If you’ve checked out my About Me page, you’ll see that I mentioned that I work for a living and that I work in the most dreaded of industries, retail!
Now, this isn’t a cry for help, far from it, I’m one of those rare freaks in the world that actually enjoys working in retail! (Stop looking at me like that, I’m serious!) I actually enjoy the daily life of just helping people. I love that might get to help someone find that special item they are looking for, or maybe even find something they didn’t know they wanted, I get a real buzz from that. Equally, I’m lucky to work for a business that sells things I actually like, such as toys, games, arts craft and, most importantly, books!
We’re no major book retailer, not Waterstones or Barnes and Noble, we are a value retailer, so we get a bit of a variety of books in store. Naturally, this means I spend a lot of my time looking at the stock we get (It’s such a hardship, really! 😉 )
Interestingly, I’ve noticed something since we re-opened after Lockdown 3.0 ended. Since I started this site and decided to actually make a go of actually finishing my own book and getting it published, I’m, now looking at the books at work in a very different way to normal, especially the covers.
As I’ve been doing long-term planning in my head about my own work, I’ve also been thinking about what I want on the cover. I’m aiming this book at a certain age range, so I need to be conscious of that, and I have been making plans for what I want. This has lead me to look at the covers of the kids books we have in at work and it’s leading me towards the sort of thing I want.
Problem is, I have no idea where to get it! I mean, I’m creative, but I am a long way from being an artist who can design his own book cover. In fact my art skills are decidedly…..lacking. I’d go as far as say I’m rubbish!
So, what to do! I mean, were does one even look for stuff like this? Well, where else but Google!
One quick Google Search later and I’m swamped!
SO. MANY. LINKS!!
There’s a MASSIVE amount of people out there who do book covers, everything ranging from five pounds to hundreds! Some of them have sites full of images, lots of which are amazing, a lot of them are…..not. Boy, do I have a lot of research to do!
So far, after a quick look around, one place that seems to stand out is a site called Fiverr. I’ve seen this mentioned elsewhere as a place to look for things like Editors and Beta Readers, often by respectable authors as well, so it has that in its favour.
Still, it’s a scary place on the internet and the last thing I need is to be fooled by a scammer! Like I say, lots of research.
For now, I’ve got a basic idea of what I want my cover to be, if this ever comes to fruition. I want to make sure I get a good cover, something that looks amazing and fits the style and theme of my own work. Last thing I want is to end up on one of those sites that show awful book covers (and believe me, there are some truly awful ones out there!)
I guess this yet another wormhole to head down. Who knew there would be so much more to this than just writing a book!
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