Cover Designer Interview – Candace Blevins

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Candace Blevins creates covers for urban fantasy, paranormal romance, contemporary BDSM romance, motorcycle club series, and others. We enjoyed having this Cover Designer Interview – Candace Blevins for our blog. Check out this fantastic Cover Designer and follow them for more amazing services.

Candace Blevins writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance, contemporary BDSM romance, and two kick-ass motorcycle club series. She creates covers for these genres and others.

https://www.candaceblevins.com/cover-art/

Candace lives with her husband of twenty-five years and their youngest daughter. Their oldest daughter has flown the nest but frequently comes home for visits. The family’s beloved, goofy, retired racing greyhounds are usually beside her, quietly keeping her company. Or sometimes not so quietly.

How did you get started down this path?

I’ve had graphics skills since the early nineties, so sometimes working with cover artists was frustrating. I started out with publishers, so I had no other options for the first decade of my writing career, but I’m self-pubbed as of three years ago, and I love having the freedom to create my own covers. Now that I’m branching out to help others, it’s nice to take a break from my writing to exercise different creative muscles and create professional covers and promo for other authors. I’ve learned from every cover designer I’ve worked with, plus I know how important getting just the right cover for your creation is.

Did you know you would become a Cover Designer when you were smaller?

Not at all. My degree is in accounting, but I went from accountant to project manager for a large commercial construction firm, and then I was an IT specialist for fifteen years. Then I started writing, and that eventually became my full-time job. Now, I’m adding cover design in and branching out because I love creating visually and with words.

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How long have you been Designing Book Covers?

I got frustrated with a cover designer way back in 2012, so I created the actual image for Safeword: Davenport, merging the pictures together better than she was managing, and the cover designer only did the text and extra shading under/around the text. I didn’t start creating covers entirely on my own until 2016.

What Influences your work?

I’ve spent a lot of time studying the difference between covers by major publishers versus indie covers. The publishers create covers so your eyes see the title and author first, and then the image. Indie covers tend to show off the image, so the title and author are an afterthought. I work hard to keep the title from being an afterthought while still making the image a strong component. So, the best of both, I suppose.

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What is your ideal work assignment?

An author who can clearly communicate what he or she is looking for, and ideally can show me a couple of covers with the general feel of what they’re going for. I keep costs low by having the author find the stock photo(s) they want me to use. In a perfect world, they all work together when there are multiple photos, but when they don’t, I can often find other shots of the same model(s) from an angle that allows me to put multiple people into the same image. I also love creating the promo images once I’ve created the cover.

Did you go to school for formal training, or has life and skill been your formal training?

I went to college in the late eighties, so there was nothing formal available. I dated a graphics genius in the mid-nineties, and he taught me the basics and more. This allowed me to offer graphics and web-designing services for my IT clients. Since then, I’ve taken a few courses and watched a lot of tutorials.

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What is your favorite photo? Can you describe it and why it’s your favorite?

My daughter is an artist, and she has four pieces she created as a set, each piece a large circle. They are the four mythical beasts of China, and each is gorgeous. I took hi-res photos of them and combined them into one image, so she could submit them into a contest as a single piece, and I love the look of them as a unit, with the four circles on a solid black background.

What type of editing software do you use for your craft?

My artist boyfriend primarily used software made specifically for artists rather than Photoshop, but he taught me how to use both. When I got home, I downloaded GIMP, figuring I’d use it to start out, and could switch to Photoshop later when I had the income from graphics work to justify the cost, but then I never made the switch. GIMP does everything I need.

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What genre do you design for?

Any kind of romance, non-fiction, women’s fiction, mystery, urban fantasy, and more. If you write in a genre I don’t feel comfortable creating a cover for; I’ll be honest and let you know.

What tips would you give to create the perfect cover?

Covers should look good filling the computer screen *and* as a tiny thumbnail. The title should be readable even at tiny sizes. It should follow the rules of the genre, so readers will recognize it as something they’ll be interested in right off the bat. Most of all, it should create interest and look professional. People say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but everyone does, and an amateur-looking cover is a big turn-off for most readers.

What are the must have’s when designing in your genre?

Paranormal romance with shifters should have the animal on the cover, even if it’s off in the background and tiny. It’s better up front with the person or people, but so long as it’s there, most readers will look to see if there are shifters involved, if they see a wolf, bear, or big cat on the cover. Most urban fantasy features a kick-ass female as the main character, and she should be front and center on the cover, looking like a complete badass.

Many covers put blood on the mouth or running down the chin to show when vampires are involved, but my vampires aren’t messy when they eat, so I use a tagline (A dark vampire romance).

Murder mysteries should look dark, rather than cheery, BDSM fiction does best with a flogger or paddle or other lifestyle implement somewhere on the cover. Every genre has visual ways to clue the reader in, to catch their attention and move them to the blurb.

How do you tell a story with your covers?

A cover artist once told me the cover is there to sell the book, not to illustrate it. They were right, of course, but I like it best when the cover can do both. I usually create my own covers somewhere around a third of the way through writing the first draft. I know the characters and setting well enough by then, and it’s a big bonus when I can write a scene that fits what the cover ends up showing. I did this before I started creating my own covers, and I still do it now that I’m making my own.

What does your design process look like?

Decide on person/people versus objects, find the perfect stock image(s), and then find the best background to show off the focal point. I usually decide on a color theme once I have the stock photo or photos and then search for the perfect font. I use the same fonts across series, so this is already decided for many of my books, and that’s a relief because finding the perfect font can be hard. I usually design the ebook cover first, thinking about how to expand it for the cover flat as I go.

As a Cover Designer, what do you struggle with the most?

For my own covers, I have to think like a cover designer rather than an author. When working with authors, I have to gently remind them of the important bits, like having a clear focal point and making sure the title is legible even at small sizes. Also, for smexy covers, making sure the author will be able to advertise the book on FB (if that’s a goal). Their guidelines for paid ads are a whole lot stricter than normal posting rules.

If you have the links to the books and/or authors you have designed covers for, please share so we can promote them.

I should probably add a line to my cover art form to get permission to show off the covers I create. I don’t feel comfortable doing so when I haven’t checked in with the authors about it, so for now, I can only show you my own covers I’ve created, which can be seen at: https://www.candaceblevins.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cover-art-examples.jpg.

My amazon author page is https://www.amazon.com/stores/Candace-Blevins/author/B004GOQJ5Q, and the most recent twenty-plus books are my cover creations. Thanks so much for having me on the blog today! I hope I’ve been able to help authors think about the best way to promote and show off their work!