Evolution of Duly Noted's cover

From WTH to Yes! Nailed It. 

I was going through my older pictures when I stumbled across the original mock ups for Duly Noted. It still makes me gasp in horror. 
Based on a recommendation from another author, I contacted her Fiverr book cover designer (who I just checked is no longer listed - at least not under that name.). I told him/her what I was looking for and waited for the mock up to come back. This was the first! 




I can hear you gasping! I know I was mortified. Where were these amazing covers that they posted for other authors and why was I getting something that looked like my kid whipped it together (and FTR my kid can do much better work than this!). I told them no way, and gave more information, what the story was about, the theme, the genre, links to book covers covering similar topics, everything I thought they'd needed. 
This was the second (and final) mock up. And there are errors throughout. Sigh. 





It's a huge improvement but still way beyond the other stunning covers posted on his/her Fiverr page (which I wonder if he/she didn't lift them from somewhere else). After going back and forth and tweaking little things here and there, I just knew I wasn't going to get a proper looking cover. Would you even stop to read the blurb on this? Nope! 

Good thing I had a couple of months until the book released. I had time to find something better.

Not sure what else to do, I chatted with another author about who did her covers and she steered me towards a "pre-made" cover - where the designer will make a few tweaks to name/blurb and basic font and colours but otherwise the cover is done with the models/photos/etc . I could peruse their albums and search through the folders, gazing upon gorgeous cover after cover. It cost me nothing to see the premades.   

Finding a group that I felt my book belonged in (she mainly does romance covers and it shows), I contacted ZH Designs with my request & deposit -selecting one of her premades, requesting that the colour on the hair be changed. Because it couldn't be, she offered to give me a 'custom' cover for the cost of the premade. Woohoo! I gave her all the information she requested and waited with bated breath. Within a very short time, I was presented with two concepts and a difficult choice. Which to choose? 


concept 1


concept 2

Bam! Finally, something that looks like a romance cover, something that could actually be a real book cover. I was super excited about these mock ups. After some back and forth with the designer, we tweaked one of the concepts. Based on the book information I gave her, she researched PTSD and found out their ribbon colour is the blue shown. Wow. Talk about going above and beyond. 




This was the final cover, and I am completely in love with it. It captures Aurora and Nate perfectly as her PTSD stemmed from a car crash (thus them sitting on the road) and she had little bits of shattered glass over top and it fit within the romance genre perfectly. Well done.


Amazing eh? Yes, she was more expensive than the Fiverr designer, but really, really worth it! The Fiverr was in the ballpark of $30+ and ZH Designs was $100+. 

What designer do you use? Did you fall in love with your cover right off the bat, or did it go through some major work? Share with me.

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