How to self publish, part three
Continuing my blog series on my self-publishing process, we now get to artists.
The cover of my novel “Nuru,” created by artist Gaetano Caltabiano.
With a novel, you won't require a lot of artwork but at the very least you will need a cover. If you want to go for a bare bones cover with just a title, byline, and perhaps a symbol or simple image, this might be able to created by yourself or by a graphic artist. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, where I published by book, has a cover creator for just this purpose, but keep in mind that - contrary to the old saying - people do judge books by their cover. Your cover will be the first thing people see when they find your book so you want it to be something that catches the eye.
The cover ideally is a summation of what the book is. No one should look at a science fiction epic and think it could be an Agatha Christie-esque mystery. This can sound hard; after all, you spend months crafting a meticulous narrative involving tons of characters, settings, and themes and then you have to try and distill it all into a single image.
With my book, "Nuru," I tried to focus on some of the core aspects of the story when coming up with the cover. It's an adventure story, it's a fantasy, it's about a young character forced to face the world alone, it's about the invasion of an overwhelming and otherworldly force, and unlike most fantasy stories it replaces the traditional European milieu for a more African-inspired one.
If you look at the cover, pictured, you see the main character with a sword in his hand facing off against an oncoming tide of dark invaders on a Savanna plain that stretches out toward the mountains. I think that captured the things I was going for, and I was very pleased with the outcome. People who look at the cover will be able to insinuate most, if not all, of those concepts I singled out just by looking at the image.
The best advice I can give is look at a lot of different book covers, especially those in the genre you are writing in. See what other authors and publishers try to say with their covers.
I found my artist on www.fiverr.com. I'm no expert in freelance artists, but this seems to be one of the premiere sites for finding artists for hire. Like all contractors and freelancers, you're usually going to get what you pay for, and a good book cover will cost $500 at the minimum unless it is a very simple image. Artists are no different than writers, they are skilled professionals and they need to be paid as such for their hard work and time.
Look for authors who have experience with cover art in your genre. Check out their previous work - and make sure you see previous work, the internet has no shortage of scammers. That's one of the advantages of a site such as Fiverr. They put your payment in escrow until you approve of the completion of the job. Be wary of people asking for payment in advance or those who say they will only be paid through PayPal or any other service where you can lose your money before knowing the job is completed to your satisfaction.
Working with an artist can take time. Communicate your idea to them as clearly as you can. Send them sketches you may have made, samples of clothing or architecture you want to model part of your cover off of, and send any hints possible so the artist has an idea for reference. Explain to them the emotion you want to convey to potential readers, as well. The more information your artist has, the easier it will be for them and the closer the results will be to your vision.
Artists will usually send you some preliminary sketches before they start on the nitty gritty of the creation process. This is the time to make corrections, suggestions, or to ask questions about what your options are. Don’t be afraid to get specific. You hired them for a job and are paying good money for it - make them earn it.
One of the things I didn't think of before starting was whether I wanted just a front cover or a full cover. A front cover will have just what is shown on the front of the book, and if you're only releasing your book for eReaders, this is the way to go. It's cheaper and no one will see the rest of a cover anyway on an eReader. If you want to release hard copies in hardback or paperback, consider the full cover. It looks more professional and it give you some more room to work with to tease readers with.
Another thing I had never considered was font. Like the rest of the cover, it should communicate the tone of your book. Just google "fonts" or "exotic fonts" and you will find dozens of good sites full of suggestions and examples. Some may be unavailable to your artist as they would need to actually download the font (and be aware, some artists will charge extra to add text to the cover, assuming you will just add it later). Play with as many fonts as you can. The sites I mentioned usually let you type something in to see it in different fonts so get creative. If you are writing a fantasy story, make it look rustic and exotic. If it's science fiction, make it look strange and otherworldly, it's a 1920's mystery, look for a retro art-deco looking font.
Something else to keep in mind is ownership and rights of the image. When you contract with an artist, they are signing over ownership of that image to you so this is usually not a big deal so long as you make sure the contract is on the up and up. With photographs, it can get dicier simply because people are more likely to use an existing photograph or image. I advise against this whenever possible. Even if something is listed as stock art. First of all, stock art tends to be free for a reason. Second of all, when your using an image to sell something like a book, you need to ensure no one can lay ownership of that image and the internet's attitude toward attribution in general can be sketchy at the best of times.
Lastly, as I said at the start, with a novel you probably won't need art beyond the cover. However, the same advice goes for additional art you may want for your website. If you look at the different pages of my site, you will see some additional art related to the books I commissioned to help show off my writing. Like the cover, it's an investment. However, people are visual creatures and grabbing someone's attention with a strong, telling image can go a long way.
To finish up, here's a link to iWriterly's Youtube page. She's another writer who puts out videos with some great advice on writing and publishing. I highly advise you check her out.
That's it for today,
Eamon