Frustrating Things About Cover Design (and how to deal with them)

Stock Photography While stock photography is a fantastic resource and there are numerous sources for it online, the simple fact that you are choosing from photos taken by other people can be a cause for frustration. Sometimes everything works out great and you find that photo that works perfectly for your cover. More often than not, though, you are stuck clicking through pages upon pages of stock photos looking for the right model, the right couple, the right facial expressions or the right background. What do you do then? Do you spend countless hours searching multiple stock photo sites? Well, that’s one option I suppose, but there are other things you can do to help lessen the frustration.

• 1. Don’t go into your design with a completely locked down idea. Keep an open mind and be willing to change your thought process a little bit. When you do this you’ll be surprised at the ideas you can come up with just by surfing through the photos. Sometimes, if you can avoid designing the cover in your head first, browsing stock photos is a great way to come up with an out of the box design you might not have thought of in the first place.
• 2. Be willing to compromise. This is a tough one if your client has their heart set on a particular look for their cover models but if you’ve already searched through pages upon pages and just not found the right model (long haired blond male models are becoming particularly elusive) then go back to you client with a few photos that almost fit the bill and see if they are willing to compromise. If you are designing for yourself them be sure to leave some wiggle room when it comes to the look of your characters on the cover.
• 3. Photo composite. This one takes some skill, so if you aren’t confident in this area I would say practice first. There are hundreds of really good YouTube video tutorials out there on the subject and from personal experience I would recommend Phlea and PSDBox as they both have top of the line free tutorials specifically for compositing. Now, all that aside, if you are willing (and able) find several photos that work for your scene, because, let’s be honest, it’s a very rare occasion when you find a single full stock photo that fits the idea in your head perfectly.
• 4. Specialty Stock. Lately, specialty stock sites aimed specifically at book cover designers have been popping up all over the internet. If you are facing a particularly difficult genre to design for (Regency for example) seek out one of these specialty sites. You are going to pay a little more per photo but in the long run it will be worth it in time saved. Some of the best specialty sites I’ve found are: Novel Expressions, who’s stock photos run the gamut from Science Fiction to Historical. Illustrated Romance caters to the romance genre but they have great images you won’t find on just any old stock site so this makes them perfect if you want a more exclusive look to your cover. Razzle Dazzle Stock is absolutely fantastic for those harder to find photos, they have multiple sections for Regency, Western, Highlander and even Steampunk. Razzle Dazzle’s prices range from $3.00 for a web sized image (72dpi) to $6.00 for a large print resolution image all the way up to $12.50 if you want the super large original size image. All in all as far as specialty stock sites go they are pretty reasonable for what they offer.

Vague Clients Now this is not a dig at clients in general. They are writers and they are hiring you as a professional for a reason. If they honestly have no idea what they want their cover to look like, or they do but it’s only some vague, symbolic things they want on the cover, they can’t help it. Otherwise they’d be doing the cover themselves. That being said, dealing with vague clients can be frustrating, especially if they can’t give you a clear direction to go in. It makes it difficult to figure out where to begin. Again, there are some things you can do to help your client be a little less vague.

• 1. Ask questions. Before you even start the design phase of their cover ask them questions that you know the answers to will make it easier for you to get going in the right direction. Some simple ones I like to start with are: Do you have a preference between photo realistic or illustrated style? What are some colors you like? Are there any colors you absolutely hate? What kind of audience are you trying to reach? What are some settings from your book you might like to use? Do you want people on your cover? One of the best ways to handle this, really, is to come up with a standard questionnaire your client and use to give you the answers to the questions you think are most relevant to your design. It will take a lot of guesswork out of the process for both you and your client.
• 2. Ask for a synopsis or blurb. Sometimes the best ideas for a cover come from that short blurb about the book. Tying the cover to the blurb works really well for pulling in the reader even more. If they can see a relation between what’s going on on the cover to the questions asked by the blurb on the back they are going to be even more intrigued. If the client doesn’t have the blurb done yet (and let’s be honest, a lot won’t) ask for a synopsis. This should give you relevant scenes, locations and a good feel for characters. If they have neither a blurb nor a synopsis you can always ask for a copy of the book itself or a few relevant chapters, but I would only do this as a last resort because it’s going to take quite a bit of extra time to read through it and come up with ideas.
• 3. Give them a link to a stock photo website. Let them browse around a stock photo site for some photos that remind them of their location or their character. If you give them a link to a site you are a member of or have credits on and it will have the added bonus of allowing them to choose their own stock, saving you the time of having to look around for it yourself. Do let them know though that just because the choose a particular image it doesn’t mean that exact image will be used on their cover. There are a number of reasons for this, the photo they choose could be totally unsuitable for use on a cover, they could go off on their own and try using Google Images and the photo they send you could be copyrighted. It’s always best for them to understand up front that just because the pick a particular image does not mean it will be the one you go with.

Creative Block It’s happened to all of us at one time or another. You’ve done everything you’re supposed to, asked all the right questions, looked in all the right places and in the end, you’ve got nothing. Every idea you had and tried has turned out horrible (you think), and you are left staring at a blank canvas in Photoshop wondering what you are going to do. This could be the most frustrating issue of all. There’s no compromise, no work-around, there’s no quick-fix and no website you can go to. Or is there?

• 1. This is the one time where Google Images can come in handy. Take one word from your design idea or the book genre or a piece of symbolism the client wants incorporated into the cover, and do an image search. Usually when your search term is that vague, Google will give you recommendations at the top to narrow it down. Go through all of these until inspiration hits.
• 2. Thesaurus.com is an undiscovered goldmine. Again, take one word (that you know should have synonyms) and run a search. It will give you words that will correlate to your original design that might strike a chord in your imagination or lead you to other words or symbolism you may not have even thought of. From there if you still need a push you can take those words back to Google Images.
• 3. Amazon. Let’s be clear here, I am in no way telling you to copy someone else’s design, but running a search on the genre of book you are working on is a good way to find out what’s current, what’s selling and what other people are doing. From there you can usually find a good direction to go in to kick start your creativity again.
• 4. Power through. When all else fails and you are faced with a looming deadline, there’s no other alternative than to just power through. Grab some stock images that fit and throw them down in Photoshop. Move them around, manipulate them, throw some filters on, anything to break through that wall. Nothing says you have to stick with what you did but with a little luck it will send you off in the right direction. Even if you hate it at least you will know what you don’t want and that should help you figure out what you do want.

Cover design is rewarding, especially if it’s something you love doing. Don’t let the little day to day frustrations get you down. There is always a solution to any problem. If the frustration starts to drag at you too much, stand up and walk away for a while. Go outside, meditate, play with your dog, then come back with a clear head and work through your problem fresh. Read more at joshuajadon.com