Breaking cover (cont’d)

As long as we’re talking covers, I’m just wrapping up the final cover for Yesterday Road with illustrator Max Scratchmann. What a great experience it’s been from start to finish.

I had no idea how I was going to manage coming up with an effective cover affordably. Early on I read a lot of testimonials about how important a good image was, and my initial research suggested I would be dropping some bucks on this. The cost/benefit analysis for my book was getting skewed. But then, via Goodreads, I read about another author’s experience with an artist he found on Freelanced. I signed up and posted the job, listing it at $75 (since I already had a source image and really just needed typography), and within a couple of days I had over fifty applications. It was a simple matter after that of skimming the portfolios of those applicants who matched my criteria, and Max’s work jumped out at me. It was unique, humorous, quirky, and perfect for my novel.

Max and I exchanged a couple of emails setting up the time and cost parameters, and very quickly after I sent him the source image he came back with a draft that was nearly perfect. Per our discussion, he had added a human figure to the scene representing my main protagonist, Jack Peckham, and completely nailed the tone of the book. We then went back and forth a couple of times to get the type font right (and it’s a bitch coming up with something that looks good in an itty bitty thumbnail!), along with a small color change. Just this minute I’ve received (from Scotland!) the final high-resolution image that I’ll upload to KDP and Smashwords.

I’ll be revealing the cover closer to publication time, but for now I wanted to recommend Max as highly as possible, and Freelanced as a great source of talent for cover art if, like me, you’re a self-publisher with a tight budget.

I’ll be going back to Max for future projects. Go to his web site and enjoy his work.