design process | Stephanie Flint

For this cover, we wanted to keep to a similar theme as the first book, Separate Lives, but with enough differences to show the different tone and themes. So I kept the same general format and images, but found new silhouettes to link to the new characters. To distinguish the modern-day character, I gave him a dark, shadowy appearance that still let some of his features show through, unlike the ghostly characters in the background. For the back cover, I simply changed the color scheme of the first book’s back cover to mimic the color scheme of the second book.

This is the result:

SBibb -One More Night - Book Cover Back

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-judge-gavel-image16964080 – gavel
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-texture-creamy-white-rice-paper-torn-edges-isolated-white-background-image29821402 – paper texture
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-brown-package-paper-torn-to-reveal-white-panel-ideal-copy-space-image34962594 – torn paper texture

Stock images from Dollar Photo Club:
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=77165739 – saloon
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=95395250 – lady
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=60664546 – farm guy
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=70544393 – captain
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=80095962 – man

Behind the Scenes – Separate Lives

This is a cover for Melange Books. For this cover, the author requested that we create a template for the cover which could be used for future books in the series. After some tweaking, I settled on a frame to border the main image of the cover, along with placing the silhouette of the gavel and the text. It should be fairly easy to duplicate (especially since I keep notes on each layer about any blur effects and such), though we’ll need to purchase another licence for the gavel from Dreamstime for each cover.

Whenever I make proofs, I leave notes for myself in the layers, that way I can easily replicate any special effects I did for the proof on the final. For example, if I used a lens blur on a layer, I’ll make a note that looks something like “51-41-119 Lens Blur” for the name of the layer. Anything that I commonly change, I’ll make a note of. Sometimes the notes get long, and I’ll copy them into Word so I can read them, but the result is that it’s much easier to complete a final image, especially if there’s a month or so between creating a proof and receiving stock images (which happens when creating proofs in advance of a stock subscription purchase).

Anyway, this is the final cover for Separate Lives, by Rhonda Strehlow:

Also, an example of how the basic back cover might look (I set it so that color blur is optional, and they may change the signature to one of their imprints):

SBibb - Separate Lives - Book Cover Back