Book Cover Art

One day out of boredom I slapped together a book cover for my book that's nowhere near finished. Certain aspects of the publishing process weigh on me, and while I still have miles to go on this current story, I wondered if having a cover would be an inspiration.

In hindsight, the cover I chose was awful. I do like Canva a lot, but I've discovered that keywords are everything when searching for the right photo. And knowing which keyword are right is often just dumb luck. I often have a general idea in mind for what I want to convey, but my brain doesn't necessarily know what it wants. Initially I wanted to depict a woman doing physical work, since my MC is renovating an old motel. My Canva search returned a lot of female construction workers (for some reason ~ because they're so prevalent in real life?), but that wasn't what I wanted at all. My MC's not building a high-rise or paving a road. I finally went with a woman standing beside a ladder and wearing a tool belt. I wanted the book's title to be in "paint-dripping" letters above her, but naturally there wasn't a font like that. 

Then I considered my potential readers. Would this cover be enticing? I thought not. Fiction readers want a fantasy, not day-to-day drudge work. We all get enough of that in real life. The tool belt had to go. Since my title contains the word "dream", I decided the cover should reflect that. First I searched for "woman in profile", then tried "woman dreaming"; even "woman looking up" (as if she's daydreaming). I finally got a few potential hits. 

My one iron-clad rule is that a women's fiction novel needs to show a woman on the cover. Sure, I could go with something abstract ~ that would actually be my personal preference ~ but from a marketing perspective that's just self-indulgent and defeating.

In the end, my (so far) cover decision is a complete departure from the original. I'm feeling good about it. I do wish Canva's font choices (of which there are many) included the ones I picture in my head, but apparently Canva's not into mind reading. I went with one that sort of works.

And, as always, I found a much better image for one of my previously published novellas. Obviously, I hadn't chosen the right keywords at the time. So, one more cover update for me! If I ever become known for anything, it'll be, "Oh, you're the author who changes her covers all the time!" Yep, that's me. I won't even bother asking Goodreads to add my new cover, because then I'll have an extra version of my book on the site and that's all just dumb and confusing. 

Even though my current story has miles to go, my cover confusion is at least resolved.