I Think My Own Cover Designs are Better

In my almost full decade of publishing, I never researched cover designers. First of all, my original stabs at publishing weren't necessarily done as a lark, but I had no delusions of grandeur. I just wanted to be published. Obviously, my books needed covers, so I went with the very cheapest option. The only place I knew about was Fiverr, because I'd seen it advertised, so that's where I went looking. (Now I'd never go near that place.) The two covers I commissioned were awful, but I went with them because what choice did I have?

In my naivete, I thought if a book had a decent blurb it would surely sell itself; that no one cared about covers. Now I know that all they care about are the covers. A bad, ugly cover is like trying to publicize a new restaurant by holding up a dustpan of dirt. 

So, subsequently, I tried harder. When I found Canva, I said, "A-ha!" Any idiot could design their own cover with Canva, and it would put the losers at Fiverr to shame. My first designs weren't completely awful, just mostly. The images I chose were good, but I had no concept of good layout, appropriate font, the psychological importance of color choice. Well, basically everything. 

Bottom line, while I wanted nice covers, I couldn't justify paying for them. I knew my books weren't selling, especially my novellas, and I'm not rich. I'm the opposite of rich. 

But I finally saw the light once I published Running From Herself, which hit like a thud. I fought against getting a professional cover design--I changed my original self-made cover after I received a free analysis from Damonza. Lord, it was brutal! Exactly what I needed to hear. 

There was no way in hell I could afford to hire Damonza, which I still consider the gold standard of cover design, but I did (at last) go looking for less expensive options. Miblart, while still outside my affordability window, was the next best choice. Unlike its ugly step-sister, GetCovers, Miblart employs actual designers. So, I bookmarked it, but still went back to Canva to try again. I couldn't find a decent image in Canva's image bank, so I paid iStock for a semi-decent stock photo and used that. I got another jolt of reality when I put the novel up on an ARC review site, and some guy chose it, but added the comment, "The cover could use some work."

Okay. Fine. I bit the bullet and went with Miblart. Best publishing-related decision I ever made. Not that the novel is selling any better now, but at least I'm no longer ashamed of its cover.

Then, with my two-book anthology, which I only published in paperback in order to have copies for myself, I considered using Canva again, but GetCovers only cost $35.00. I could swing that. Their results were so-so at best, but good enough for books that won't sell.

Now I'm working on republishing my third novel, once I spruce it up a bit. I'm going to change the title to...something...and it definitely needs a new cover. With inflation kicking my ass, I can't justify throwing money away, so I thought about GetCovers again. I even went looking on Shutterstock for appropriate images. (GetCovers requires authors to provide the images.) There was not one single image there that I would even consider using. Granted, perhaps I didn't use the right search terms, but I don't know what the right search terms would be. When I typed "secrets" into the search bar, all I got were pictures of women with their finger to their lips, saying "Shhh!" and smiling. Not exactly the vibe I'm going for.

So much for GetCovers. Its other option for images is DepositPhotos, which is even worse than Shutterstock. 

Pro Tip: Pixabay's royalty-free images are far superior and cost nothing to download. Unfortunately, GetCovers doesn't use it.

Yesterday, David Gaughran sent an email listing a bunch of Black Friday deals, and one of his mentions was a place called GoOnWrite. I didn't even know there were other bargain basement design sites besides GetCovers. I use the term "design" loosely, because all it offers are pre-made covers--take 'em or leave 'em. They're not good. I tried really hard to find just one that might work; no dice. The covers are all illustrated (I'm not a fan), and amateur illustrations at best. I'm not publishing a children's book.

So, where does all this leave me? Why, back to Canva, silly. I'd found a Pixabay image I really liked, and I took a stab at designing a cover around it (I displayed the rough draft in a previous post), but it still feels "off". I'm not giving up. I can do this. Maybe I'll scan Canva's book cover templates again to find one that fits the vibe better, or I'll just slap my image on a blank template and start over. 

A couple of things I've learned from past experience:

1. Your cover might look just right on Canva's site, but once you download it, open it with your computer's photo software and take a good look. Canva's presentation is misleading. When you pull it up on your computer (or phone, for you youngsters out there), its flaws will stick out, whether it's the proportions or the framing or a number of other elements.

2. Don't be afraid to go LARGE with your text. Remember, the cover will be competing with other book covers on Amazon or whatever store you go with, and you don't want your cover fading into the woodwork. I made this mistake a lot with my novella covers--my author name and even the titles sometimes were teeny. Again, they looked great on Canva; not so great anywhere else. 

One more thing: Download your design as a JPG. KDP won't accept any other image format, which means you would need to go back to Canva and re-download your cover in JPG format if you chose, for example, PNG. (PNG is higher quality, so by all means, use it on your author site, which isn't going to be picky, like Amazon is.)  

I think my past mistakes and harsh critiques led me to give up on designing my own covers, but I've learned from my failures (at least somewhat), so it's time to step up and do it right this time.