The Introduction
I created this cover in the summer of 2021. In fact, I created 33 versions of the cover while knowing which image was for the front and which one is for the back cover. I created the original art for Just One when I was a teenager with little understanding of Photoshop, but I still have them.
My Experience with Photoshop
While I spent a long time in Photoshop working on different graphics, this was heavily influenced by my time as a roleplayer when I created graphics for my characters (biography art, signatures, avatars, etc.). Sometimes, I even completed requests for others or made gifts for my friends with whom I wrote. Some of them were simple, others complicated, or gifs.
It was an enjoyable time filled with trial and error, during which I went through numerous versions of the Adobe software and familiarised myself with the many features available. I learned a lot about Photoshop this way, sometimes by trying and other times by talking to other artists/roleplayers. While my education in graphics design wasn’t formal, it helped me understand a lot of what graphics designers did with Photoshop.
When I returned to college, it was a course that combined all the modules that interested me (sans writing): graphics design, video editing, marketing, coding. All these were hobbies I had nurtured thanks to my time as a roleplayer, and I was finally given a chance to explore them more.
I learned a lot about each of them, but I also learned that I was pretty good at these as well, where it was no longer just my friends saying I was or liking particular piece of art but I was also getting academic approval from tutors with far more knowledge and experience. It was also a unique experience because I have always been fast with my digital art, not always thinking about the steps taken to reach the final product. All of a sudden, I had to learn names within the software, show my work step by step and how I got to that final project.
This was a brilliant adventure and one I am returning to this year.
But this will be a separate subject to be explored later, as the college has only started back up. Expect an update soon enough.
How to Create a Book Cover
As someone who understood graphics design from a self-taught perspective, I did understand that there were rules to follow when it came to book covers. I had made some in the past and while they were pretty, they appealed to me as an artist instead of a reader. This was lesson number one that I had to embrace.
You will find many great resources when you put this phrase into the search engine.
I did this—I researched and read about the rules of cover design, the advice embedded in articles, and the experience of other designers. Often, the most common advice is to reach out to a professional and make it up to industry standards. I don’t disagree with this, but as someone who plans on writing multiple books, I feel it’s a good skill to develop as well.
A book cover is meant to catch your attention quickly, be it on a shelf or in form of a thumbnail.
A book cover has to stand out from other book covers around it.
A book cover has to relate to your story.
A book cover has to have fonts that are commercially free to use or be purchased.
A book cover can’t use fonts no longer accepted in the industry (e.g., Comic Sans).
A book cover has to have an illegible font.
A book cover has to have a high-quality image (or images).
Search for websites like Pexels, Unsplash, Pixabay etc. to find images that are CC0 (Creative Commons Zero), or “no right reserved”. This means you can use it in commercial uses, or make a profit from the sales while using the image without any copyright issue.
Like in any graphics design, positioning is crucial. Negative and positive space play a crucial role, and it was something I did understand by doing but hadn’t known the proper term.
How I Created the Just One Cover
I created the first book covers for Just One back in 2020. I made seven of them. They were busier and less aligned with the rules of designing book covers. It was because I hadn’t read the rules. I like them, but not for long.
You can see a few of the examples of this below.
In the following year, I entered this conversation with my best friend, someone I would consider a better judge from a reader’s perspective, as many of the books I read came from her recommendation (and were always on point). She wasn’t in favour of the original covers I had created and advised me to keep looking for the right image. When I found the right one, she thought it was a good choice for the cover.
Creating this cover took over a week, probably the longest I had spent on one project. It involved researching the rules, finding the appropriate fonts, and experimenting in Photoshop until I was happy. The result was thirty-three different versions of the same cover. I even found an image similar to the chosen one that could serve for the back colour, keeping up with the similar colours and element (mainly smoke and a woman of similar appearance that were in the front cover image) to maintain the overall look.
Once they were completed, I uploaded them to Google Drive. Four people were asked to vote on so many options, which helped me narrow it down to a smaller number of candidates. I didn’t do anything with Just One at the time, though, seeing as it was still a draft, and it would be a while before my beta readers read it.
They have the e-book with them now, as well as a questionnaire to help me focus on what I need to know about Just One. Since then, my writing has progressed to the sequels, and since Just One: Edge of Never (the second book), I have even experimented with making a cover for this one. That one is still a work in progress, so don’t expect to see it soon.
Asking Other Writers
Since starting my Facebook page and reading up on social media marketing, I have joined a few groups filled with other authors. Some of them are for promotion, others for author to simply ask questions and learn about their journey or get opinions.
Narrowing down the cover options to three, I asked the community of one of these groups for their opinions. Good points quickly emerged. The first point was that the blurb needs to avoid handwriting fonts…
I got that recently but hadn’t worked on this cover in a while.
Another excellent point from one of these comments related to the blurb itself. One sentence needed rectification as it caused confusion for someone unfamiliar with the book’s content. This was a great point, as that is what a blurb is not supposed to do—cause confusion for someone unfamiliar with the book.
You see, my beta readers got the story first (in an earlier rendition) and saw the covers after, whereas the writers I chose to ask for advice with saw the cover options without reading the book.
So, if I can give you one advice, from one future author to another, ask complete strangers for opinions when you get a chance. You may not notice this glaring mistake when you’re so close to the subject, but it could be the difference between someone picking up your book someday.
The Book Cover Reveal
And now, for the moment, we’ve been waiting for.
This book cover is a culmination of multiple versions, votes by beta readers, and opinions taken from other writers. It is the foundation and basis of the book series’ book covers, which I intend to keep within the same line to keep the vision representation of the whole series.
And this is one of the reasons why I chose not to outsource this task to another graphics designer and utilise my own long time developing Photoshop skills in order to maintain control over the art.
What do you think of the cover overall?
What do you think about the chosen images?
Do you like the blurb?
It has been on the website for some time, though it has been edited slightly to reflect one comment from the author who wondered about my use of nickname.
The difference between this and the many variations is very small, it’s simply an adjustment of details and introduction of blending options into the title itself as I have grown more confidant with this aspect of Photoshop.
I would love to hear from your thoughts.
The Wrap Up
As always, I hope you enjoyed the read. Tune in again next week for the next rendition of Inspiration Monday. This will be the only written blog section covering all previously existing topics. I would greatly appreciate likes and follows, especially on this blog post.
Next week, get ready for a Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) review.
And don’t forget to keep up with my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter!
Until next time…
~ Love, L.V.
L.V. Luca 