Picking a Cover Designer

I met Priya Kanaparti on Facebook. I have been finding some great new friends there which is very exciting! 

Priya will be releasing her first novel, Dracian Legacy, in January of 2013. I've asked her to tell us a bit about how she came up with the cover of her design, which is yet to be unveiled!




Being an author, there is a certain type of branding that goes along with it. No, I’m not talking about branding that involves any kind of physical pain. But the kind of branding that connects you as the author to your work.

My process for branding started with choosing a designer that worked well with my personality and the kind of brand I wanted to create for myself.

I started by studying the work of designers that created some of the book covers that had drawn me in. I contacted three of my top choice designers. During the following conversations I had discussed in depth regarding their design process, the time frame, and what I can expect as my final outcome with each designer.

Once my designer (the amazing Regina Wamba of MaeIDesign) had been selected, the process started with talking through the plot to my story and character personalities and development. This process was the key to help my designer understand my character to create the branding that I wanted for my book.

Of course, since I’m as creative as a celery stick when painting the visual picture, I completely depended on my designer to provide me with the visual for my book cover. 

From there, my designer and I worked together changing and molding the designs, the font styles, and the colors to find what fit best for me, the story, and my characters. After nine different takes, we finally found one design that worked.  

At that point, with a few more revisions, I knew I LOVED what we had come up with.

It was love at ninth sight, so to speak.

This process was so much fun and I know the only reason was because I worked with Regina.

And now, I would like to take the time to thank Laura  for giving me the opportunity to take over her blog for a day and provide my two cents and experience with finding my  designer and the process involved with finishing a cover design for my book.

How did your design process go for you? Did you hire a professional, or take the job on yourself?