Many thanks to today’s co-hosts: Jacqui Murray, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Gwen Gardner!
Today’s question: If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish traditionally, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?
I was fortunate to start my author journey with a small publisher known for their eye-catching book covers. Omnific Publishing created this cover for my debut novel, With Good Behavior, which portrayed the romance element between two convicts well, I thought. (Some thought the handcuffs represented BDSM, ha ha!)
I was mostly pleased with Omnific’s receptivity to my input, though I did want a larger image of a couple kissing underwater on my new adult swimming romance, Streamline:
When I turned indie in 2014, I knew the importance of a professional cover, meaning I would never try to create one on my own. I hired my publisher’s book designer, Coreen Montagna. We didn’t intend to focus on hot shirtless men, but that was the best image we could find for the first book, and sequels just *had* to follow the same format.
For my latest novel, Rivals, I had a lot of input with my graphic designer friend, Dan Irons, including the design for my first audiobook cover:
Of all the publishing tasks, creating book covers can be challenging, but also a blast! (At least more fun than writing blurbs.)
Jennifer Lane Books 