The Book or the Cover

Most of you have probably heard the cliches "Which came first, the chicken or the egg" and "Don't put the cart before the horse." Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't put the cover before the book, although every traditional publisher I know designs the cover after the book's final draft, except for perhaps a few editorial changes. 

My first four books were published by a traditional publisher. The graphic designer who did the covers was wonderful to work with and did a great job. However, she often had trouble finding images that matched the descriptions in the book. I actually came up with cover photo for Uprooted by War and the top, small rural scene, on Transplanted to Red Clay, the last two books in the series because Hannah wasn't finding anything close.

When I went with the small, independent, print-on-demand publisher, I hired a graphic designer and ended up doing most of the cover for her. I have a background in the arts, so I decided to just design my own covers. It didn't take me long to start creating the covers around the time I started writing the first draft. That way, I can easily fit my descriptions in the book to the images on the front cover. As a reader, I always hate it when they don't go together, and I wonder why more indie authors or publishers don't do this.

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