Creating A Cover – ‘Control Freak’.

There’s a great deal of thought that goes into creating a wonderful cover. I wanted to share the process of one particular title, just to explain the various steps that are undertaken to reach the final result.

Life coach, Cory Thomsen, recently had her first book published by Fiosracht Press (out May). The book, Control Freak, is targeted at busy, working mums who are struggling to manage their daily lives. Cory is a beautiful and thoughtful writer and I was keen to reflect that in the cover design.

I was asked for an illustrated style that was a little whimsical and made use of colour. There are also many references throughout the book regarding growth and analogies relating to nature. Cory and I chatted about her ideal reader and discussed the idea of using pot plants or a greenhouse to indicate that need to control what is ultimately uncontrollable – nature. We talked about other self-help style books and what we liked and didn’t like about those covers. Cory also supplied me with images from books that appealed to her aesthetic, both covers and internal pages, so I could get an idea of what made her heart sing.

It’s really important to me that the writer adores their cover – even more so than the publisher, in fact! A writer who is proud of every element of the finished product will be much happier promoting it and saying to everyone they know: “look at this!”

Once Cory and I had agreed upon the general elements, I then supplied her with three different cover designs. I also provided her with three different internal layout designs to go alongside the cover styles.

Pretty, right? There were elements Cory loved, and others she didn’t, so next we had a chat about what worked best. Cory loved how dynamic the dark background was, but she didn’t feel it was as suited to the genre as something lighter. She also was aware that the target market was likely to feel overwhelmed and crowded…and they might find something a little ‘tighter’ more appealing. She works with these women every day, so it was important that I took this feedback on board. She loved the greenhouse of the first option, but wanted to see if with a light background and with a more simplified (tighter and more controlled) look. She also loved the headline font of the first option, but the script subhead font of the second option. Keeping that all in mind, I made a revised option.

We both agreed that this was pretty…but not quite right. It didn’t reflect the feeling of trying to ‘break free’ that we wanted and it was a little flat. Too controlled if you will. At this stage, both Cory and myself were really excited about finalising the design for the internal pages. Cory often uses adult colouring pages in her work, and we found that creating breakout pages, along with little illustrations throughout, that made use of this would be helpful from both a design perspective and a coaching perspective.

Cory also uses brighter colours in her work – teal and pink and green – and we thought it would be nice to reflect her branding as the book will be sold alongside workshops and speaking engagements that she does (as well as online and bookstores). The next challenge was how to incorporate all of those things.

We were so close now! We were both almost happy with this one. The design – inside and out – complemented one another, and it also worked with Cory’s branding. I wasn’t happy with the outline of the title font though…I felt it looked a little cheap. Cory was also keen to see how it might work with more of a green-blue shade – more inline with her brand and colour scheme. I also wanted to revisit a more textured background, just to give a little more interest and for it to not feel quite so flat. A little further tweaking and we were both happy!

So there you have it! A great deal of thought and time goes into making sure that what you see when you have that book in your hand is just right. Now, Cory’s wonderful words – that I have no doubt will help change lives – are showcased in a tangible form that also tells a story of who she is.