If you’re self publishing, one of the tasks you will have is choosing the proper book cover. I looked at dozens of them and in a lot of cases I found myself underwhelmed by what I saw. Granted, I didn’t know what the books were about, but unless I knew the author, I had no interest in buying, borrowing or browsing them. I shudder to think that others may pass by my book for the same reason. BUT, in the process of making a choice I realized something that I hadn’t thought of before. I checked out photographic websites that Createspace was associated with, looking at dozens if not hundreds of photos that I could choose from. I came up with two very different photos, with two widely different tones. One, a melancholy winter’s scene, the other, a hand in a dramatic pose which reeked “defiance” to me. My first thought was to go with drama, something I hoped would stop people in their tracks (or at least give them pause). I asked opinions of friends, and they were evenly divided. After going back and forth over a weekend, I realized that I had gotten tired of the dramatic version. That it wouldn’t last the long haul of working with this book over a period of time and that it was important that I still liked the cover after many weeks or months. So melancholy won out and hopefully I’m right. Come Septemter, I’ll know the answer.
