New Post

I’ve begun my quest for a cover artist. Like my quest for an editor I’m not looking for a one time deal. I want someone for the long term that I’m going to dump a bunch of projects on so the search is a careful one. Part of this search is understanding what I want out of a cover, and what I want is not what is most often provided at the usual sources.

In a world increasingly full of spammed out books (frequently by AI) it’s more important than ever that we make our work stand out. The biggest hindrance to a self published author is the stigma of cheapness, laziness, and lack of skill. This comes from the ‘self published’ name and the fact many readers still view traditional publishing as some how more legitimate.

Unfortunately most book covers on self published titles play into this stereotype. These are the stock photo, edited covers, some of which are bought in bulk (seriously, you can buy dozens of covers at once) and not at all customized for the specific title. Others are customized. I understand not everyone has the time or inclination for a different sort of cover, but if I want to stand out, I need to take a different path.

At Broken Entertainment my goal has always been for my published works to be as professional as possible. I want a reader to see them and think “holy cow, this is self published?” So I look at traditional book covers and what I see is a lot of art, not a lot of stock photos. Thus, the cover artist I am searching for is one that is capable of doing that kind of cover.

Hopefully when Agent, Directerate, Invasion, etc. come out each will have a beautiful cover without a stock photo in sight. This isn’t everyone’s goal, and that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with the author that wants to use a stock photo, it’s just not for me. Being noticed requires standing out, especially in a world of AI written garbage spam.