Blurred image of the early design concept for No Way to Live.
My scheduled release date for No Way To Live is drawing closer, and the cover is undergoing yet another redesign. I’m getting book cover anxiety! Although I recently posted about the fact I probably wasn’t going to go with the first design the company suggested, I soon came round to it and decided that was the one I wanted to use.
Indie Author With a Tight Budget
To give you some background, I’m an indie author with a tight budget, so I commissioned a Ukrainian company called Get Covers to design my cover. They have incredibly reasonable rates, yet are able to produce very professional looking designs.
Somehow, the cover designer had found a photograph that perfectly captured the spirit and look of Billie, one of the main characters in the book. I also liked the bullet grey font they used for the title.
Creating a Cover with a Recognisable Series Brand
The problem is, No Way To Live is the first in a series. Creating new covers for other books in the series so they fit into the brand will be difficult if we go with that first design. So Get Covers suggested a silhouette version. The one they designed really didn’t work. The silhouette was so thin-necked she looked like a Cluedo character.
And so we’ve gone back to the drawing board for the third design effort, which I’m hoping will have a slightly more adrenalin-fuelled noir feeling.
The way Get Covers works is a translator communicates with the author, then passes on design instructions/suggestions to the designer. They then provide you with links to stock-image libraries so you can suggest potential images.
Stock Image Silhouettes
I spent the weekend looking at pages of appropriate silhouette-images with titles like, ‘Silhouette sexy woman underwear with gun‘ and ‘Caucasian detective sexy woman holding gun’ (not the vibes I’m looking for!).
Eventually, I found a series of images that might work across a series (not like the ones above). I’ve made my suggestions to Get Covers, who are currently working on them. They usually have a 5-day turnaround. My original release date was 1st November, but it’s looking like I’ll miss it.
No One Is To Blame (Except Me)
In some ways, all this book cover anxiety isn’t my fault. I’m a teacher, working a full time job. It’s exhausting and leaves little time for writing/editing etc.
On the other hand, it’s entirely my fault. Over the summer holiday, when I should have been working on getting No Way To Live publication ready, I was so wrapped up in another writing project that I forgot about the need to get No Way To Live out before Christmas.
I just hope we can capture that key atmosphere of character-led danger and excitement…If we do, I’ll share it soon.
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