Search

The Unseen Story, part 3--How my cover came to be

Amber Grosjean (author)
Sep 27
3 min read

Some authors create their own covers, some hire a designer to make them. Each of us have our own system in creating the cover for each book we write. It's a process that can take a while, from imagining what we want to the finished product, and everything (including what gets scrapped) in between. I've had some elements that came onto the cover that didn't quite make it to the finish line as do a lot of authors/designers.

For instance... When I first wrote Mother of the Dragons, I was still new with covers. I knew nothing about creating them and the first cover that was used came from Amazon's selection of covers. It was a golden egg. Nothing else on the cover. I thought it was okay, but I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know that I was supposed to check other books in my genre and I didn't know the cover had to match the genre. Those are 2 major things that a cover must represent. I hit a 0 on that.

The second cover was a cave that overlooked the ocean. Again, I didn't know what I was doing, but at least it was one that I made. I was proud of it. It was a little closer, than just the egg. The opening scene took place in a cave. Then I learned that you didn't need any of the scenes on the cover. I'm thinking, how are you supposed to show what the book is about without a scene from the book on the cover? I kept learning. I learned, that was the blurb's job: what the book is about. So, you pull in the reader by having a on-genre cover that makes the reader pick up the book, then they read the blurb on the back of the book. Okay, I'm thinking I can work with this. Insert laugh, because I still don't know what I'm doing at this point. I make another cover. A woman on the left half of the cover with dragons on the right, title on the lower half of the book. Okay, getting closer. Still not on genre. This book is romance with fantasy. You also need to appeal to your reading audience. So a romance for adults will be different than a romance for teens.

Another author who creates covers took me in during this process and showed me the basics. She's the one who told me covers need to reveal the genre. She told me to look at Amazon and see what made the top 100 list. Those are what I need to create for the book. My book should resemble those, not copy, but blend in, but still stand out enough that it grabs attention. Now I'm feeling nervous and I begin to watch videos on making covers. I've been practicing a lot. Once I learn something new, that is. I'm still learning.

Today's cover has a couple in the foreground, a castle in the background, and there's a dragon on the lower half of the cover.

I lost count for how many covers I went through before arriving at this cover. I think this one is the best one for this story. I may change it again, later down the road, but at least this says romance with fantasy.

My question for you is this....

What makes a book cover grab your attention?

Please answer below. Thank you!