Photography and The Art Of Book Covers

Someone asked me the other day what was the singlemost reason I chose to self-publish my books. Actually, I have two reasons, which, I suppose, makes this a "doublemost" situation.

First: while I would've loved (I mean, seriously loved) the help of an enthusiastic literary agent and the support and heft of a publisher with name value and cultural prestige, procuring those collaborators in our ever-changing industry has become an increasingly elusive event; it certainly was for me. I gave it my all over several years then decided I had no more all to give; since I truly believed what I was doing merited further advancement, and I'd gotten to the point where I just wanted to move forward, I leapt off the indie cliff.

Think I'm still in mid-fall!

Second: I wanted control over the work I put out. Frankly, if you're not getting the perks of industry collaboration, there has to be some kind of trade-off; one of the most phenomenal trade-offs of "doing it yourself" is controlling exactly how your work comes to fruition. For the uninitiated, this is a big thing because, with traditional publishers, items like final edit, title, and book cover are typically taken out of the hands of the author. Certainly an unknown author. Which would be me. And since I was one of the brave souls striking out independently—for better or for worse—one of the "betterest" reasons was the ability to create and produce EXACTLY the books I wanted.

Now, if you're like me, a creative perfectionist who's driven many a musician, producer, co-writer, actor, director, sound mixer, editor, or wildly opinionated drummer crazy with detailed, nuanced, and very specific standards and opinions, you'll understand that the perk of creative control for someone like me is a boon. I've always believed that, if you've put in the time to truly learn your craft, gain your experience, hone your expertise, and bring to life a beautifully imagined story and set of characters, you deserve the power to render the final edit, pick the title, and decide on your cover art. Certainly working with professionals in the arena of editing is essential, input on titles is always illuminating, and a cover designer is a must-have, but ultimately it all comes down to YOU.

Which is lovely.

And a book cover, to my mind, is one of the most important elements of the final product. Why wouldn't it be? Books truly are judged by their covers and too often the covers of self-published books are artistically lacking, poorly designed, and amateurishly rendered. Those covers then become litmus tests to the perusing and reading public, signaling to many that this writer may not have a firm grasp on professional market standards and, therefore, likely hasn't delivered a professionally excellent book. I'm sure that's not true in every case, but from all reports: most.

So given my bona fides as a photographer with a deep catalogue of images from which to choose—convenient, considering my preference for photographic cover art—my design process was both financially beneficial and extremely simple. Add in the fact that my cover designer is a brilliant graphic artist from Chicago, Grace Amandes, who just happens to be my sister, and it was a foregone conclusion that I'd get exactly the covers I wanted. And I did.

AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH, with its story of a woman who discovers on the night of her father's funeral that he thought she was a failure, needed a female face in the background, one that reflected the mood and emotional tone of the piece. After pulling an image from my gallery—as well as finding a back cover image that illustrated another story point that takes place in Cambria, CA— I handed the images to Grace, who ultimately came back with a cover I loved.

With HYSTERICAL LOVE, a more whimsical story about a thirty-something guy struggling to find the meaning of true love and his father's long-lost soul mate, a through-line involving an ice cream truck became the inspiration. There was no doubt I'd be using a favorite photograph taken in my neighborhood and processed with a "selective color" concept (see original above). Grace found the exact right font and color for the title, and it has become a cover that people literally smile over. I do too!

For "She Tumbled Down," a short story about a tragic hit-and-run, published only in e-book, I decided to design the cover myself, trusting that, since ebooks don't require quite the specifications of a print cover, I could pull it off. Inspired by Grace's work, I came up with another "selective color" version of an image also taken in my neighborhood. It makes the very poignant point.

Working in both literary and photographic mediums, I've discovered my general thrust as an artist is, quite simply, storytelling. Whether visual, literal, or musical, the narrative I see and feel impels the work forward, and so it has been a natural marriage between words and images in bringing my books to happily imagined life...a result which makes all the challenges and occasional indignities of self-publishing all the more easy to forgive!