Have you ever wondered how to find the perfect artist for your cover? When I first self-published the Hannah Kline series, I had fun designing my own covers, but when Third Street Press took over my series and began publishing the second edition, we needed a professional. Fortunately the publisher had an artist she had worked with extensively, and he designed the first three covers and established the “brand.” Then, he retired. What to do?

I suggested we try setting up a contest on 99 Design. To be sure we would get plenty of submissions, my publisher reviewed the portfolios of many of their top and mid level designers, selected those whose work she thought was a particularly good fit, and invited them to submit. We also offered a higher fee as an incentive for the winner, and paid a little extra to have our contest listed prominently. We got over a hundred submissions, many of which were terrific. It was a challenging choice, but we finally picked a winner–Kristin Bryant.

The perfect cover artist is someone who is not only artistically and technically talented, but willing to work cooperatively with both the writer and publisher to make changes, and who will respond promptly to requests for the next cover. We are thrilled to have found her and I look forward to having her design all the rest of my Hannah Kline books.