I’ve heard this said about actors and writers, and all kinds of people. Often they are household names you just assume were famous from day one. I think it took author Ann Cleeves 25 years before she got her break. A friend said she heard as much on an interview. Pedro Pascal, a favourite actor of mine, spent about two decades with bit parts until today where it feels like he’s everywhere! I think he should be everywhere. Fabulous actor!
Anyway, case in point, without being famous or fabulous, I have been at this game for a while now. I recently refreshed my cover for The Ice Star, my first book to gain some traction. It was published on January 26, 2017, but I was working on it four years before that. So, the first cover (bottom right-hand corner) is from 2013 when the project was called The Brightest Star. Pretty sure I found the original photo on the Internet and fiddled with it. Never published. Just used for reference and motivation. The character of Fenna was also a man called Ravn for quite a few years, as can be read in the text on the covers. Fenna was Ravn’s girlfriend, waiting for his return. Cue eye roll!
From the right, the next two covers are personal photos from a Sirius patrolman who I interviewed for research. He said I could use the photos for covers. I did use one for a book club edition of The Ice Star.
The next cover with the date “2014 December” at the bottom is the first cover with one of my photos on it. followed by the one to the left with the bullet letter “I”. I was so proud of myself for making that bullet, from scratch, with shapes in Photoshop. 🙂
I used that same photo – taken from outside our house in Qaanaaq, for the first cover of The Ice Star when I… finally… published it.
Regardless of the classic “photo with text on top” style of my covers, the other thing that is classic newbie stuff is the tiny author name. Can’t build a brand with a tiny name, especially not when most people see only thumbnails as they scroll past the covers online. So, a couple of years later, and with a photo from Unsplash (a royalty free image resource, also used by traditional publishers – even for some of my books), I went big with my author name.
Fonts have been tricky, too. Before I published, I didn’t realise there was copyright attached to fonts. When I did discover, I then searched for creative commons fonts, until I started to buy fonts for use, embedded on covers.
Then, in 2022, I discovered 3D art.
This is where some readers sigh and perhaps wish I hadn’t, but damn it’s fun! 🙂
I really thought I had created “the” cover for The Ice Star with this one, top line, second from left, yellow author name. But no matter how much I liked this cover, the covers for books two and three just never seemed to work. So… you guessed it, I had another go.
Hopeless.
Yes, absolutely, but so much fun!
Believe it or not, I am content with the current cover for The Ice Star.
It’s only taken me 10 years!
Chris
Congrats!!! The new cover is AMAZING and the book itself is really good. What a journey!… Totally worthy it 😄 (I’m glad Fenna went from “waiting for the boyfriend to return” to “first woman ever to work with the Sirius Patrol”)
Making Fenna the star of The Ice Star was the smartest thing I did! 🙂
What a wonderful and creative journey it’s been! Lucky readers who have joined you along the way!
Thanks, Isabella! Of course, you had a hand in it, too! 😉
What a neat little gallery of your progress in cover design . . and a nice trip down memory lane!! I think when I first purchased and read the ICE STAR trilogy it had the cover with the ship next to the iceberg and immediately caught my attention! I’ve been along for the ride ever since!
I do like the cover with the ship, but I’m getting cautious in my later years. It was free to use at the time with a comprehensive royalty free licence. But I get a little wary about such things. 🙂