How to Find a Good Cover Artist for Your Book

Categorized | Bobby Ozuna, self-publishing

Tags | cover artists, self publishing authors

How to Find a Good Cover Artist for Your Book

Posted on 31 January 2008 by Bobby Ozuna

Can’t afford a good cover artist for your latest book project? Try the oldest method known to man(kind)…just ask for one.

The cover design to a book can sometimes be as important as the very content that falls between Once Upon a Time and The End. You know as well as I that many times when you are out shopping for a book but aren’t sure what you want but still very aware that you want something new, something catchy and something moving—oftentimes we browse the aisles until we see something jump out and catch our attention. I do it all the time. I know I am all caught up with my previous stack of books but yet, something inside me yearns for something new, something different; it’s like my soul is seeking out another world to meet characters I don’t quite understand in places I haven’t seen and the one thing I am relying on to suck me in and take me there is the cover of the book.

So what do I do? I walk—the aisles not the lines—until I see something I want to touch, something worth pulling off the shelf and something worth opening. It’s true; it’s not fair to the authors who labored and sweat to create a story simply to be passed or accepted based on the work of someone else, but that’s the way it is. And being self-published, oftentimes we don’t have the luxury of sifting through cover proposals from potential artists (or graphic artists). We pay a photographer for the rights to their work, in hopes that we are one of few who also obtained the rights or we beg a friend or family member—the one more savvy with a digital camera than we are—to take that special picture and upload it (of course) in a high-resolution format. If we fall short on those first few attempts we end up trying to conjure up a design of our own and when the work is done the only thing apparent is that we did indeed self-publish our own title.

So what are we to do? Get back to the basics of human communication and network, collaborate and finally—ask for help. I did and it worked.

The cover artist to my self-released title, Proud Souls, is a wonderful artist by the name of Maria Sanchez of SandiaFria.com. I went into my project with a pretty sound understanding of what I wanted to see on the cover to my book, but I had no clue as to how I would get there. I did the standard search for images on the web—the pay sites—the ones that could (almost) guarantee I would have exclusive rights to the image and wouldn’t have to worry about stumbling across another book or magazine with that same image in the future. I found a few images similar to my own but still I couldn’t get past the idea of having an image that wasn’t unique. See, as independently published authors we MUST approach every detail to our book projects with the attitude that we are unique in our efforts, despite being “just another self-released artist.” After about a week of researching countless pictures on the Internet, I stumbled across a series of images within the SandiaFria.com website right about the time I was ready to throw my hands in the air and quit.

I was working with a friend at the time on web-content and I was in the midst of pleading with him to help design the cover, once the final image was selected. I took a chance and used the contact option on Maria’s website and queried her in the same professional manner as I have every potential associate or collaborator for my book project. The result was shocking but proof that if you use a few old-fashioned business tactics of open and sincere communication, the possibilities of making a new business partner are endless.

It was less than a day later and Maria and I were talking on the phone, she in California with me in Texas. I remember being very excited and nervous at the same time. I told her my vision for my book project and sent her a 3-chapter sample of my novel. Within days she read the work, understood my vision and created what we have come to call: The Proud Souls Tree.

The fact that Maria and I have become such good friends is not at all a surprise to me, because I have always been fond of the hand-shake and face-to-face meetings—even in the fast-paced information age. The concept for my sales pitch was simple: I need a cover artist to stop that inquisitive reader in their tracks as they pan the aisles of their favorite bookstore, and I couldn’t afford to hire one. Maria was open enough to understand and appreciate the sincerity and power behind good networking. Every person who buys my book or simply comes within contact of my book’s cover is also coming in contact with a part of Maria Sanchez and her mission to share her art with the world, in the same manner as I am trying to perform with my writing.

So get out there and toss aside those savvy how-to books aside every now and then and look yourself in the mirror and say, if I were on the receiving end of this particular call, or email or letter, how would I wish to be approached and how would I wish to be treated. The trade-off for Maria and I? She asked for 3 complimentary copies of my book and I noted her name on the copyright page and the back cover to my novel and it all began with a simple letter and request to put her work on the front of my debut novel. Let's not forget the hidden moral: Who knows what I would have conjured up had she said no?

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3 Comments For This Post

Michael Callaway Says:
January 31st, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I like the idea of just asking. I have been able to do that with friends and family. People always want to be part of something big, the key is to give them a small specific task.
Ashleigh Says:
January 31st, 2008 at 9:39 pm
When I think of cover art, I always think of the two separate covers that were published for the Harry Potter novels. (1) The more wide-spread children’s book cover and (2) the lesser known “adult” cover, which made the book look like just another novel. Who knows if Rowling would have sold as many copies as she did if she hadn’t had the forethought to realize that some adults would be embarrassed to be seen engrossed in a book of children’s fiction?
Daniel Dessinger Says:
January 31st, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Great story! I like the fact that you approached someone with practically nothing to offer except an opportunity to showcase her talent in another venue. And I love the Proud Souls tree, for the record.

I have a book series locked somewhere inside of me that I’ve yet to tackle (I’ve written 20 pages of notes). And I have an old friend who I hope will one day draw and ink the illustrations for those books. We were extremely close friends for more than five years and then life took us in different directions.

Despite the fact that he lives in Boston now, I fully plan on approaching him some day, handing him a manuscript and descriptions of scenes, and asking him to create the cover art and a few illustrations for the book.

These are golden opportunities to encourage and promote the artists within your circle. I’m not wealthy, but I picture myself as a patron of the arts, if not a pimp. I want to challenge and encourage the artists I know into attempting greatness, and I want the satisfaction of knowing I played a part in bringing quality art into the world.

Now, if I could only write that book…