Cathy Pembroke series. But certain things are beyond me.

Example of a cover I did: Dreams and Constellations

Elaina wrote: "Did you discuss your thoughts, wishes, requirements, etc before the artist began to work on the piece? Have you shared your concerns, likes, and dislikes with the work in progress? Has she offered/..."

Yes, I did. One thing I've noticed, however, is that while I said more than once that I thought close-ups of the protagonists in the foreground--headshots only--would probably look best, she basically ignored that and kept on the path of having their full bodies including clothing that she illustrated. Which doesn't look that great. So I feel like what I'm saying isn't getting through.

The lettering, yeah, I'd say do that yourself. I do my own lettering; I've got experience in it, and I have a font I use on all my books for "branding." If you have any ability to do it yourself, that's a battle that's not worth fighting.

As far as not following your design concept, she really needs to be more responsive. I'm fortunate that both of the cover artists I'm working with (I've used one for some of my stand-alone books, and another one for the series I'm working on; different styles for different books) are very responsive to what I tell them I want. Yeah, you need to leave the artist some leeway for her artistic vision, but blatantly ignoring your instructions like that when you're the one paying her is unacceptable. Maybe you need to work yourself up to telling her that you want the cover with the headshots only and if she can't do it that way then you aren't going to be able to use the cover. (easier said than done, I know.)

Is there anything in your contract with her about partial/full refunds if the work is unacceptable? If you're paying up front, then that's something that should go in the contract (I say, though I didn't have anything like that in my agreements with the artist I paid in full up front; the other artist is 1/2 up front, half on approval of the completed work). If not, then you're probably out the money, but she doesn't get the cover credit and she can't use you as a good reference.

I've paid for two covers for the same book - but that wasn't the artist's fault, the first cover was gorgeous but my concept for it didn't fit the book very well. I chalked it up to part of the learning curve as an independent author, and figured that getting the right cover is one of the best investments I can make in my books.

Hope you can work this out!

Thanks! She gave me a decent price for it, so if I'm out the money I can deal with it. ($150, which I think is perfectly reasonable.) But I'd really like to get something amazing, particularly since this will be the first book of a five book series.

I'll wait and see what the next update looks like. if it's not better, then yes, I think I'll demand the head shots and maybe give her some examples of other book covers in the style that I'd like. One of the other issues is that it looks WAY too cheery at the moment. It needs to be a lot darker.

ooh, yeah, if you're doing a series, you really want to have someone you like working with who does good work, so you can use them for all 5 books to get a consistent look.

I think it's good to keep in mind that you can be a FANTASTIC artist and not any good at making book covers. It is a very unique skill set, and it requires a certain eye. It might help for you to show them some book covers that you like or are in your genre. It's hard, if you aren't familiar with the different requirements of the cover. Plus a lot of traditional artists may struggle with font selection.

Well to update everyone, I ended up making my own mock-up of how I wanted the cover and sent that to her along with 3 examples of other book covers I liked with the same dark theme. She finally got it. So we moved forward, and I'll be taking over the lettering.

heh by the way, anybody know some good places for fonts?

Judy wrote: "Well to update everyone, I ended up making my own mock-up of how I wanted the cover and sent that to her along with 3 examples of other book covers I liked with the same dark theme. She finally got..."

Glad to hear it worked out for you Judy. : )

Happy it worked for you as well...in the future try my service, www.storyteller419.wix.com/storyteller
Hope to see you there for your next adventure. Goodreads folks can grab a discount as well.

forgot to put this in...
http://1001freefonts.com/

Ed wrote: "Happy it worked for you as well...in the future try my service, www.storyteller419.wix.com/storyteller
Hope to see you there for your next adventure. Goodreads folks can grab a discount as well."

Hmm . . . out of curiosity, how much would just word design of a title cost? Because I know the limitations of canned fonts, and frankly it's a pain in the butt to create your own.

Give me a couple days and as a gesture of goodwill (and maybe hopes of snagging a future customer) no charge. In the meanwhile what is the title and what is it about?

The title is "Journey to Landaran" and I specifically want "Landaran" larger, almost overlapping the "Journey to". (Maybe overlapphing, depending on how it looks). Narrow fonts are best, with a somewhat fantasy look but nothing illegible!

Example of something similar:


The book is Book 1 of the Spirit Mage Saga, about a pair of twins, Aidah and her brother Tavish, who have been blessed/cursed with the Talents of Spirit and Sun. Aidah controls life and spirit while her brother controls heat and light (a firestarter). Aidah's gift is so rare, nations have warred each other to gain control of such as her.

And she's been discovered by the enemy. She and her brother must race for the safety of Landaran city, far from their mountain home. Hopefully there they can find safety.

I used Fiverr to create something for me:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloodlines-Pr...

I'm not a big fan of pseudohumans.

Daniel at DR Photography did both of mine for me.

https://www.facebook.com/DRPhotographyKY

I absolutely LOVE my cover designer-she also does websites and things. I swear she read my mind with just a few 'hints'. Natalie Rose Spasic at officemanager4u.

I loved the only cover I commissioned. Mr. Topper's Fabulous Funtown

Here is her website.
http://www.gobookcoverdesign.com/page...

Hi Judy...I need a copy of your cover to start work on the lettering. If you would be so kind as to send it to [email protected] along with an idea of what you want I'll get right on it.
I've also added a dozen new pre-made covers to the site that you can see at http://bit.ly/1aHc9Su

Thanks, Ed, but in the meantime I actually came up with lettering that I really like. (I'll be featuring it on my blog next week). The only thing I haven't done yet is filters to distinguish the font a little more.

OK, I tried...lol. In the future though, give me a try. My prices are better than anybody else and you can see samples of my work on my website http://bit.ly/1aHc9Su in the gallery.
Hope your book is a huge success! :-)