By Heather Day Gilbert
Ask any historical indie author, and
you'll soon find that putting together a convincing historical cover (without
paying for an individual model shoot) can be difficult. Stock art photos are
very limited in terms of finding characters that a) represent your characters
accurately, and b) are costumed authentically to the time period you're writing
about.
For my first Viking historical novel, God's Daughter, my talented brother Jon
was my cover artist. We found a stock art photo of a Viking woman,
authentically dressed, who looked very similar to my main character, Gudrid. We
altered her eye color, lightened her hair, toned down her makeup as much as
possible, manipulated the background, and basically built a cover around that
stock photo. The only problem is that many other Viking-era authors (mostly
romance authors) used the same stock photo, so my cover was not as unique as I
had hoped it would be (although it does stand out, both in Christian book
circles and on the Amazon Norse bestseller list, where it's remained for three
years).
For my second-in-series novel, Forest Child, I had a strong idea of how
I wanted the cover character to look. Freydis is a deadly Viking warrior, and I
hoped to show her facing the reader directly, a challenging look in her eyes.
My brother Jon and I set about finding a
stock photo we could work with, this time hoping to add costuming and
background to make the model look different. I found a photo that drew me in,
and here's Jon's initial mockup of it:
Obviously, this wasn't the finished
product (we would fix the leaves on her head, add more clothing, etc.), but I
did love this girl's dead-on glare and her blue eyes and freckles. However,
when I showed this one to a couple of author friends, they felt it looked more
like a fantasy cover than a historical cover. Also, this girl seemed too young.
She wasn't quite right.
We moved on to stock art woman number
two—a woman with wild red hair like Freydis. I liked her serious, yet wistful
vibe:
Jon took this photo and designed an amazing
arrow for her, then integrated a photo of his wife's hand so she could hold
said arrow. He added the cloak, toned down the makeup and added freckles and
more hair, as well as a leafy forest background. I felt we were getting really
close...
But something still wasn't quite right
about her. She looked a bit too vulnerable and soft for my heroine.
THEN I found this stock art photo when I
was trolling around, looking for just the right redhead:
Now, this woman HAD something—a glare, a
haughty look, a challenge in her blue eyes. I loved how she was facing the
reader, completely fearless.
But my brother was busy and didn't have
time to work on all the elements we'd need to alter to go in this totally new
direction. So I contacted my mystery cover designer, Jenny at Seedlings Design.
Jenny felt she could integrate all the changes I needed. We proceeded to tone
down the makeup, add freckles, make her hair redder, add a cloak and arrows,
add curling hair tendrils, and tweak an amazing leaf-strewn background...
When the final changes were integrated, I
KNEW I was looking right at the Viking warrior-woman I'd pictured for years in
my head:
I'm a firm believer that with my cover art, I'll know
it when I see it, and I knew this was the right cover for Forest Child because it was unique and represented my main character
so perfectly.
Hope you've enjoyed this behind-the-curtains peek at
the development of cover art for a Viking historical cover! I'd love input from
other indie authors (especially historical) as to your cover design process!
_______________________________________________________________
HEATHER DAY GILBERT, a Grace Award winner and
bestselling author, writes novels that capture life in all its messy,
bittersweet, hope-filled glory. Born and raised in the West Virginia mountains,
generational story-telling runs in her blood. Heather is a graduate of Bob
Jones University, and she and her husband are raising their children in the
same home in which Heather grew up. Heather is represented by Rebeca Seitz and
Jonathan Clements of SON Studios in FL. Heather's Viking historical novel, God's
Daughter, is an Amazon Norse Bestseller. She is also the author of the
bestselling A Murder in the Mountains mystery series and the Hemlock
Creek Suspense series. Heather also authored the Indie Publishing
Handbook: Four Key Elements for the Self-Publisher. Find out more at heatherdaygilbert.com.
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