Judge your book by its cover! Good cover art catches passerbys' attention! Cover art may seem challenging, but I'm here to lay it all out for you. From the general idea, cover dimensions, to artist's quotes, expectations, and more! The process of cover art will be broken down into two parts: before you search and picking your artist. This is Part I: Before You Search. Before you even start looking for an artist, there's plenty you need to do! Mainly, you need a general idea for the artwork. This'll be its main elements, dimensions, medium, and due date. All these will influence your artist search and the decisions of the artists you find. MAIN ELEMENTS. You should have a basic idea of who and what you want on your cover (characters and setting/background). The key influences of the main elements of your work’s cover will be: its genre, theme, and tone (it may also be a personal preference). Your cover should make your work belong in its genre; this means it should look like other similar covers. You can have some uniqueness to it, but remember a cover that is too different can shoo viewers away. For example, fantasy novels usually have one central piece: the protagonist or a symbol for the book. The theme and tone of your book can also influence its main elements. For example, a suspenseful tone can affect the design of your book: the cover will most likely be dark and mysterious, like hiding details of the face. My strongest recommendation to finding main elements for your book is looking at other covers in its genre you like, and thinking about favorite or defining scenes in your own work. Consider the similarities of these covers from the same genre (urban fantasy): DIMENSIONS. The dimensions of the work you request will affect its price, and the dimensions will help the artist with their decisions. Dimensions will also be affected by whether you’re producing a paperback, hardcover, and/or ebook. Your printer should tell you the dimensions, at least I can guarantee IngramSpark does. I will give you some calculations as well, but I also advise that you add half an inch to each measurement (length and width) and crop where needed for safety. It's easier to cut off than add more. Your paperback dimensions will include the front, back, and spine. This will be (2 x size of one page) + spine. Use google searches to find the spine size given your page count. Ebook dimensions are just the "front," so the dimensions of a page in your work. This can also be used as a preview upload. Hardcover dimensions are the biggest. Remember that hardcovers don't actually have the artwork on the book, but on dust jackets. Therefore, you need to add the dimensions for the spine, front, back, the flaps, and the bleedover from the jacket wrapping around the book. You won't know the exact size for flaps until you get the dimensions from your printer. Therefore, plan for at least 4 inches. So, this'll be (page size x 2) + spine + (⅜ in x 2 for bleeds) + (flap size x 2). Here are the dimensions I used for my 8.5 x 5.5 novel: MEDIUM. Medium is the materials used to make your cover. I highly recommend digital art, but there are many ways to upload scans of traditional art (paint, pencil, pastels, etc). Furthermore, many artists may not additionally have book designing skills. You may have to pay an artist and designer separately. (For clarity, design is the text, bar code space, symbols, and anything laid over the artwork.) DUE DATE. If you get your artwork before your manuscript is done, you'll be able to print and sell your book sooner! However, if you'd rather wait for the exact dimensions from your printer, you can do that too. Whatever the plan, you should give your artist at least a month to work. Keep in mind a more popular or busy artist may request longer. Plan accordingly :). THE PRICE. Budget for at least 200$ if you want to pay professionals, and I recommend you do. However! Keep in mind that popularity can change an artist's price. You may find someone undiscovered and just as skilled as another, but who offers a lower quote! But do also keep this saying in mind: you get what you pay for. Happy hunting! Think this may be too expensive? Try these cheaper options for cover art.
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More InfoErin blogs because she wants to help other young adult writers and new writers. It's aimed to educate others on the writing and self-publishing process. If there is anything you'd like to know that she hasn't covered yet, please contact her! |