ELEMENTS

I made the cover art from a combination of the artwork, each piece either home made or found online. The face was adjusted from at Adobe Stock image. The silhouet of the trees started as a royalty-free image. A range of futuristic graphics inspire the one found up top.

The face started as a yellow hooded figure in a backdrop of yellow buildings. It took too many hours to crop the image and filter out the buildings. The trees needed precise tweaking to add detail to branches in some places and simplify them in others for a consistent look. A professional artist probably would have come up with a better graphic, but I’m pleased with the outcome.

BUDGET

Because this book is self-published, I didn’t want to blow the bank, lest I spend more on the book than I could make up. Through online forums, I read about how others spent hundreds of dollars on fancy covers that they never recouped. As a first-time author, I suspected it wouldn’t sell like an Andy Weir novel, and indie books don’t demand high prices, so…

PREVIOUS VERSIONS

I created more than ten different background images, from handmade to brilliantly colorful and explosive starting points. One focused on nanites. Another was a straight-up photo of a teen. The basis of the third was a stunning chalk explosion.

It was easier to tossing out some than others. My family and friends voted on which would win the competition at the world championship.The cover above won by an avalanche. Letting others decide always helps with graphic design. As an artist, I fall in love with my creations and can’t be trusted to choose wisely to appeal to a broader audience. My inner circle of critiques consistently commented that they connected with this cover because it showed a face and projected a unique vibe.

BLURB & BIO

Writing a short blurb that conveyed the gist of a ninety thousand word book proved to be one of the hardest tasks involved in being a self-published author. It had to reveal just enough interest reader without giving away the kit and caboodle. Again, I turned to a trusted few to make the final decision.

Fortunately, I’ve written bios before: As a grant writer, a professor, for my website, on LinkedIn, and more. Nevertheless, writing about myself elicited strong feelings of imposter syndrom and embarrassment. Distilling my life down to a few relatable sentences took longer than I’d like to admit.

THE REVEAL

Showing you all the cover makes my transition into a real author real in a way that sharing my novel with beta readers never did. The publication of my debut novel is rapidly approaching.

TOOLS:

As a long-time user of Adobe products, and needing them for other projects, I turned to Photoshop and Illustrator for the filtering, cropping, and combining the elements. I augmented each images with with Photoshop.

FUTURE NOVELS

I'm already thinking about the cover art for DAY AFTER INFINITY and the sequel to I, NANO. Hopefully, the days spent on my first novel will make upcoming artwork easier. Not too easy because I enjoy the process, but even more fun because I won’t have to think about the tools and techniques as much.