Creating the Cover for Beyond the Paladin Door

Books are judged by their covers, and while a book with an unappealing cover can sell well, that’s the exception, not the rule.

I Can Do This Myself

When I first published Beyond the Paladin Door, my main concern was getting the novella out into the world. I had minimal marketing plans, no sequel written, and a self-created cover.

The key as a central feature and the corner decorations were all that remained to the final product.

This poor thing looks like it was handmade in Canva in less than an hour. In reality, this took me many hours. More than I’m willing to admit. Being an author forces you to learn new truths about yourself.; I had to learn the hard way that although I am a visual person, I’m not great at creating in a visual medium. As far as I know, this is still the cover for Beyond the Paladin Door on Goodreads. I’ve put in a request to have it changed, but that was about three months ago, so…moving on.

I Can Probably Do This Better

After a month or so with this as the cover, I realized I needed something that looked more professional—but I wasn’t willing to pay for a professional. I was still being stubborn, still feeling guilty about spending any money on my dream. I had spent money for a professional editor (Hilary Doda on Reedsy, who is amazing) but I wasn’t ready to spend on a cover designer.

So, I spent many more hours on Canva and created another cover.

I won’t lie and say I don’t love the idea behind this. I’m still impressed with my shadow work, even though the cover itself doesn’t really work.

Around the time I made this cover, I was also floundering with trying to figure out my genre. I had thought that modern day + vampires/shifters = urban fantasy, so I leaned heavier in that direction. Not that the cover fits with most of what’s in the urban fantasy market in terms of covers. For more info about what constitutes urban fantasy, check out this post by Jericho Writers. My novella series fits into a slightly (but noticeably) different sub-genre, so focusing on the grittier elements in the cover would give the reader a misleading idea of what to expect.

I Think I Need A Professional

After another month or so of this cover, I finally broke and admitted I wasn’t actually good at making covers. Nor was I willing to put in the substantial amount of time to learn, given that I’m just not an aesthetic person.

Since I had great luck with my editor on Reedsy, I turned back to that site for a cover designer. There are a dozen-and-a-half other places you could find a cover designer, from Fiverr to a friend to a putting a call into the social media void. I like Reedsy because you have the support of the company behind you, in case the professional you’re working with isn’t as scrupulous as you might have hoped.

Finding a designer took a few rounds. I had thought my time table of three months was generous. I hadn’t realized that designers can easily be booked out for six months or more. My budget was also lower than what many of the designers were asking. This likely had to do with Reedsy itself, which often pulls its creators from industry professionals who charge a higher rate. If I had chosen to find a designer elsewhere or bought a pre-made cover, budget probably wouldn’t have been such a restriction.

But, finally, I found a designer whose work I liked, was in my budget, and could easily meet my schedule: Hampton Lamoureux.

Creating A Custom Cover

Getting to the final cover design didn’t actually take long. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted:

• key as a central feature

• indications that we’re in a town near the water

• no people

I was still under the impression at the time that I was writing an urban fantasy (I’m actually writing contemporary fantasy, which is a larger grouping that contains UF and some other genres; kind of like how a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn’t a square). However, I had a decent enough understanding to not go the typical urban fantasy route of featuring the main character on the cover. The Transmutown stories don’t have a main character; they have an ensemble cast.

Hampton took the elements I was looking for and created these two options:

If you’ve seen the final cover already, you’ll know these aren’t too far from the the mark. Most of the elements are the same, from the plot-central key, to the corner flourishes, to the layout of the wording. The background hints to a water town without being overwhelming.

I had also informed Hampton ahead of time that this was going to be the first in a series. He designed the cover with that in mind, knowing that future covers would need to link to it visually.

Let’s Make It Even Better

The original fonts he used were a fantasy YA option (left) and a grittier, urban fantasy option (right). Neither quite fit what I was going for, so I looked up other books in a similar space to mine. I liked the fonts used in The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence and Blood and Ash by Deborah Wilde.

Hampton had added the reddish-orange color pops to hint toward the vampiric antagonists in the book. I liked the idea behind that but wasn’t fully on board for that color (although orange does make a strong appearance in the cover of my second novella, Against the Broken Oath), and I requested something with more purple.

Taking all of these notes, Hampton came back with this option, which is the final cover for my novella:

Now that I’ve worked through creating more covers, I’m a little shocked that we got to the final product in two rounds.

I love everything about this cover. I never would have picked fuchsia, and yet it’s fantastic, and not a color you often see, especially so starkly bright against a dark background. I like the feminine flourishes without looking like it leans into romance. I love the ethereal flames coming out from behind the key.

What Did I Spend, and What Did I Learn

All told, I spent about $400 for the cover. That’s within the average for book covers, although, since this is a novella, I did feel guilty about spending a significant amount of money. I still encounter that feeling from time to time, especially as Hampton and I are working through additional covers. I’m getting more comfortable with spending the money because (A) I’ve been wanting to publish my work since I was ten, (B) people spend way more than that on other hobbies like ice skating, fly fishing, and scrapbooking, and (C) if I want to give my stories the chance they deserve, I need to invest in them.

A cover is the best marketing investment an author can make, and how each author gets to that end result will vary. I’ve learned a lot on my road to publishing, and despite the consternation it caused, I’m glad I tried making my own cover because I learned that it’s just not in my skillset (at least not without significant practice, but I’d much rather spend that time writing than getting passable at making covers).