Every Book has its Cover

Novels by Wade Wright

Look at the four book covers on the left. What immediately comes to mind? If you said, Detective Novel, you’d be correct. These books were written in the late 60’s by a friend of my parents, Wade Wright. I remember looking at the covers as a kid and being intrigued. The woman in the mask really creeped me out back then. Even now I still find the cover strangely unsettling. I don’t read detective novels but if I did, I’d almost certainly pick that one.

This brings me to my first novel, HERA’S CURSE. Right up until the moment I finished the final draft, I’d never given the cover much thought. In fact, I’d never given any book cover much thought. To say this was a bit of an oversight is an understatement. Any number of websites or YouTube videos will expound the many advantages of a well-designed book cover, be it attracting readers, conveying professionalism, or evoking an emotional response. As much as I’m loathe do admit, it turns out we really do judge a book by its cover.

It turns out there are various options available to every author looking for a suitable cover. One could either use software to self-design, pick a ready-made cover from a website, or have a unique cover designed for your book by a graphic artist. Ready-made covers are probably the easiest option with prices ranging from around $40 to $400 depending on the look one wishes to achieve. The main issue is that many of these covers are generic, using variations on a theme. I wanted something a little more unique for my first novel so decided on using a graphic designer. This can prove to be an expensive exercise, but after a little searching on the web I discovered a designer at a reasonable rate – Alexander von Ness from NESSGRAPHICA (https://www.nessgraphica.com/).

After the usual introductory e-mails, Alexander got to work based on the story outline I provided him and soon submitted a number of options. Although some covers were certainly eye catching, I felt these did not accurately convey the story of HERA’S CURSE. One, however, caught my eye. It gave me this mental image of Faith standing in the rain – alone and afraid. I used an AI art generator (PIXART-a) to create an image to see if a more literal version would work better. In my opinion it did not. The version submitted by Alexander was more surreal and had an edgy menace. I contacted him and after a little refining the cover for HERA’S CURSE was created.

Faith in the rain