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I found out pretty quickly that googling "YA book cover designer" leads to expensive design services whose expertise is topping google's page rank with search engine optimization, not book cover design. I knew I needed a new cover, and I was willing to pay for it, I just didn't know where to look.
My first cover had sci-fi written all over it. It was attracting the wrong crowd. Readers who wanted sci-fi were clicking on my book in Amazon, reading my description, and deciding it wasn't sci-fi enough--while my target audience was seeing my cover in Amazon, deciding it was too sci-fi, then not clicking on my book.
How I found Eden Crane Design
I went on Amazon and typed in a bunch of keywords I assumed people would use to search for books like mine. I wanted to get a sense of the different kinds of covers out there and see if I could track down any of their designers. I probably looked at two hundred covers and picked about ten or twenty I loved. Then I used Amazon's Look Inside feature to see if a cover designer was listed on the copyright page. Often, they were:)
When I googled these specific designers, I found prices ranged from about $20 (for a pre-made cover where you just plug in your title and name) to over $1000 for high-end design packages. I ended up picking Eden Crane of Eden Crane Design, because not only had she designed one of my favorite covers, but every single cover on her website was amazing. So I knew mine would be too:) She was also very affordable.
Designing the cover
I'd always wanted a to feature a woman's backside with a fresh scar tattoo dripping blood (you'll just have to read the book to find out why:) and Eden liked the idea too, so we went ahead with it. When it comes to covers, I believe the stock photo is the most important part. I sent Eden a half dozen stock photos I thought would be good for the cover, and she sent me back this girl. At that moment, I knew Eden was the perfect cover designer for Entanglement.
Eden designed the tattoo and pretty much nailed the cover in her first mockup. We went back and forth a few times on the location of the title, but we were just dotting the i's at that point. I've since had Eden design headers for my blog and social network pages, and would recommend her to anyone who wants a general audience YA cover with fantasy or sci-fi elements.
Thanks for reading! To celebrate my new cover, I'm raffling off an eCopy of Entanglement!
Dan Rix
a Rafflecopter giveaway
