On this day …

On this day, six years ago, I self published The Ice Star. I’ve talked about the process of the writing the book in several posts and on the page I’ve linked to. But today I’m interested in the evolution of the cover – from right to left, with the newest on the left.

Covers are tricky things. I’m still getting the hang of them. While some of my covers are better than others – all subjective and personal, of course – I like that I have control over them. I’ve flirted with traditional publishing with seven books and I have zero control or any real influence over them. It’s another fallacy and myth associated with publishing. The author is always the last to know, and in my experience, I was asked to give feedback on the cover a few hours before one of the books went to print. No contact for 18 months, followed by, we need your feedback in the next two hours, but we’re going ahead anyway.

Yep, I’m done flirting with traditional. 😉

So I’ll continue to make reasonable covers followed by better covers with a step back and forth in between. But I’m learning and having fun and I can change the covers tomorrow if I want to.

Control freak, much?

Absolutely.

So, the covers… Far right is not actually the very first cover, but the photo was taken on the same day outside my front door in Qaanaaq. Cover two is a royalty-free image of a ship I might have seen, but not quite the ship I wanted. Cover three is made with 3D assets and is basically Fenna running on the ice with a gun.

I’m just learning that the composition of a cover is actually protected under copyright. My 3D art is protected under copyright as I put it together, and my photo from Qaanaaq obviously belongs to me. While the royalty-free photo is free and legal to use under license, I rather like the idea of everything belonging to me, so I’m gradually making the shift to covers that I design with assets I own from the ground up.

Curiously, one of my traditionally published book covers also uses royalty-free images from the same website I have used. How do I know? Because I’ve used the same image, too. 😉

Oh, and the fonts? Also protected, so I make sure I buy mine with a license to use them. I’m not quite ready to make my own fonts. Phew… the very thought. (Insert swoon.)

So, six years down the road, I’m getting to grips with my covers.

And after six years, Fenna is still doing what she does best.

Chris