After my publisher, Momentum scaled back, and I decided to indie publish The Flanagan Sisters series, the first thing I needed to do was get a book cover. We all know the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover" but people do, all the time! I know if I see a cover that looks home-made I assume that the author hasn't got the funds to buy a decent cover and therefore probably hasn't got the funds to edit the book either. I'm generally going to give the book a miss and find something that looks professional.
Perhaps that's unfair of me and perhaps the writing is brilliant, but because that's how I interpret a bad cover, I wanted to make sure my cover was as professional as possible. My design skills are average at best and there was no way I was going to attempt a cover, so I went straight online. The only problem was, there are heaps of book cover designers out there, so which one to choose?
Over the past couple of years I've been collecting book cover website links, because I knew I wanted to try indie publishing at some stage. I've got over twenty websites and many of them have good, pre-made covers that are reasonably priced. I went through them page by page, but I couldn't find anything that suited. It's quite hard to find an interracial couple on a cover.
My next step was asking friends for recommendations. Juanita Kees, who is in my critique group, had a lovely cover done for her latest rural romance, so I asked her who did it. She gave me the link to Amygdala Designs. I reviewed the pre-made covers and thought they were great, so I asked for a quote and was happy with the price.
I had to give examples of covers I liked and what I wanted to have on the cover. Then I had to wait nervously to see what was delivered. I really didn't think that Ida could make an oil refinery look romantic, but it really did work!
I was so thrilled with the cover, that I immediately commissioned the covers for Change of Heart and Blaze a Trail as well. What do you think of them?
