The Lavender Dawn

Some of you may know of my first novella, Tales from Bethlehem. This little story was a project for Christmas in 2023.

I remember opening Canva, starting a template draft of a book cover and then staring at the blank page. Well, here goes nothing. With several unsuccessful attempts, I gave up on designing the cover for Tales from Bethlehem. 

What am I going to do? Hire an illustrator?

It then occurred to me that I had a friend who was pretty good at graphic design. I reached out to him and popped the question: Will you design the cover for my first published book?

My friend replied that he would be “honoured”, and that is how Christopher J. Watt from Down Under became my cover designer!

I knew Christopher from an online writing camp we both attended, Epic Patriot Camp. (You can read my post about that HERE!) It was such a blast working with him! Christopher is a young writer and creative designer from South Africa, now living in Australia. He seeks to not only write his own novels but to inspire others to do the same.

A Talk with the Designer:

EQ: Hi, Christopher! It’s been such a pleasure working with you on the covers for both Tales from Bethlehm and The Hidden Haven! Mind introducing yourself to everyone?

CW: Hi, Ella! It’s a pleasure to be here. To those who don’t know me, I’m a young writer living in the sunny Land Down Under! (before you ask, yes, I’ve seen a kangaroo. I saw some yesterday, actually. They’re rather common) I absolutely love writing fantasy, but don’t let that give you the wrong idea—as an avid history buff too, a good biography or non-fiction book can’t go wrong in my hands 😉

I’ve been writing for quite a while now, but lately, I’ve begun to also explore other areas of the creative and publishing industries, such as journalism and opinion pieces, marketing, and the topic of this interview, producing book covers. 

EQ: How long have you been into graphic design?

CW: Compared to others, not very long, actually! I first began doing more graphical design stuff around 2020, for schoolwork. I made any and every poster using Keynote on an iPad, until later that year when I discovered this awesome free graphic design platform called “Canva”.

In 2021, when the schoolwork ramped up, I began having to make more digital files and posters for my assignments. And if you know me, I don’t like presenting something if it doesn’t look good! So that was really what set things in motion for me when I began to discover the world of graphic design.

As time progressed, up until now, I’ve gained more experience, which in turn has helped me to produce better and more appealing designs, and I’ve also upgraded my design software to suit the more professional standards I now work to.

EQ: What were your thoughts when I asked you to design the cover for TfB?

CW: My first thought was “Oh, that could be fun!” 

I had never really taken cover designing very seriously. Though by then I had already decided I would probably self-publish my own works, I had always considered hiring someone else to do my covers. 

As time progressed, up until now, I’ve gained more experience, which in turn has helped me to produce better and more appealing designs

So when I had a friend reach out to me and ask me to design the cover for her book, I was honoured, excited, and also quite intimidated! How does one design a book cover? Thankfully, I already had a little hint of experience under my belt, thanks to what I learned through the publishing process of Virtual Epic Patriot Camp. I knew that you could get Amazon KDP to generate a cover template for you, so that to begin with was very helpful.

Looking back at the original cover concepts now, I’m horrified! Thankfully after many attempts, we settled on a design we both liked, and the rest is history!

EQ: What were some of the challenges you faced when designing the cover?

CW: One word: SPINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot stress enough that the spine on a book cover is not only the most annoying part of the book cover, but unfortunately it is also the most IMPORTANT. The spine is what determines the size of file you are working with, and so if it is off even by a fraction of a millimetre (and I’m not exaggerating when I say that), everything is basically ruined.

And depending on what platform you use for the cover, it can mean that you might need to completely redesign the entire cover, which DOUBLES your workload.

Another challenge was, at the start, figuring out what on Earth I’m supposed to actually do with a book cover. I’d never done one before, I didn’t know how to make one! And like I said, looking at the original concepts, I’m horrified!

EQ: You have also designed the cover for The Hidden Haven (which is AMAZING). What did you do differently this time? What were some obstacles that you had to overcome? 

CW: What did I do differently? Well, first of all, I began with a different software. My original attempts (the ones that were so bad) I used Canva for. And look, while Canva is an AMAZING software to play around with, it is actually very basic. 

When you’re making the cover for a book—particularly a book that is set in an old or ancient time period—you need a software that allows for you to change things by the minute scale. Especially when your client is asking you to make something that looks like an old leatherbound journal, but blue!

So changing my software was one thing I did differently this time. I also began with the KDP template, rather than make the cover first, and then apply the template. That allowed me to work with a file with the correct dimensions right from the start. 

When you’re making the cover for a book—particularly a book that is set in an old or ancient time period—you need a software that allows for you to change things by the minute scale

Also, with experience comes new knowledge! The more I explored the features of what I was working with, the more I was able to do. When I was able to do more with the document, I was able to create a cover that worked way better than my first attempts. I knew where to begin, and how I should end, and that really was what helped me the most.

EQ: What are a few things you have learned from these experiences? What would you change to improve your work for future projects?

CW: First of all, skimping on design software is not an option if you want an elaborate cover! Don’t get me wrong—I love Canva and I use it daily. But when you need to make minute adjustments to a wraparound cover (back+spine+front), you need a program that will allow you to do that. If you have access to Photoshop or something similar, I highly recommend you use it. 

Another thing is, you need to KNOW what you are working with BEFORE you start! Whether you’re making a cover for yourself or for someone else, you need to know the genre, the title, the age range, the style of cover that’s desired, and most importantly, the page count. 

You cannot design a book cover until you know the manuscript’s FINAL page count.

EQ: Thank you so much, Christopher! You are a talented young person; keep it up! Where can our readers learn more about you and what you do? 

CW: Ah, thank you Ella! I have my own blog and website—plus a design business that’s in the works!—that I’d love for you to take a look at. Plus, subscribers to my email list get exclusive insider access to my own writing:

www.christopherjwattauthor.com

I hope you all enjoyed today’s post with Christopher Watt! It’s fascinating to think of all the things that go into publishing a book! Huzzah!

See you on the next page,

-E. Q.