The Series is Complete - My Third Portfolio Project

My friend Jannine Gallant has just released He'll Never Know, the final novella in her Secrets of Ravenswood trilogy (for which I designed the covers), and I want to take this opportunity to share it with you.

The stories are set in a small town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and center around three young women who have been friends since childhood. The first is a romantic suspense, the second a bit of a ghost story, and the third more of a straight contemporary romance. I've read We'll Never Tell (and loved it!) and am half-way through She'll Never Rest. I need to hurry up and finish so I can move on to He'll Never Know. 

When I designed the covers, I had only Jannine's notes to work from since the stories were still in editing. I was very satisfied with the final results, but now that I've had the opportunity to see the Sierras firsthand and get to know the characters through the books, I'm even more delighted by how well the covers depict the stories. Check them out; you won't be disappointed.

Congratulations, Jannine! 

Designing Book Covers for a Series - My Second Portfolio Project

I've now completed all three covers for my friend, Jannine Gallant's, independently published novella series, Secrets of Ravenswood. The second book in the series, She'll Never Rest, is scheduled to come out the first of April, so I thought I'd give you a sneak peak and talk about some of the things I learned working on this, my second, book cover design.

Here's the cover for She'll Never Rest. 

For comparison, here's the cover for We'll Never Tell, the first book in the series.

Because this series is set in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, we knew we wanted a forest background for each cover. However, She'll Never Rest also features an old graveyard, takes place around Halloween, and has a ghost-story twist, so we were able to incorporate that into the background. The cover also features a couple in approximately the same proportion as the first and uses the same font and color scheme for the text. 

That part should have been the easiest but actually turned out to be quite tricky. Because I've been bouncing between houses in California and Minnesota for the past three months, I did the covers on two separate computers. Those of you who have used Photoshop will understand that means I saved the images with the layers in two separate places with no access to each other. That made matching the fonts and colors much more difficult than it should have been.

Lesson #1: If you're working on a series, WRITE ALL THE SPECIFICATIONS DOWN.

I also had trouble with the first couple we chose because I failed to consider every aspect of the image.

Lesson #2: Many model shots are artistically cut off at the top or sides. This looks great but does not allow the cover artist enough freedom to place the image where it needs to go. If the models' heads or arms are cut off, those sides need to go up against an edge, and that does not always work, especially in a series where continuity is key. WHEN USING IMAGES WITH PEOPLE, CHOOSE COMPLETE BODY SHOTS WHENEVER POSSIBLE. This allows the cover designer to crop them appropriately.

Fortunately, I also learned some new techniques, like how to draw on the image in color and  use the blur function. Both came in very handy when touching up the edges of the model's hair. Hair is notoriously difficult to select, cut, and paste onto another image.

In another month or so, I'll share the cover for the final book in the series, He'll Never Know, and you can take a look at all three together. Working on these covers has been a great experience, and Jannine has been a fantastic first client!

My First Portfolio Project

I’m thrilled to announce I’ve received and completed the first project in my new portfolio career as a writer/editor/book cover designer before even officially opening up shop. A writer friend, Jannine Gallant, is taking the leap from being published with small presses to independently publishing a series of romantic suspense novellas and asked me to design her covers. I had planned to do a few practice projects to master the necessary techniques but couldn’t pass up an opportunity to start out working on the “real thing”.

The most rewarding aspect of this project was collaborating with the author. Most cover designers ask for input from the author during the initial consultation then work independently before offering the client his or her choice of three completed designs. Jannine and I worked together from the start, selecting the images, fonts, and colors. Along the way, I learned how to size and crop, select and cut partial images, and refine edges. There are many more techniques I need to learn, but this was an exciting beginning. I can’t wait to start on the next one!

The wonderful thing about the internet is the ability to shoot ideas back and forth, quickly make changes, and fine tune the design until the author is completely satisfied with the final product. While every author might not want this level of involvement, a large part of the appeal of independent publishing is the ability to control every aspect of the process, and the cover design is critical. It’s the book’s face to the world. I’d love to hear what you think of our finished product.