Covering up
When making a book cover on a zero budget there can be quite a few things to conceal. Such as inferior quality of the elements you’ve used, or the fact that you just had to make do with what you could find. It is often a time consuming task to scour through various sites for free content. And boooooring, Dear Reader, phenomenally boring.
For ‘House of Rose’ I found an image that sparked an idea. As we all know, not all ideas look as good on paper as they do in our heads. As it turned out, my idea didn’t translate well to reality or perhaps I just couldn’t make it the way I wanted it to look. Either way, my first draught for a cover plain sucked. It took some time to identify exactly what was wrong.
Pretty much everything. That insight sparked a long journey meandering through every possible image source trying to find another image that could fit my character Rose. 
Dear Reader, in my desperation, I even looked at expensive stock images. *gasp* But I couldn’t find anything I liked there either. Perhaps luckily, as I couldn’t afford it anyway.
Above is a progression of the cover, an exposé of my near hits and misses. Adding a grunge texture felt cool at first but clearly doesn’t work. It’s not that kind of novel either. But the Liverpol skyline brought the cover from 1930 into 2021 and moving the police tape forward gave a whole new depth. The photo shows the tidal flats off the Merseyside coast, which has significance to the story. But then suddenly the fonts were awkward.
Not only is Rose named for a flower, she owns a flower shop, and so I originally wanted to incorporate roses somewhere. But then, less is often more so I decided against it. Until a friend voiced the same idea. I managed to find a small rose that could be worked with the letters, looking almost like a logo, which works as ‘House of Rose’ is the name of the shop.
A few days always have to pass before I can tell how happy I am with something, a text or an image alike. Dear Reader, I don’t know. What do you think?
To rose, or does a cover without a rose smell as sweet?
With that mental somersault, I wish you a a lovely Tuesday night!
