I have learnt a particularly important lesson about book covers that I am compelled to share. When an author commissions the production of a book cover, they do not have the rights to the master files. These are retained by the designer to protect their integrity. Any changes must be authorized by the designer and are prohibited without this.
This means if an author needs to make any changes to their eBook cover or print cover wrap then these changes must be completed by the designer.
Possible changes could include updating the author bio, changing the back book blurb, altering the pen name, adding taglines or changing the book size, if amendments have been made inside the book.
My mistake?
I used the wrong formatting for the layout of my paperback book, using double line spacing, instead of single line spacing, making the book far too bulky. I only realised this error when I saw one of my printed book. Therefore, I had to make some changes to four paperback cover wraps and I contacted my book cover designer to do this for me. However, my book cover designer had had a catastrophic fault in their system and lost all the master files, meaning there was nothing to edit or change.
I had a decision to make. I could ask the original designer to redesign these covers at a cost, if they could even do this, if the images were still available or I could find a new designer. I decided to look online and see what other designers I could find. There are a lot to choose from. One designer I particularly liked is Maria at Steamy Reads, so I decided to give my covers a make-over and make them more ‘Steamy.’ Maria has done a fantastic job, I love the covers and it has been a quick turnaround.
However,
It has cost me $200 USD per book, to work with another designer to create the eBook and print wraps. An additional cost I could have done without and a frustrating one.
So here are the new designs, what do you think? Do you like the old covers or the new ones better?
