A New Cover Project - A Chance to Learn Something New

My latest personal project was to make Unwritten Rules available in paperback. To do that, I had to learn how to format the interior for CreateSpace. I also had to to design a cover with a front, back, and spine. CreateSpace has an easy-to-use template, but I needed to learn how to rotate and move text for the spine as well as create a back cover image that would allow adequate legibility for the book description. Online tutorials answered the text question, but the back cover design required some artistic experimentation. I settled on using a different section of the image I used for the front and reducing the opacity. However, that meant I also needed an opaque fill layer underneath the image to cover the markings on the template. The final result was exactly what I hoped for and I learned several new techniques, so I consider the project a resounding success!

Fresh off the success of my own print cover, I felt confident enough to undertake a print cover for another author. If you've been following this blog, you've seen the three ebook covers I designed for the Secrets of Ravenswood series of novellas by my friend Jannine Gallant, We'll Never Tell, She'll Never Rest, and He'll Never Know. Recently Jannine decided to offer the novellas in a single print book and needed a new cover. 

She was looking for something that captured the suspense feel of all three books and featured an image of three women, representing her heroines. We weren't able to find a good image with three women, but we did find this wonderful image with a single figure. My challenge was to turn one woman into three. What do you think?

For the back, she had the idea of using the same scene but with no figures, as if the women had vanished into the mist. I reduced the opacity and was able to erase the figure. The result is perfect for her book.

 

We were able to take one beautiful image and manipulate it to create the perfect front and back--a cost-effective solution for the author and a wonderful learning experience for me. I consider that a win/win all around!