JOURNAL OF A DEBUT AUTHOR - CHAPTER NINE: Do authors get to choose their own book covers?

​This is the post I've been most excited about writing in this series, because I have lots of cool behind the scenes drafts and stuff to share!

To start with, my question was - Do authors get to choose their own book covers?

The answer to that is no.
Mostly.
Usually.

Authors don't usually get a lot of input at all into stuff like that. And that of course makes sense, because it is really a marketing decision, and therefore is managed by professionals in that field. 

However, I am very excited to say my story is a little different.​

So way back at the beginning of the publication process, I received a little author's kit, which was basically a document outlining what I would need to provide the publisher (for instance, an author bio, an author photo etc.).
But within that kit, there was a paragraph saying that if I had any images I wanted to provide for the book cover, then I could forward them.

Obviously it is then up to the publisher whether they use the image or not, but I, like every other author out there aspiring to be published, had been dreaming of what kind of book cover I wanted since forever, so I thought I'd give it a try.



Creating an Illustration for my Book Cover.
(or rather... asking my dad to create one!)

So I researched a little on Pinterest the kinds of covers that I liked most, which pretty much turned out to be mostly covers with illustrations on them. You can see the inspiration collection that I put together HERE of the covers I found most inspiring (the newer pictures I've saved into there aren't so much of this style, but if you go back to the older ones you'll see what I mean.... LOT'S of illustrations!). 

So my dad happens to be an amazing artist (lucky me - photographer uncle and artist dad!) so I collected a bunch of illustrations that I liked the look of, and that seemed to fit the vibe of my debut, (another Pinterest collection you can see HERE) and I showed them to my dad. 

And he did a bunch of little paintings for me, shown as follows:

And then he came out with the one below, which I just ADORED!!!!!!!!

So if you'd like to check out the artist's work, his name is Rory Brockman-Tanham and his website is linked HERE, and he is also on Instagram as @​rorybt_art so you can follow him if you'd like! :)

So I sent the Illustration I wanted to Wakefield Press.

To be honest, I really wasn't sure that anything would come from it, but I really loved the picture so I was hoping they'd like it too.
And lucky for me, they did!

The feedback was that they'd showed it around the office and all felt it could work, but would be sending it to their designer and she would obviously be getting the last word, being the professional in that field. 



Four Draft Cover Designs!

So after that it was a waiting game for me. A bunch of time later I got sent four different drafts their designer had been working on, which I have popped below. The designer's name is Liz Nicholson, and I think she has done such an absolutely incredible job!

When Wakefield Press sent these options through, they said that everyone in the office was behind the pink option, and asked if I agreed.

Again, luckily for me, I did!
I thought it was such a nice bright option, and was very striking and eye-catching! (but they are all pretty cute I think!)

​I love seeing the drafts side by side, and just love how happy I am with the choices that the designer and Wakefield Press made. And I love that it was okay to use the illustration my dad did, which I just adore!

So I really think the final cover is very very pretty!

You will see the final version didn't change too much from the original pink draft, (final cover shown below). They just cleaned it up a little, sharpened it  and they also changed my name to yellow.

​And I love it!
​

And I guess that is it!

More designing was done on the inside of the book after this, which the designer also got involved in, and now the inside looks really beautiful, with lots of small fun details which are lovely!

There is actually also this little illustration inside the book, called a 'dinkus' in the publishing world (which is that little tiny picture sometimes used as scene or paragraph breaks) and in the final version, that tiny little picture of a notebook was actually sketched by my husband! So that was very fun! 

So keep an eye out for that cute detail if you read the book!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and seeing the cover drafts and behind the scenes!
​Let me know what you think! I'd love to hear from you!