Let me start with a non-woeful announcement: you can now purchase a paperback copy of The Carousel Capers by following this link!

And now, let me explain the woe. 😉 I feel like I should start by saying that the Number One piece of advice given to new “indie” (self-publishing) authors is do not design your own cover. I really can’t emphasize how many times I have heard this (“you must have an email newsletter list” is a very close second). Usually, this advice is accompanied by a derisive comment about most people’s graphic design skills.

And to be fair, people who make those marks might be right. But cover design costs money. An account with graphic design site Canva costs less money. And when I set out to make Carousel available to the world, I figured I’d go for the cheap option now–knowing full well that I’d be able to redesign my covers in the future if I so chose.

So, out of frugality (and, to be honest, a little self-deprecation: thoughts like, this isn’t a real book, so it doesn’t matter too much), the first cover for The Carousel Capers was born:

Anyone who’s signed up for my newsletter or perused my website has probably seen this design. I like the simplicity of it, personally, and so I used it for the ebook version of the book (which is free for email subscribers). However, when I set out to make the print book, I decided the cover needed an update.

Why change the cover, if I already liked the old design? Well:

  • The dark blue color scheme, while reflective of my taste, is not reflective of most cozies, which tend to be brighter with more varied colors;
  • The simplicity which I enjoy also means that the image appears “flat,” like a poster, but the one piece of design advice I did pick up from webinars (the one piece aside from “don’t do it,” that is 😉 ) was that a cover image should draw readers in;
  • An ebook cover is only the front of a real book, and I wasn’t sure how well I could extend the original image to make it into a “wraparound” cover–that is, the front, spine, and back cover as well.

To be honest, too, I’ve always wanted a “classic cozy” cover for The Alchemical Tales (the series which The Carousel Capers kicks off). Partly, I’m overcompensating because I know the Alchemical Tales are stretching the limits of the genre. 🙂 And partly, I just like cozy covers, which are immediately identifiable in a book store. Generally, they have bright colors, smooth lines, depict a cute shop/quaint room/neat old house relevant to the story, and contain lots of specific detail. Oh, and a “cozy companion” animal–usually a cat.

With that in mind, here’s the first attempt at a wraparound cover I created:

As you can see, I’ve checked off all my boxes for “classic cozy.” 😀 (Minus the cat, but William makes an appearance of course!) Now, I won’t go so far as to claim I’ve done so with great panache–a real cover designer could undoubtedly have done better, especially with different textures. But for the price (a Canva subscription, several pots of tea, and a couple afternoons of scrolling through endless graphics, wavering indecisively between setting options, and squinting at tiny lines until they either lined up or my vision went blurry), I’m quite satisfied. For now. 😉

Ha ha ha, laughs the universe! Stay tuned for Part Two on next Wednesday, because it turns out that my printer and I have very different ideas of “satisfactory.”