step by step process of a book cover from concept to completion.

By John Potter

Back in 2003 I was contacted by friend and author, Jay Humphreys, saying that he had just written his first novel and would like me to create a cover for it. The transcript arrived a day or two later and I read it immediately. It was a very visual story, so this was going to be fun. It was called Uncle Sam’s and set it in the 1930s in St. Augustine, Florida.

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Book cover I designed and illustrated for “Phillip Singer An Accounting”. See more of my book covers in my illustration portfolio.

This article is to help inform anyone who wants to hire someone to produce a book cover for them.
By John Potter

I’m going to break down the development process into three
steps. In some outstanding cases steps can be skipped or modified,
but this is the method I have used for almost every book cover
I’ve developed. It has worked well for me and my clients find
it efficient and helpful to them as well.

1. Concept Development:
   In rare cases where
   the client knows EXACTLY what they want and have supplied
   all imagery etcetera I may skip this
   step, but it is very rare.

   Book cover I designed and illustrated about Florida Marine Biotechnology for Florida Sea Grant. See more of my book covers in my illustration portfolio.

   This is the stage where a clear concept of what the end
   result is supposed to
   look like is established. Normally this starts with deciding whether to use
   illustration (a drawing or painting), photography or text only on the
   cover. This is a joint process
   done with the client. This usually doesn’t take long (it can be one email sometimes),
   but I have to know what the client wants or what decisions they are willing
   to allow me to make regarding the look of their book cover on my own.
   
   It is
   at this point I provide a quote.

   I have to know what a client wants in order
   to provide them a quote. Keep in mind that doing an oil painting, for instance,
   takes a lot more time and materials than pasting a photo in the middle of a book cover in some software package, so I have to have a clear idea of what the desired end result is to make a quote that is fair to myself AND MY CLIENT.

   If the client would like me to make proposals of my own concepts I usually
   go through whatever has been supplied to me by the client first. This includes ideas that the client has and any photos or examples that they may have supplied. If at all possible I read the manuscript thoroughly at this point as well.

   Whether it’s my concept or that of the client I now make sketches of what the final product should look like and submit them for approval by the client.
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