Designing a Cover

Although I've worked with a different editor on each of my two books, I've had the same graphic designer, and I really like her. I appreciate her flexibility and her eagerness to get things right. She wants to satisfy the author and the readers. I have a little bit of an art background - perhaps just enough to be dangerous. At least I've dabbled in many forms of arts and crafts. I usually envision what I want and look to the expert to guide the design.

On the first book, Cleared for Planting, the initial cover design didn't look anything like what I'd imagined. I had not pictured Emma in Cherokee dress on the front. I was so surprised that I didn't like it at first. The mountains at the top was what I'd thought would look good but not Emma. However, the more I considered it, the more I liked it. It did go with the book, since Emma had been captured by the Cherokee and lived with them for several months. It also stood out as different than most other novels at the time, and that could be good for sales. And, it was attractive. Hannah was willing to do another design and said she had other ideas, but I told her I'd decided to go with this one. I had grown to love it. As it turned out, this was a good decision.

With Sown in Dark Soil, Hannah sent two possible drafts. One showed Ivy, the older Morgan sister, and the other showed Leah, the younger one. I didn't like either. Ivy looked at least in her thirties, and she was nineteen in the book. With fair skin and braided hair worn in a Scandinavian style, Leah didn't look anything like she was described in the novel, and I'd seen this picture used on other book covers. Hannah agreed to work on another and sent me several stock photos to consider. I narrow it down to two possible choices right away. One showed two young women sitting on a sofa. With a little editing, they could look like Leah and Ivy. The other showed a woman standing in front of a field, and this could very much be Leah. I favored the last one but asked four other family members what they thought. They all separately agreed that the second one was the best. Hannah then inserted mountains in the background and worked up the cover you see here. There's a scene in the book, where Luke shows Leah the mountain farm, that this goes with so well. I love it! I hope you will, too. 

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