As an author, I know a lot about the writing process involved in creating a book, but I’m still learning just how much is involved in the process of page layout and cover designing and photo shooting. The interesting thing about my short story Never Too Far is that throughout every step of the process, I’ve been the one who in control of everything. And that means that I’ve been immersed in all parts of the book creation.
Since I’m giving Never Too Far away for free (provided that you’re on my newsletter list!), I hated the idea of spending a huge amount of money on the cover. A little was fine, but like anything, getting pictures for an 1800’s style cover added up fast. Frighteningly fast.
My sister Kailey has invested a lot of time over the years into learning designing and photography, so while I was still trying to figure out how to create a book cover, I brought my question to her. Could she do it?
She was more than willing to try! After searching online and failing to find a model that would fit out criteria and didn’t cost hundreds of dollars, she suggested that we use me as the model. Well, in all honesty, she inisited.
“Sadie has blonde hair, right? It’ll work just fine,” she told me.
It struck me as odd for me, the author, to play the role of model for the cover, but if it was a choice between getting the cover I wanted and paying hundreds of dollars . . .
We went to my closet and pulled out the dress that my great grandma helped me sew when I was thirteen. She had figured a little growing room into the pattern, but I hadn’t tried it on in years. However, I figured there was no time like the present. I changed into the dress, which was still the perfect length. So far so good.
And then Kailey tried to pull the zipper up and it stuck. We looked at each other in the mirror and simultaneously said, “Oh no!”
Kailey put a little more force into the zipper, and then all at once it was up. I felt as if I could hardly breathe, but I said, “It’ll work–now unzip it until I absolutely have to put it on!”
That dress! Did you know that there are approximately eight yard of fabric in it, and most of it is in the skirt? When Grandma and I finished sewing all the pieces of the skirt together, it stretched from one wall of the sewing room to the other. Then we gathered the skirt until all that material was tamed to fit the rest of the dress and we couldn’t have pulled the material more tightly together if we had wanted to. My grandma was so patient with that dress and went to the work of altering the pattern to make the neckline higher and adding the lace, lining the dress, and most incredible of all, hand stitching that eight yard skirt so that the hem would be invisible. If she were still alive, she would be so happy to see our work put to use.
Here’s a picture that gives a better view of the dress.
After I got dressed up, Kailey and I trekked through our family’s pasture, trying to find the right spots that would fit the story. A few of them failed because there was a clear view of the Stromsburg water tower in the picture, which definitely was not historical. The goal was to keep my back to the camera so that my face would stay out of the picture, but that also didn’t work in all of them.
When we finally came back to the house (and thank goodness because it was December and I was freezing!), we pulled up the pictures on the computer and Kailey put her designing skills to work. We finished two mockup covers that night and felt pretty happy with how they turned out. However, Kailey decided to throw one more together just so that we could see one more of our pictures put to work.
Later that week, I sent out a newsletter to my readers asking which cover they liked best (partly because I couldn’t make up my mind which one I liked best. Ha!). I was amazed by just how many people responded and by how unanimous their decision was–cover number three was the winner.
That was a pretty clear answer, and so, it was cover number three that we went with. But Kailey still shakes her head and says, “I don’t understand. That was the one I spent the least time on!”
Haven’t had a chance to read Never Too Far yet? You can find the story here.