Or so it seems.
I’ll start with a few updates. First of all, the post-editing marathon is over. I finished reviewing the edited text, and sent the manuscript back to Jill for proofreading. And, I’ve arranged the cover design with 100 covers. They agreed to fast-track my order. And they seem to know what indie authors require and tailor their work to these exact formats: KDP, Ingramspark, paperback, hard cover, dust jacket, you name it.
Now, that's when things get tricky. First of all, they want you to provide two best-selling recently-published books from your category that are similar to yours. That alone is quite challenging. Good luck finding a similar book, especially among the best-sellers. Well, even among the worst-sellers. I even looked up Gretna Green to see what books I could find. It's not like there are many about a couple from the 1990s who wanted to marry there.
If anything, when it comes to finding common design elements, something that would "scream genre," it seems that if there's a pattern, it's that there's no pattern. I don't see a color palette that would identify a young adult romance. One might think of purple or pink or blue, but I saw a whole range of colors, including some that didn't seem to fit the romance vibe at all. The design itself, too, can range from highly elaborate, with images that seem to leap off the page, to something simplistic, with images resembling clip art or appearing to have been sketched in Paint. Of course, there's usually a couple on the cover, though sometimes it's just the girl. But apart from that?...
If they were classmates, I could possibly set the classroom or locker room as the background. Technically, it's possible to place them in front of a typical school building. That will suggest a high-school romance, but it will leave out the 1990s, Gretna Green, or that it's set in Israel. Put an Israeli flag on the school building? It will be barely noticeable even on a paperback, let alone a search result thumbnail. Use Jerusalem's landmark view as the background? Readers might mistakenly assume the story is about the Middle East conflict, even though there’s not a word about it in the book. Put Gretna Green in the background instead? Here's the catch - it's nowhere near as recognizable.
So, finding the right idea for the cover design won't be easy. I can't wait to hear from the designer. Hopefully, he has some tricks up his sleeve to incorporate everything that needs to be there into one image. They said they can fast-track my order, so I hope we can come up with something that looks like a concept by the end of next week (or the following Monday at the latest), allowing us to have at least the e-book cover ready by the Canadian Thanksgiving / Columbus Day weekend.
Yes, it’s just over two weeks till the launch date. And I'm actually looking forward to making it, at least with the e-book.
Have a great weekend.
Leonard.