In the Beginning
My first book designer was a holdover from my corporate days. I figured, “good enough for Company X, good enough for me.” He was talented, professional, competitively priced.
In our collaboration, I stumbled through feedback focused solely on what wasn’t working in his designs. And that wasn’t working for our relationship. We completed the project and went our separate ways.
Key Learning:
I didn’t have the relational skills to first acknowledge what worked before plowing into “the fix.”
Every professional endeavor has two categorical components: task and relationship. I had yet to learn how to incorporate “relationship” into the “task” of a professional design project.
After this experience, I took advice from the fictional mother in Smokey Robinson’s hit, “You Better Shop Around.” I asked friends to suggest candidates. One gal with whose skills I was enamored had an impressive corporate client roster. She was hesitant though, to work with another indie author. Too many “AAs” she said. “Author’s alterations.”
This gal had excellent boundaries. I appreciated she was on “task,” but I couldn’t move beyond her brisk relational style. So many restrictions on our potential partnership felt like graphic design prenup.
The designer I eventually worked with delivered 10 compositions (five more than proposed) and had taken longer than the others to complete them. They were polished, not drafts. Apart from being immensely skilled, he openly expressed enthusiasm for the project. We worked well together. I had become more fluent in humane, professional communications with a fellow artist. The cover especially was fun.
The book’s interior though, wore him down. I didn’t see the end of our relationship until it was upon me. He had quoted a flat vs. hourly rate (which Prenup Gal billed at $200 for “Authors Alterations”). For every typo, punctuation and writing style change (embarrassingly numerous) he never charged extra. That first gal had boundaries like a brick wall. This designer, practically none. Without being aware of it at the time, neither did I.
When I attempted to contract him for more book covers. He “phoned in” the designs, overpromised and undelivered. “I’ll have it in two days.” When a week passed, I called. Several corporate clients had rush jobs, so he tabled mine.
Key Learning:
Fellas, when it’s over, say so.
Ladies, learn from me: don’t take a good thing for granted.
That high-maintenance client who’s costing you more than the fee rendered? That was me, too. The designer kicking our partnership to the curb was good for his business and my ego. Humble pie anyone? It peeled away yet another layer of awareness about my writer-designer relational skills. (Um, they needed work.)
My third designer I found through an Internet ad. There’s a book in that story and it’s not the one I was writing when I contracted with him.
After that debacle, I took myself off the market, reflected on design partnerships one, two and three before considering a fourth.
Key Learning:
Obtain references when contracting with a designer from an Internet ad.
Back to the future
Designer #4 was attached when I met him – to the self-publishing firm that printed my first four books. Three years after working with that firm I needed a new Webmaster. An instinct told me to ask them for a referral. Eureka! The designer they employed also owned a consulting business.
When I inquired about his book cover services I received from him this email:
My flat fee for this project is $X.
Your 50 percent deposit starts the project.
I accept check (send here), credit card (link here) or PayPal.
When I receive your deposit it’s typically one week before I deliver 3-4 comps.
The quoted price includes three revisions for the selected design.
Hourly fee is $X for additional changes.
Though his email didn’t have the warm and fuzzies I experienced with the first three designers I hired, his communications were clear. Neither was there gushing about my project nor a brick wall. When I conducted the equivalent of a first-date Google search, I learned he has voluminous indie author clients and is freakishly productive.
From his Web site:
Striving to provide creative, professional and flexible services as quickly and cost - effectively as possible.
The artist, whose relationship style initially struck me as not particularly “sexy” (to use ad-design parlance), turned out to be a “hot date.” We have never met and reside in different regions of the United States. We’ve worked together more than five years during which he’s designed covers for 10 of my 13 books (and counting). Also, he manages my Web site.
One of the primary relationships of my life is with my art. I’ve learned to nurture partners – designers, editors, pre-publication readers, agents, and book distributors – as I would a respected friend.
Key Learning:
That’s why I emailed my designer a draft of this post for his sign off before I published it to the World Wide Web.
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