IWSG: Covering Covers

 

Is it just me, or did January seem to pass by pretty quickly? It hardly seems time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about the IWSG on their website and Facebook page. 

Our hosts this month are Jacqui Murray, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Gwen Gardner. 

Our question this month is about covers: If you are an indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?

I'm technically a hybrid author, since I have a few stories published in anthologies. I don't have any input on those covers, so I'll focus on my indie covers. Most of those are purchased, since my photo editing skills are minimal. Here's one cover I created for a short story collection called Ordinary Wonders. About all I did to the photo was add the text.

For my fantasy Season Avatars series, I purchased covers from my friend Maria Zannini, also known as the Book Cover Diva. I think she did a great job with the entire series, but I'll just highlight two of them here: Fifth Season and Summon the Seasons. 

Since my Abigail Ritter series is a different genre (cozy mystery), I decided to go in a different direction and ordered the cover from 100 Covers. See below for Murder at Magic Lake. I've already pre-paid for the next two book covers in that series; I just need to finish the books!

I've been very happy with these cover artists, and they've done a great job of designing covers to meet my visions of the characters and setting.

How do you get your covers if you're indie? Do you have any favorite covers for your books? Feel free to share in the comments.