Creating Book Covers

One of the most challenging things about self-publishing my books on Amazon's Kindle was coming up with cover images. I've had quite a few nice comments about mine, and I always give credit to my daughter, Maria. Her artistic vision and tech-skills have been invaluable. Okay, not just invaluable--I really couldn't have done it without her.

I believe a book cover should convey both the category and tone of the book. I kept this in mind when trying to come up with an image for my novel, Easily Amused. The book is a romantic comedy, and the neighborhood where Lola, the main character, resides is central to the story. To show all of this, I came up with the idea of a split cover, with the top half showing Lola's neighborhood and the bottom half giving the impression of a couple standing face to face.

This was the first book I self-released on Kindle, and I was reluctant to spend money on a stock image, not knowing if I'd recoup the cost. To do it on the cheap, I used my digital camera and took photos of a row of houses just blocks from where I live. My husband and I provided the legs. In retrospect, I wish my legs weren't so pale, but otherwise I think it came out okay.

One small point of interest is that the most prominent house, the one on the left, is actually the local funeral home. It was once a private residence, I think. Now it's a last stop.

I had no idea how to merge the images or add the text box--Maria had no problem at all, of course. She's a whiz. With the help of a free site called fotoflexer.com she managed to come up with the final cover:

When it came time to release my next novel, I had no qualms about paying money for a stock image. Based on the sales record of Easily Amused, I was certain I could justify the cost.

I scanned through istockphoto.com and knew as soon as I saw one particular photo it was perfect for my novel, A Scattered Life. The young woman depicted was main character Skyla, as I imagined her, and although it's hard to tell, she's looking at a map. Very fitting for a character who had lived a scattered life growing up, and is now ready to set down roots in small town Wisconsin.

I gave Maria the image and told her what to do. She would not listen. That girl has a mind of her own, let me tell you. Luckily for me, her idea was 100 times better than mine and the resulting cover was beautiful:

For my latest book, a young adult novel, I imagined a cover showing a teenage girl standing near a chain link fence. The image would literally represent a scene in the book and metaphorically stand for the main character's feeling of being stuck.

I looked through the stock photo websites but didn't come across a photo I was happy with. I could see it in my mind's eye, I just couldn't find it. And then I had an aha! moment when I realized I had a teenage girl right in my own family. I also owned a digital camera, and chain link fences aren't that rare in my neck of the woods. I could easily come up with my own photo. I only had one problem: daughter Maria had gone off to college.

It was only a small problem, though, because the following weekend we were scheduled to drive up to hear her sing in an afternoon choir concert. Over the phone I asked if she'd be willing to pose for a photo that day, and she agreed.

So we went to her concert, Greg, my mom, and me. The singing was great, blah, blah, etc. and so on, and afterward she had to go back to the dorm to change her clothes. While we were waiting all I could think was come on, come on, we're losing our light, like I was Steven Spielberg or something. Finally she came out to the car and I was fidgeting with my camera ready to find the nearest chain link fence and get the show on the road, but as it turned out, Maria was not going to do this on campus.

So we drove around Oshkosh, Wisconsin looking for a chain link fence, me with a knot in my stomach because the sun was going down in fast motion like I'd never seen before. Finally my husband spotted a fence and made a quick right turn into the parking lot of some industrial complex.

I have to backtrack here and tell you that I am not known for my photography skills. Still, I thought if I took dozens of shots I'd be able to get at least one good one. I didn't want to show her face, both for privacy purposes and also to leave it up to the reader to provide their own mental image.

I started taking pictures and Greg pulled out his camera and took some as well. I wondered why he was bothering, when clearly I had it covered, but when you've been married as long as I have, you learn to just let things go.

I took this shot.




See how it's kind of washed out and the composition is terrible? All of mine turned out that way. Or they were blurry. Meanwhile, Greg took so many good ones, it was hard to choose.

We wound up picking the one below. Maria added texture to the photo so it looked more like a painting than a photo. Nice effect.




Originally the title was supposed to be Waiting For My Real Life to Begin. I liked the title a lot. It's also the title of a song, and it conveys that feeling you often get in life. You always think that once the youngest is out of diapers, things will be easier, or when you have a different job, you'll be happier. Speaking from personal experience, it's easy to feel like we're just one step away from where we want to be.

The problem with the title is that it was just too long. And hard to remember.

I had a terrible time coming up with an alternate title. Nothing seemed to work. Then one day my older son Charlie said something about his life being "on hold."
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"That's it!" I said. "Life on hold is the perfect title for my book."

And he said, "Why are you always copying me?"
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Always copying him? Really. Okay, I did get Easily Amused from an anecdote he told me about a high school friend, but I would hardly say I'm always copying him. Plus, it's not like he was going to use any of these clever phrases himself, so what of it.
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This is the finished cover for Life on Hold. Pretty cool, don't you think?






I have three other books on Amazon: Lies I Told My Children, Favorite, and Celia and the Fairies. In my next blog entry, I'll talk about how those cover images came to be.
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Happy New Year!

Karen