Over the years, I’ve collected a few tips to help navigate the troubled waters of finding and working with a book designer. The tips below are generally about cover design, but the same holds true for book interiors.
Tip # 1: Know your genre and target audience
Research what is available for sale in your genre with the big publishing houses. Don’t skip this step, no matter how boring it might be.
These will be your competition, so you’ll want to have a cover that’s on par. Publishers like Harper Collins, Hay House, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin all have marketing specialists on staff. They generally know what sells and how to reach your target market.
Use this information to your advantage when searching for the designer that will help you create a cover that will attract your readers. This may seem like a silly place to start, but the more you know, the better you’ll be at discerning good design from bad.
Tip # 2: Research your cover designer’s style
Look for designers whose style closely matches the books you are seeing in your research from Tip #1. Do you need an illustrator? Are the images hand drawn or photo compilations?
I mention this because sometimes an illustrator is absolutely the only way to go (especially for children’s books). The downside: they tend to be a good bit more expensive, so you’ll want to start saving early. Photo compilers, such as myself, are generally a bit more affordable.
You’ll want to pay attention to details like the fonts they use and the way they present their titles. Are their covers generally busy and hard to read? (If so, RUN, run fast! And find someone else.)
Tip #3: Get a personal recommendation
You are never going to see a bad testimonial on a designer’s website. If you ask the designer for references, they will never give you the contact info for a client that didn’t work out.
Consider the kinds of things you can only know from a personal recommendation: Is this designer reliable? Do they have experience? Do they listen to your ideas/needs? Are they pleasant to work with, or do they make you feel like you’re bothering them? Are they deadline oriented? Are they prompt in responding to your correspondence?
And, most importantly, do they produce works in your specific genre that will compete well with traditionally published works? (If you are unsure of the answer to this last question, as many new authors are, be sure to run any potential designer portfolios by someone in the publishing industry, to get a professional opinion about their skills.) These are things you can only find out from someone who has worked with a designer directly, not from reading info on their website.
Tip #4: Don’t let $$ be everything
I recommend that you do not make price your only deciding factor for your most important marketing tool. Budget is important, no doubt. Most indie authors have to consider costs. That’s a given. But you want a quality cover, and a good designer is going to cost more.
We have more experience — years in the trenches — and more often than not, that experience shows. Start saving early so you can afford the best designer possible.
Tip #5: Get a contract
It’s always best to get a contract. This way you’ll see, in writing, exactly what is expected of you and your designer. It should cover things like: How many design concepts are included? How many revisions are included? If you go over that number of revisions, what is the additional cost? What is the expected timeline for deliverables? How long do you have to review the deliverables? Is a deposit required? What forms of payment are acceptable? Are there any additional fees or expenses?
Tip #6: Share your vision
If you followed through with Tip #1 about researching your genre, you should now have a good idea what’s out on the market. So, how is your story unique? What is your vision for the cover? Be sure to share your vision with your designer.
There is one caveat to this tip, and that is to be sure to listen to your designer’s advice. Assuming you’ve chosen a good designer, with lots of experience, if your designer is telling you it’s probably not a good idea to include the spinning cat, taco truck, tanning salon, AND the angels with swords, your designer probably knows what they are talking about.
Tip #7: Be clear and decisive
Phrases like “I want it to POP!,” “It needs to be more dynamic!” or “I’m not sure, but I’ll know it when I see it.” are all extremely unhelpful to your designer. Many of us are, for the most part, wizards at what we do, but mind reading isn’t in our skill set. Knowing and expressing exactly what you want will save you time, money, and aggravation in the long run.
Tip #8: Save samples of what you found in Tip #1 to share with your designer
Remember the research you did in Tip #1. If you found some covers that you love, and even some that you hate, share them with your designer. Explore the reasons you love them or hate them. It helps us to know your likes and dislikes.
Bonus Tip: Make sure that your designer is either creating original works of art or sourcing images from a reputable stock photography house and getting proper permissions to use them.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen someone steal an image off the internet and alter it slightly and call it their own. It doesn’t work that way. You can be sued. If you are at all unsure, ask to see early sketches or variations of an original artwork. If you are getting a photo compilation, ask your designer which stock house they used, ask for license information and the image numbers, so you can verify.
Tamian Wood, winner of numerous print and cover design awards, uses art, photography, typography, and digital collage techniques to create book covers that sell. She works with several publishers and a growing number of indie authors. Tamian’s most famous client to date is Pope Francis, whose Encyclical Letter won first place for cover design. With over 25 years in the design trenches, she is also a partner member in good standing with the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) and a co-judge for a monthly cover design contest at Discovering Diamonds Historical Fiction Review site. Tamian has a weekly featured post (Critique Corner) at the Writers of Non-Fiction Facebook group. And she is the director of the LinkedIn group, Authors’ Resource. Tamian holds degrees in computer science and graphic design technology and is a proud member of Phi Theta Kappa National Honour Society.
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