You might have noticed some big changes to the blog recently. In light of my most recent venture, Covers by Suzy, I figured I needed to brighten it up and make it look much more professional. I love the new lookâthe blog template also ties in nicely with The Grey Brunette (my lifestyle blog that I launched back in January).
Covers by Suzy
Covers by Suzy is what I’ve called my new book cover design business. You see, I’ve been designing my own book covers (see some of them below) for years and people kept telling me I should do it for other authors too (I did some covers for an author friend a few years ago). But I never really gave it that much thought until I started getting into photography earlier this year. The two soon started to ‘gel’ when I began creating pieces of art that I realised would look pretty cool as book covers. So, with encouragement from Michael and my close friends, I launched Covers by Suzy.
The creative process
And boy, am I loving every second of the creative process! So far, I’ve been using my own photography for the covers, but I’m not averse to buying some stock images to use to give me a wider variety of choice. I’m also on the look out for some new models to work with (if you’re local to me in the Algarve and would like to ‘model for me, and and are willing to appear on book covers please let me know!). I’ve been working with a wonderful teenage model for the past couple of months (she’s not a professional model, but she certainly could be!), but she’ll be heading back to school soon.
As for the covers, I’ve created quite a large selection so far (see some of them below), with new covers being added almost daily. I’m trying to create them in a wide variety of genres including Action & Adventure, Mystery & Cosy Mystery, Comedy, Drama, Romance & Chick Lit, Steampunk & Dystopia, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy & Fantasy, Horror & Thriller. However, if you’re looking for something that’s not there, please let me know. Even if you’re not looking to buy right now, I’m open to ideas! Either comment below or email me at covers{at}suzyturner{dot}com
My creative background
I’ve actually been doing some semblance of creative design since I first started working when I was 19 (or was it 18? I can’t remember, it was such a long time ago!). After finishing my A’ levels in English Lit and Business Studies, I went straight to work for a newspaper, where I was primarily a trainee journalist. This led me to work in page-making and creating the odd advert. I soon became quite adept in Adobe Pagemaker, Photoshop and the like. So much so, that I made sure I had similar programmes on my home computer. For years I would dip my toes in the creative well, making magazines, leaflets, etc. I always enjoyed it, but I never did any formal training.
It wasn’t until I started writing fiction that I really got into it and began my making my own book covers. Admittedly, the first few were pretty dreadful so I ended up paying other designers to create them for me. However, after a few years, I really wanted to do it myself. I’m one of those people who likes to learn how to do something in order to get it done exactly my way! So, I would watch Youtube videos and take mini courses online, etc, until I felt confident enough to do it. I think I’ve come on leaps and bounds over the past few years, and I’m now proud to tell people that I’m a book cover designer as well as an author.
If you’re an author looking for a book cover, I hope you’ll check out Covers by Suzy, and let your author pals know. Also, as mentioned above, I’m open to ideas and constructive criticism so do let me know your thoughts. You can find Covers by Suzy on Facebook too.
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