If a picture is worth 1,000 words, does that mean a book cover is too?

Since I decided to self-pub IT’S A TRUST THING and I knew I had no real money to invest in a professional graphic book designer, I decided to try my hand at making my own book cover. Since I already do so much graphic stuff for book ads and for this blog, I thought it might be fun.

And it was.

It was also harrowing, mind boggling, and at times, infuriating. What makes a good, eye catching book cover to me, may not necessarily mean it does to you. Plus, since it’s a romance there are things that have to be incorporated into the cover so people who are glancing through Amazon new releases see it for what it is and not say, a murder mystery.

Here are a few of the covers I made before I decided on the one I finally put up: Oh, and the original title of the book was HELPFUL HUNKS, the name of Nell’s business. Since I didn’t talk too much about her business in the book, I figured it would be misleading to call it that.

So I liked this one until a friend of mine pointed out the lousy job ( my word, not hers!) I did of cutting and pasting the couple on the Brooklyn Bridge. I wanted the bridge on the cover because an important plot point concerns it, but with the lousy job I did of C/P I realized it looked sloppy.

I wanted this cover because it matched DIRTY DAMSELS, and kept the branding of the series intact. See:

But again, the sloppy cut and paste was glaring in this one.

I loved this cover when the title was Helpful hunks, but it didn’t fit in with the branding again, so I opted to use it in ads for the book instead. But I still love this cover!

This is the one I finally decided on because the background was black and I didn’t have to do any sloppy cutting and pasting to get the couple front and center.

It goes along with the theme of Dirty Damsels in the fonts and with the couple embracing. It’s not as sexy as the DD cover, but that’s okay with me.

Now, I just need to know if the cover “SPEAKS” to romance book buyers!

Preorder is up here: It’s a Trust Thing

The book is also available in Kindle Unlimited for those subscribers as well.

Happy reading, folks!! Hope you like my cover and the story.

Until next time ~ Peg

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