Today is significant for two reasons; the first being that it’s Friday (yay!) and the second because it’s the day that ‘The Assays of Ata’ officially receives a new cover. The very talented Lizbe Coetzee did the design and layout, and her final version went above and beyond my expectations:
A few months ago, I stumbled across an IG account with stunning book covers and automatically followed (I tend to follow based on aesthetic vibes, and don’t necessarily check out all the details of the account). When I seriously began considering revamping Assays by having a cover professionally designed, I went scrolling through my lists, and there was Liz’s account and its beautiful examples of her work. Upon a further nosey, I found out she’s a South African as well, and once I’d emailed her with a tentative inquiry, her friendly and accommodating tone convinced me this was a great idea.
Liz has absolutely captured the atmosphere and elements that are relevant to Ata’s story, and I am genuinely blown away by the new cover. It definitely conveys a level of polish and is eye-catching, proving that a professional touch is not to be dismissed out of hand. Moving forward, I will definitely not be DIYing my covers (I am planning on discussing this particular element of self-publishing in my next blog post), thereby saving hours of headaches, as well as being able to be wowed by the eventual cover myself (and not constantly second-guessing and regretting my own wonky offerings).
Overall, this has been a highly successful foray into new waters for me—I have never commissioned a book cover before, and even though I was uncertain at some points, the entire process ran very smoothly. From the platform used (Fiverr) to Liz’s unflappable, can-do approach, my first experience with professional book cover design has been a roaring success.
Moving forward, my aim is to update all the various platforms where Assays can be found, including book sales sites, review sites, video ads, and social media posts. It’ll take a while to get to everything, but I’m still riding the wave of excitement at having a spiffy new cover, so it shouldn’t be too arduous a task, in that sense.
An additional change (that I hadn’t considered before, but luckily occurred to me in time to take the necessary action) is that the copyright page of all my Assays master manuscripts would need to be updated to give credit where it’s due… Before, it was literally me, myself, and I—whether for better or worse, I’ll refrain from saying—and I couldn’t accidentally commit plagiarism or not acknowledge a contributor. Thus, I also need to re-upload said docs along with updating the covers, but “in for a penny” and all that, and considering the benefits of this newer, better cover, not a high price to pay at all.
That’s all for the time being; we’ll see how the next month develops, as I have a few more surprises re Assays‘ and Briin‘s marketing in the pipeline…
K.I.S.
