My Book Cover is Gone

It's not as if I didn't ask for it. I signed up for a free cover review from Damonza, expecting the results to be bad. But not this bad. Every aspect of my cover scored a four (out of ten), except for the interest rating, which was a three. (The interest rating is kind of the most important part.)

I used to think I had an eye for design; clearly, I was delusional. In my defense, not all my book covers are terrible. They're not great, but they're at least passable. My cover for Running From Herself was obviously the worst of them all.  

How did I get it so wrong? Well, it started with Canva, as all my covers do. I can't afford to pay for a cover, so I work with the free tools available. In the beginning of my cover creation journey, I would start with a blank template, then search for an appropriate image. Later, when I realized that every font I chose sucked, I began scrolling through Canva's pre-made templates to find my desired typography; then I would replace the template's image with one of my choosing. That process wasn't great, either. For Running From Herself, I went back to the blank page. 

I remember searching until my eyes hurt for an image that would work. If the Damonza guy thinks the cover he saw was bad, he should have seen some of my other choices. I scrolled through Canva's image bank, then went to Pixabay (free), then to iStock (not free, but inexpensive). Finally, I returned to Canva and discovered an image I hadn't run across before, and I really liked it. The "emotion" was right; she was obviously a singer, evidenced by the microphone she held in her hand. Perfect...

The text I inserted was small, because otherwise it would be plastered across the woman's face, so I had to fit it in where it would work. I was never satisfied with it, but it was the best I could do.

And you know what? I grew attached to it. 

Well, not so fast.

"There’s very little about the cover of Running From Herself that creates real
intrigue. The image is straightforward, literal, and feels somewhat generic
— a woman holding a microphone, with no contextual backdrop or
emotional cues beyond a neutral-to-soft expression. Because we’re missing
layers of visual storytelling or metaphor, there’s nothing that pulls the
viewer in and makes them pause with curiosity. It doesn’t tease internal
conflict or hint at deeper stakes. In this genre, subtle emotional tension or
evocative design elements can create the kind of mystery that feels worth
unraveling — but that spark isn’t present here." 

Too literal ~ that's me, I guess! My thought was that potential readers should know that the story is about a singer, especially since the title, Running From Herself, could pertain to anything. Leah being a singer was my hook!

The review is really comprehensive, pages and pages long, and I recommend doing it. Don't worry; I'm not about to post the entire critique; I'm not a masochist. Suffice it to say, it was bad.

I was disheartened by the time I finished reading it, and I stared at the 15%-off coupon he included, tempted to spend $336.00 for the "budget cover package", but luckily I noticed that Damonza calls it "budget" for a reason ~ really generic, pre-made images; nothing like all the suggestions my reviewer listed. And that's their least expensive option. For twice the price I could potentially get something organically designed. Well, shoot, I can't even afford the $336.00! 

Miblart is cheaper (about $220.00), but when I filled out its form for design feedback ideas, they came back with so many elements, I find it improbable that all of them could be combined into one cover, and if so, that would be quite a collage!

The concept will focus on the themes of loneliness and uncertainty in the life of the main character, who is on a journey of self-discovery. The color palette will feature shades of blue and gray to convey a sense of solitude and melancholy, with contrasting bright accents—like a ray of sunlight breaking through the clouds—to symbolize hope and possibility.

The cover could depict a girl walking away from the viewer, symbolizing the character's escape from her old self. A handwritten font could be used for the title to create a personal and emotional feel, balanced by a clean, geometric font for the author’s name to maintain visual harmony.

In the background, there will be a subtle hint of musical notes, referencing her connection to music. The overall cover will evoke a sense of self-searching and reflect the emotional journey she undergoes.

And in taking another look at Miblart's portfolio, this is another case of fitting the book to the image(s), not the other way around. I take it that the staff shuffled through their image files, and that's how they came up with fifty different ideas that they're willing to glom together to form some kind of schizophrenic cover.

Thus, good sense prevailed. No, I'm not going to risk $336.00 or $220.00 for a piece of crap. I have my own piece of crap, and it was free!

My cover review was so embarrassing, I hurried to create a new cover, as if that could erase all the discouraging words. Then I went to all my social media accounts and deleted every post that showed my original cover. To make matters worse, I've got a discounted promotion running, and I worried that if I replaced the cover in KDP, someone would try to buy the book, only to get a message that it was unavailable. (It takes a good hour for any changes to go live.) Well, no problem! According to my sales report, no one has grabbed the book (yay).  

So, back again I went to Canva's image bank, then to Pixabay, then finally to iStock, the latter at least having something with potential.  I ended up purchasing an image for twelve dollars, then went about creating LARGE typography for it.

Nope, don't really like the finished product. It says nothing to me. I'm obviously an oddball, because my original cover did evoke emotion (for me). The new one is genre-conforming, as best as I could mimic that. And now I'm back to "the story could be about anything". 

I'm fairly certain this isn't the end of things. Whether anyone buys the book or not (most likely "not") I need to like the cover. And since I only laid out twelve dollars, I'm not forced to live with something I don't like.

My plan is to test. I'll do a few social media posts to see if the new cover makes any difference whatsoever. I don't think it will, but I apparently know nothing, so I'll try. I disliked the cover examples my reviewer used to demonstrate how bad my original was, and I would never buy those books, based solely on my distaste for their covers. 

You've been waiting patiently, so here is the revised cover:

 

I think the font placement is off. It looks skewed to my eye. And it's as f***ing big as I'm willing to make it. I don't think she looks "emotional", per se, just mopey. The cover would fit the title better if the turtleneck was pulled all the way over her head. 🙄

It's occurred to me that when talking about fitting the book to the image, that's exactly what I did here. When one is forced to rely on stock photos, that's inevitable. And finding the right image boils down to the search terms used. iStock only allows a searcher to filter by photo orientation, number of people in the image, age and demographics. The rest is up to the searcher. I believe I went with the terms "woman looking in the distance unsure". Even then I was presented with 249 pages. I don't have the patience for that. (If only I had an art degree; it would be so much simpler...or would it?)

So...

 

Can I get another free review? Then he could tell me all the stupid-ass mistakes I made with the second one. "No, no! That's not what I meant at all! Where's the emotional cues? Where are the metaphors?"

Metaphors? If metaphors were my goal, I should have gone with a sad clown. 

 

I just want to be done with it. I'm not going to sell any more books than I already have anyway, so my obsession is actually ill-placed. 

 

Yet I have a feeling this post won't be the final word.