Why I’m Creating My Own New Book Covers

I remember the first time I used Canva to create a book cover. It was back in 2017 when I released my first book, The Next 90 Days. The cover wasn’t anything overly special. I didn’t actually know what I was doing back then. But I’d paid $1.99 to buy the image of a food scale. It was a weight loss book, after all. And I slapped it onto a bright yellow rectangle, gave it a poorly designed font and called it done.

I’ve learned a lot about book design since then, but the tools in which a self-published author can rely on to make non-AI and original book covers are still limited. By limited I mean, all books end up looking the same, especially in the romance genre. So I’m creating new book covers now. and I’m designing them. Let me tell you how and why.

Everyone Has to Start Somewhere

By the time I sat down to write my first romance novel, If You Met Me First, which ended up being the first of three books in my first trilogy, I’d read hundreds of romance novels. I was reading them out of curiosity and interest. Interest because I’d fallen in love with the genre. I’d always wanted to write a romance novel but I hadn’t even read a romance novel. So I started reading. And curiosity, because as I was reading, I was studying the way the books looked, how the stories flowed, popular tropes and so much more.

I found that the bestselling romance novels all had the same kind of covers. They were designed that way. When a book is on the shelf, it’s designed to look like all the other books around it. It would be like listening to the pop station on the radio and suddenly a rock song comes on. Because of the way it’s made, the rock song stands out like a sore thumb against the pop song. The same logic applied to romance novel covers: and in my research, I’d learned that publishers didn’t want their book covers to look different.

Like Attracts Like

You might think that sounds wrong. But the reading I did told me one thing: publishers relied heavily on association to sell their books. The reason all romance novels looked the same on the shelf was so that you’d see one you liked, get a similar vibe from the one next to it, and pick it up.

Literally, publishers were hoping you’d judge a book by its cover in a positive way. I thought this logic was smart. Brilliant, in fact. And so when I sat down to design my covers for The Blurred Lines Series, and then The Selfish Love Series, I designed them with that same logic in mind: make the books look like every other book on the shelf.

Here’s what If You Met Me First looks like on the shelf.

They All Look The Same

If I didn’t tell you that I designed that book myself, you’d never know. It looks perfectly at home on the shelf. As it should. It was designed to feel and look that way. Because it’s a self-published book, I wanted it to look like it belonged on the shelf with the traditionally published books. I’ve received a lot of comments and compliments about my book covers over the last few years and I’m wildly proud of the work I’ve put into each and every one of them. But recently something has changed. And that’s why I’m creating new book covers.

I started a snail mail club for romance readers three months ago. I’ve successfully sent two complete snail mail club packages for The Dirty Dispatch for both February and March. At the beginning of March, I caught wind of something happening in the publishing industry that left a bad taste in my mouth. There was a lot of talk about AI-generated covers and elements being used in book publishing.

And then, I got a copyright infringement notification for my website. I didn’t panic, but I did worry that not knowing the source of an element or image could create problems for me down the road. Because I’ve used Canva Pro for many years, and it was an important tool in the development of all of my book covers, I was able to provide proof that the blog image in question was, in fact, being used under license via Canva.

Owning My Intellectual Property

Still though, it made me sit up and pay attention and I made the decision to remove all images from my website that are not mine or that I don’t have direct license to use. Even though Canva Pro provides license, I couldn’t be sure of the source of the images. I kept photos like my professional photos that were done by Dandelion Digital. If it’s not my image, I’m not using it. That meant I had to spend several hours cleaning my website up. But in the end, it was worth it because it means that everything you see on the site now is my content, my design and my licensed material.

After scrubbing my website of images, I turned my attention to my book covers. After seeing several authors get cut to pieces online about the misuse of copyright-held images, and AI-generated images, I decided I’m going to create new book covers using my own original art. And I decided that going forward, The Dirty Dispatch Club elements, such as book cover postcards, bookmarks, stickers, etc. will feature all of my own original art as well.

Sure, this means it will take longer to create the monthly snail mail club because I’ll have to physically design the elements each month, but you won’t hear me complaining. I love this stuff. It’s all part of the reason I decided to focus on building my publishing business. I know how to turn an idea into a ready-to-sell book, and I know how to draw and paint. It means my readers only benefit more from my creativity, not less.

The Tools are Still Useful, Just in a Different Way

Creating new book covers doesn’t eliminate the need for Canva. So here’s where I stand with Canva: while there are millions of elements that can be used and are eligible for licensing under the Pro account, I’m opting out of using it for my creative projects. I’m still using it to upload my original designs and create new covers. It’s a fun and easy tool to use, but I won’t be using the images, videos, or elements anymore. If I need something, I’ll make my own. And if something is out of reach of my skills and talents, I’ll hire someone to do it.

It’s not that I’m afraid of AI. It’s that I’m a creative person who takes immense pride in her work. I relish in the creative process and when I recently bought a book that had an AI cover, it felt cheap. I’d wanted to read the book so I bought it, not realizing it was an AI cover. My son pointed it out to me. He was right. I won’t say what book it is because that’s the business of the author and publisher. But it made me fully aware of how important it is for creatives to protect and manage their work.

Sourcing Ownership is Important to Me

If I were to find out that any of my book elements were generated with AI, I’d be upset. Not because it was AI, but because it was not made known to me that it was AI. I love AI for a lot of things. But not when it comes to creative work. And I’ll tell you what my son told me that perfectly sums up the misuse of AI in creative work.

He said, “Just because you ordered a cheeseburger at McDonald’s and asked for no pickles, doesn’t mean you created it.” I couldn’t agree more. That’s how using AI-generated images feels to me. And because I can’t confirm the source, I’m no longer using them. Creating new book covers is about creating for me, not just reusing something that already existed.

Creating and Using Original Art

Let me show you how I’m creating new book covers for my entire back catalog. Right now, I have a bunch of plain covers with titles on my book page. They are all marked with “coming soon.” That’s because I’m currently working to replace the covers. Replacing book covers is a lot more work than just creating a new cover.

The entire book has to be retired and republished so it’s going to take some time, but that’s okay. It will be worth it in the end to have a book that is fully mine, inside and out. But I won’t be getting to the back catalog for a while. I have another romance series, a new romance novel, a new non-fiction book, and several snail mail covers to design first. Most of those books are out of print anyway, so I plan to re-release them as they get new covers.

Format Options for Future Releases

I’m also exploring the option of going to ebook format exclusively. Given the high cost of printing these days, it is getting harder and harder to justify the cost of paperbacks and certainly hard cover is out of the question. One of my hard cover books is currently selling for almost $60 on Amazon. I wouldn’t pay that much for it. I would never expect you to pay that much for it. But that’s an update for another day.

For now, let me show you the before and after of If You Met Me First.

Here’s the current cover. I chose all of the individual elements for the cover and placed them to make this scene. I changed some of the colors and shapes and the design represents an original idea I had, but the elements are exclusively from Canva Pro. And I have license to use them and this was designed to look like other romance novels on the shelf. Mission accomplished, I think. But in creating new book covers, I wanted more.

I’ll Go First

And now, here’s the new cover design for If You Met Me First. I painted a cityscape scene using watercolor. I wanted to keep the pink undertones so the sky and base are pink. It comes through in the buildings. I wanted to create a sense of depth and vastness so I added a park. I kept the title font, and added a drop shadow to make it pop against the background.

While the cover doesn’t immediate scream “I’m a smutty romance novel” like the original, it is, in fact, original. And I’m kind of in love with it. And what it does that the original doesn’t, is create a sense of curiosity. When you look at this book you think, “What’s this about?” Plus, I think this cover is actually quite romantic. It has a feel to it that is soft and delicate instead of flat and bright. My first attempt at creating new book covers is a success.

Heart First

Want to see the rest? Here’s the second book in the series, Heart First. This book originally featured a city scape as well, but the book is actually about a road trip. The cityscape idea came from the characters meeting in the city. Once again, all of the elements are pieced together to create this look in Canva, but they are stock or licensed elements from the software. Colors and shapes have been changed and again, it looks like a romance novel. The city is just where the main characters meet. They end up on the road together so I went in a different direction with the new cover I created.

Here’s the new cover I painted and designed myself. This is a story about a road trip so I focused on the road. I wanted it to feel like it belonged next to the first book in the series, but stand on its own as well. These are, after all, intertwined, but stand-alone books. You don’t need to read the first one before the second one. But they look similar enough to belong together. And I love this one too.

It creates a feeling of adventure and the way the road crests and goes out of sight leaves a sense of wonder and creates curiosity. When you look at this book, I want you to think, “Where does it go?” Creating new book covers is about creating feelings and interest, not just repurposing what is already there.

I’ll Go First

Here’s the third book in the series, I’ll Go First. I adore the characters in this enemies-to-lovers story, and I loved the cover too. I ended up having to mash a bunch of elements together to create the background and those eyebrows on the characters weren’t there originally. It’s good. It did the job it needed to do. Canva for the win. But also, I don’t know where these images came from. So I made something else myself.

Here’s the updated version of I’ll Go First. I wanted to capture the outdoor feeling of the original cover without the faceless people. This story takes place in a rural log cabin and I love the feeling of being by the water and surrounded by nature. The sun? Obviously inspired by the color of the dress on the original cover, but made my own through watercolor and a little time and patience.

When people see this book, which is still aligned with the designs of the other two in the series, I want you to think, “That looks so romantic.” Creating new book covers means I get to show up fully as myself, and represent my work in a multitude of ways. Not all writers need to do this. I just have this habit of wanting to do everything myself. Lots of people hire artists to do this kind of thing. I’m not lots of people.

Why Go to the Trouble of Creating New Book Covers?

You’re probably wondering why go to all the trouble of creating new book covers. That’s a fair question, but the truth is that it’s part of the bigger vision for my writing. I’m not the most talented painter on the planet but I’ve always loved making art, as well as writing. More importantly, the bigger vision I have is not just to use the skills I have to create a successful publishing business, but to fully own the products I make.

I have plans to create new book covers for all my books going forward and am looking forward to incorporating this process into my regular routine as a result. Book covers don’t just bind the paper within them. They set the stage and feel of the book. And at this stage in my writing career, I want my books to stand out on the shelf, not blend in. My writing isn’t typical and it isn’t for everyone. And I want my book covers to convey that feeling. The right people will these books and think, “I want to read that.”

It’s Worth the Effort to Me

Creating new book covers sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but it’s worth investing the time and energy into doing this because I want my books to be different. I want people to judge them in a positive way, but not because I figured out how to game the system and make everything look the same. I want people to look at these covers and feel something they didn’t expect to feel: curiosity. These aren’t just romance novels. They’re love stories. And a love story deserves a cover made with love.

Want to find out when the new covers and formats are available? Get on my mailing list. I send out an update every two weeks about books, snail mail, events, and more. There’s definitely more to come.