It’s time for the most exciting part of the book creation process… the cover design reveal! This is one of my favourite parts about being an indie author, because I’m the one who has full say over the cover design. So often I hear stories of authors with traditional publishing houses who have almost no say in their covers – and often hate the finished design – and I also often see books in bookstores and find myself questioning if that is the best cover for that book. But being independent means I’m the one creating the brief, choosing my designer, and requesting changes to the cover. I get to have full control, which is a great thing (although it comes with a range of warnings I’ll talk about later!)

Before I start breaking down the cover design process for Eat Pray Shag, let’s start by taking a look at the beautiful finished design:

And the full jacket design for the print book:

Isn’t it stunning?! I’m so happy with how this has turned out, and it sits in so well with the cover design for Laura the Explorer. I literally cannot wait until I have them both sitting together on my bookshelf!

So! How did the cover design process work? Well finding a designer was the super easy part, because I hired Hazel Lam, the same amazing designer who created the cover design for Laura the Explorer (you can read about finding cover designers in Australia in my earlier blog post here.

Creating the cover for Eat Pray Shag was more challenging than the cover for Laura the Explorer, which fell into place instantly (read about that design process here). Initially, I thought it would be easier since there was already a style and theme precedent for this book, but actually this meant that the design was a bit restricted! After I sent the synopsis of the book to Hazel, she came back to me with these five options:

(Note: All of the below images are not final book covers. Images copyright iStock)

There were a couple of designs that I quite liked, but I realised they didn’t suit the book well enough. So I chose my favourite (option 2) and asked Hazel to remove the bicycle (since there weren’t any bikes in the book) and try to replace it with a yoga-type motif. She gave this a go, but it still wasn't really nailing the feel of the book for me:

After a lot of umming and arring, I asked Hazel if we could go back and try something completely different. She tried incorporating the yoga motif into some of the original designs, but then sent me a few other options that branched away from the Laura the Explorer theme a bit more, thinking that this restriction might be causing the problems. Here’s what she sent me:

Immediately I knew the last option was on the right track. The title felt so much more natural at the top rather than down the side, however I still preferred the green grass/ sky blue colours in some of the other designs, as they felt more ‘Bryon Bay’ to me. I also liked the outline of the girl character, however, I didn’t like her clothing nor did her hair colour feel like Laura for me. So I asked Hazel to change the hair and outfit on the yoga girl, as well as change the clouds below her to the green grass. I also requested her hands be more like the meditating hands that was on the other figure (an attempt which took a couple of goes to get right – hands are hard!)

And there we have it! There were so many more rounds of changes with this design, but Hazel was such a super star in making sure we got the cover exactly right. Of course, once the front cover was completed and approved, the next step was to create the back cover, but Hazel nailed this straight away and there was no need for any changes to that.

So! This has been my experience as an indie author working with a superstar cover designer, but for anyone looking to hire their own designer there are some important things to remember. Here’s my tips for making sure you hire the right person, and getting a cover design that will be brilliant AND fit in with your genre properly:

1. Who you hire is the most crucial decision. Make sure you like the covers that designer has created in the past, and also ensure they regularly create covers for your genre.
2. If the designer regularly works with the big publishing houses, this is a great sign. Though, again, ensure they create covers in your genre. (Just because they’ve designed a beautiful cook book, doesn’t mean they will be able to create a fantastic romance cover!)
3. Make sure the number of revisions etc has been agreed upon up front. Many cover design agencies will do a max of three revisions, and this is reflected in their pricing. Other designers (like mine) don’t have set rules, but are more focused on making sure their client is happy. Again, this will impact the price.
4. Go with your gut instinct. As someone who has worked in digital design before, I know that the best designs are ones that need minimal tweaking, and work cohesively from the start.
5. Give your designer creative freedom. While it might seem like a good idea to be really specific (There needs to be a dog, a convertible car, a wedding cake AND a full moon all on the cover), this usually results in bad cover designs, or ones that have random dogs peeking out from behind a rock. Sometimes giving less direction to a designer is better, as it lets them come up with something brilliant. The cover, after all, is a selling tool. It needs to set the mood for the book, not translate half the plotline into an image. So trust your designer, and hopefully you’ll end up with covers as beautiful as I have!