Tina Boscha

To be more accurate, this is an ode to my cover designer, Kai Persons.

When I first began researching self-publishing, I ran across the same advice, over and over:

1. Write a good book.
2. Polish it - edit, proofread, etc.
3. Format it VERY well.
4. Have a great cover.

This all seemed very obvious, but after reading some self-published work where the formatting was wonky and there were just too many typos to categorize it as “oh well, nobody’s perfect”, I understood why so many successful indie authors felt they had to repeat this.

I felt pretty confident in my ability to do 1-3 - although the stomach cramps I had for DAYS leading up to the moment I hit “Publish” might lead you to believe otherwise - but I knew, without a doubt, that I could not design my own cover. I’m reasonably artistic but my graphic design skills are NILL. Null. Nilch. Nada. Nothing. Non-existent.

So, when I decided to self-publish, I set aside a budget and one of the line items was for cover design. (Aside from my first print run, it was the biggest item; I wanted to pay well and pay fairly.) The funny thing was, I knew pretty early on that my title would be River in the Sea. I never, ever considered anything else. But I had NO IDEA what the cover should look like. Moody, evocative, dramatic, eye-catching. Yet what does that mean? And then, with more research, I knew the cover had to have some specifics:

1. It must look good in color AND black & white.
2. It must look good in thumbnail AND nice and big.
3. The title must be clear and bold due to it being in thumbnail size.

Yea, put it together and that’s a TALL order.

I turned to my friend Kai, who is a family friend and a graphic designer. I’d seen some of his work and knew he was good. But he had never designed a book cover, and I figured, well, I had never published a book, so let’s see what we can do. I sent him some covers that I liked - and they were all super different - and told him the specs but otherwise left it all to him.

Here’s the first sign I got that I knew he would do a fantastic job - he asked for a synopsis and a sample chapter, plus an explanation about the title. He wanted to understand the symbolism and the context.

One of the most exciting days in the whole process leading up to hitting the “publish” button was when he emailed me his first mock-ups. I didn’t know what to expect, but I certainly didn’t expect SEVEN! Seven mock-ups! When I received the first email, I did a little dance. Here was my first glimpse of what my book might look like out in the world.

I was amazed at what I got. Even the fonts were relevant; he researched 1940s-era fonts and the type of art that was prevalent at that time. I knew right away which one was my favorite, but there were two other strong contenders.

So with Kai’s permission, I posted the book covers to Facebook and asked my FB friends to weigh in. Comment on the ones they liked the most, and give some feedback as to why they responded. People, this was ridiculously fun. Quite a few of my FB friends - my first potential readers - commented and gave pretty specific feedback as to WHY they responded to the cover they did.  I was constantly checking FB, giddy when a new comment came in. The cover I felt strongly about was the one that got the most positive feedback, and so my decision was easy. The cool thing was that while I had ultimate control, my readers helped immensely in making the decision. Honestly, what better way is there to select a book cover?

Here were the three contenders, and by now you know which one made it:

(Clearly my HTML skills lack, sorry for the wonky presentation.)

And you know what is coming next: if you need a book cover, or other graphic design work, hire Kai!