A little about a newbie cover artist

Hi everyone! This is my first invite to be a guest blogger. I feel special! Thank you all for letting me participate.

My work as a cover artist started back in July of 2008. Well, sort of before that. I'd been reading e-books since October of 2007. I was fascinated by the covers on them and wondered who these talented people were. I also thought that with my 15+ years of graphic design/desktop publishing experience, I might be able to come up with something.

Around June/July of 2008, after making some signature banners for some authors, I decided to make up some covers (just for practice). After I had enough confidence to try this, one author asked me to do a cover for a free read she was having on her web site (Anne Rainey). I did that cover for her and felt confident enough to offer up my services to other publishers. I think I sent out 50 requests and almost all of them rejected me. But Amira Press was interested and gave me a shot (after some begging…er… negotiating on my part). From then on, I was able to use that cover and Anne's as a starting point to get more covers.

My friend, Jambrea, was contracted with Freya's Bower by this time, so I followed her over there and sent in a request. They accepted me! My other author friend, Jess Dee, pointed me to Aspen Mountain who was actively looking for cover artists. I sent in my request and they accepted me! Word of mouth has gotten me a long way in a relatively short time in the cover art business. I would not be in this position if it wasn't for Jambrea, Anne and Jess who really encouraged me. Anne also suggested I get an online portfolio started. For which I am eternally grateful.

The technical aspects of making a cover are simple - layout the pictures, put in the fonts and decide on colors. Easy, right? In theory it is. But without having a photography studio and cover models at my beck and call, I rely on online photo sites. I can then take those images that the author likes and attempt to get it to resemble their vision of a cover. Some are harder than others - a blue flaming falcon - for example, but others are relatively easy, like the one I did for Mari Carr. I'm a newbie to this business compared to some wonderful cover artists out there, but I've enjoyed it and I hope to be in the business for a long time.


Thank you all for letting me ramble on!

Valerie
vtibbs.wordpress.com