Book covers are hugely important in the success of a book,
and I really enjoy working on my indie pubbed titles with a brilliant
designer. Like many authors, we use
images from image libraries such as i-stockphoto.com.
Of course, there are drawbacks to this.
1.
If can be very time consuming scouring images to
find exactly what you want
2.
It isn’t always possible to find exactly what
you want
3.
When you do, it might be too expensive for your
budget
4.
When you do, you might find that image has been
used before – and unless you do a Google image search, you won’t know
where. For instance, the first image I
used for a book cover, I discovered, the day after publication, that another
author has used the same image. Although
we had modified ours, it was still instantly recognisable.
So I decided to stretch my budget and commission an
illustrator to produce an image that is exactly what I want, completely distinctive
and unique. Via Facebook, I accidentally came across a wonderful artist called
Sarah who specialises in drawing and painting animals. Having seen some stunning horse portraits, I
got in touch last year and recently we met, talked and she has agreed to
produce the image for one of my forthcoming titles, The Perfect Horse. It was important
that the horse in question be breathtakingly beautiful – perfect, in fact, -
since although the story is a thrilling pony book aimed at children and
teenagers, there is a twist, and it involves genetic engineering…….
Sarah charts her progress on her Facebook page so that
readers can see how the illustration work is evolving, which is a great idea. I
can’t wait to see the finished result. Watch this space!
