IWSG: My Own Book Covers with Few Exceptions

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. Well, it's already February and so we've made it through the first month of a new year! I've started this year out by trying to take a load off of myself and not concentrate too much on the marketing side of the writing and to focus much more on the writing itself, including my fiction. Last year my most current book that I've been working on, "Bad Apps", a collection of short fiction about strange and deadly mobile apps, kept getting postponed in its release because I was playing the role of marketer too much and I’m not a marketer, I'm a writer. And “Bad Apps” still has yet to see publication. So, this year I’ve laid off the extensive marketing and plan to continue doing so. However, one form of marketing I do plan to continue is making the illustrations for my own book covers. And so that brings me to our optional question of the month: If you are an indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?

One of the reasons, that I publish indie is so I can do my own book covers. (However, it’s not the main reason, but that’s a story for another time). My original intention had been to go into doing exhibition art. Ever since I was a kid I loved to draw and paint (including coloured pencil). But, as I discovered over time that I was a writer more than an artist, I decided to emphasise a writing career. However, I loved art too much to give it up or just leave it at a hobby. That’s why when I discovered that self-publishing was the way to go, I decided to do the illustrations for my own book covers. So, to answer the question of the month, I do my own covers but only the illustrations. I hire someone else to do the designing and formatting of the cover itself. Formatting covers involves precise measurements which I learned the hard way that I don’t do well with. 

One exception to doing my own cover illustrating is my upcoming collection of short fiction that I mentioned above, "Bad Apps". I don’t do digital art; I do old school, freehand. But because the subject matter to “Bad Apps” is computer technology, I'm planning to hire a digital artist to do its cover. I want it to reflect the digital technology of mobile apps. Still, I'll do the primary sketch of the illustration to show what I want to go into the digital version. 

To find out more about "Bad Apps", sign up for my free author's newsletter, "Night Creatures' Call"! 

Do you do your own cover illustrations for your books or do you hire someone to do them? For those who publish through traditional means, how much do you try influencing the appearance of your covers and, when/if you do, is it a challenge when dealing with the publisher?

Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: Jacqui Murray, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Gwen Gardner! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels!

Until next time . . .