The One Agency: I Always Judge A Book By It’s Cover by Abiola Bello

When it comes to children’s books, a cover says it all. The more colourful it is, in my opinion, the better. It draws you in straight away and any children’s books I see with a weak cover, I usually tend to ignore.

I love Jacqueline Wilson’s, Roald Dahl’s covers as they have a signature look about them but I also love J.K. Rowling’s covers because each cover is a small snippet of the actual storyline.

Picking a great cover was very important to me. I’m a loud, colourful person and I wanted a cover to show that side of me. I desperately wanted a ‘wow’ cover. One of my favourite covers is the Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire cover, I know this may sound weird but Harry looks pretty hot in the picture plus the dragon is amazing. So I checked the credits and found Giles Greenfield.

I’m not from a massive publishing house, I’m a young self-published author, why the hell would Giles work with me? When he must get major contracts from the big guys. But I found his email and sent him a message. No-one was more shocked than me when he actually replied and then said yes and made the best cover ever (who cares of I’m biased?)

Prior to Giles, I was working with a very talented friend who was designing my cover but for some reason, my vision wasn’t coming out. It was frustrating because I knew what I wanted but I couldn’t explain it and all through the process I kept thinking about Giles but I was so scared to email him. Thank God I did because it was magic.

Don’t settle on a cheap cover. Don’t settle period! I could of easily gone for the cover my publishers made me but if it’s not your vision, it’s not worth it. Especially if you’re a debut author, you have to set a high standard. I’m so excited about my cover for the 2^nd Emily Knight book!! I have an idea of what I want but I know it will be even better than the last, and that’s a good place to be.

Research, research, research illustrators or better yet just contact the illustrator of your favourite cover like I did. You have to hold that book and show it off to the world so you better be proud of how it looks.

by Abiola Bello