The story behind the book cover

And why I am so glad I did not try to design it myself

Jul 01, 2026

Approximately one month ago I posted this note:

It remains true today.

I know that self-publishing often comes with tight purse strings, and that we are expected to do basically everything when it comes to book production. Writing a book you love and then deciding to self-publish means taking on a long list of housekeeping tasks like editing, formatting, acquiring ISBNs, securing copyright (depending on where you live, since I assume the procedure varies by country), setting up KDP or whatever printer/distributer you choose…and the dreaded cover. Notice that doesn’t even touch the marketing or promotion side!

Personally, I am quite happy to tackle many of these tasks myself. I’ve spent seven years as a QA lead at my 9-5 so my self-editing skills are quite sharp. That said, my work experience has also taught me the value of a second pair of eyes, which meant I hired a proofreader for this book before publishing, and not after. (Thank you, Autumn K. Reid!) I have a batch of ISBNs I bought from Bowker, like, ten years ago that I’m slowly working my way through. I’ve had my KDP account almost as long, so I’m aware of its eccentricities (though I do plan to expand to IngramSpark once I have some time to devote to learning it). I even do all my formatting myself in Microsoft Word, because that’s the kind of thing where you spend many frustrating, agonizing hours trying to figure it out on the front end, but it pays dividends later when you basically have your own custom template you can revisit again and again. These tasks are genuinely fun for me! I may be a recovering perfectionist, but I have found there’s a lot of joy in sending out work that’s polished, but maybe not flawless, because hey, it’s done.

One area I won’t touch with a ten foot pool skimmer is the cover. There are so many reasons for this. I am not an artist. I know nothing, NOTHING, about graphic design. I appreciate art and I took a studio art class in college where I learned to respect composition, form, light, color, all that jazz, but, here’s the kicker, that doesn’t mean I can do it.

I don’t know the right ratios. I don’t know the right color combinations, or how to turn an ISBN into a barcode. I don’t know how to get the spine width right. The fact that I kind of like Papyrus, a font that is universally mocked, tells you I know nothing about fonts. The weirdest part about all this, for me, is that I don’t care to learn how to do it, either. Could not care less!

And that is why I gladly hired the talented and professional Agata Broncel at Bukovero to design my cover for me. The cover for The Turncoat in Carrington Park was actually a pre-made cover I purchased from them last year. My budget was tight and I was searching for anything that vaguely looked like it would fit the aesthetic I wanted (that did not use AI). I saw that one on the website, asked some questions, and bought it. The customization was complete in maybe a couple weeks, though I can’t recall the exact timeline. It uploaded perfectly to KDP, zero issues, easy peasy, and it looks great in both ebook and print format.

Since I was working on a sequel this time around, I knew I’d have to go custom. I wanted a sense of continuity, so that it was obvious from a glance that the books belong together. This meant a higher price tag, but I knew the quality of work would be top notch. I reached out to Agata, who still had my original cover on file, and after some discussion we set up the order. I filled out a survey about the book and attached some pictures I had taken of the salt marsh near Beaufort back in the spring, for reference. The pictures were Not Great because I had snapped them from a moving car (I was not driving). When I tell you I’m generally bad at visual arts, believe it.