Book cover - Back cover

The need for a jaw dropping front cover drove the hiring of a photographer, make-up artist and model. Part of the plan was to also create imagery for the back cover at the same time. Unfortunately it was only after the shoot I realised the back cover images didn't work when contrasted against the front cover, and that was here to stay. The back would need to be uniquely stylised in a different way - if the front was of Sarah at an advanced stage in the story, the back would now show her in a moment from the beginning. Somehow.

A result of the photographer's planning and schedule for the photo-shoot was a good number of 'before' pictures, although many were unusable as they were taken while we were still figuring the 'Sarah look'. The bonus though of hiring a professional model was we got so many different looks and one image in particular stood out.

Except of course you can't just throw a very sharp image of a model in a jacket stood in front of a white screen onto the back of a book. In my mind it needed to be stylised with a blurred background that told a little of the early story. So I packed my digital camera and went into town. I got pictures of park benches, the pond, the canal, lots of the high street and every alley I could find.

The next stage was a problem. While I'd always known I would create the book cover, I'd never imagined THIS journey! At this stage I needed to create concept art, something I could give to the book's designers. The trouble was I had no idea how I was going to do this. I knew I would use Photoshop but hadn't spent any time getting to grips with its complex and broad features. With two weeks to create stylish concepts for both the back and front cover I needed to learn fast. Thankfully the internet took me to Amazon where I found Scott Kelby on Kindle and Google kept pulling me to a website called lynda.com - a site full of Photoshop video tutorials for free. I studied Scott on the train and Lynda at nights and soon I'd almost mastered Selections and Masks in Photoshop. Now I could try and create my image.

A lesson I learned while writing the book is that you probably don't know if something's going to work unless you try it. And that you should try everything because the idea you settle on will probably only come from trying everything else. This happens so often, at least in my creative realm and it's admittedly exhausting. As I tested the different images it became clear those of the high street/canal/park bench weren't going to cut it. A wistful Sarah with these backdrops rekindled the nemesis of non-fiction. Fortunately I had quite a few shots of alleys and one in particular stood out for its perspective and the texture of the bricks that looked quite foreboding.

I cut out the left section of the alley and moved it over to create a narrower sense of perspective. Then to make the image darker I used a cut out from a different shot of the alley to block the light at the end. All I needed now was Sarah and to stylise! Fortunately cutting Sarah from her existing image wasn't too difficult once I almost understood Channels and Layer Masks and how to Refine Edges. Photoshop also has some incredible features for blending two images together although my lack of knowledge meant I didn't quite get this right. Once Sarah was placed in the alley she needed resizing and then it was all about stylising. I needed to take away the sharpness from Sarah and have the perspective pull you into the image - playing with and eventually using an assortment of blur effects.Then I blended colour tones across the whole image. I wanted the shadows to contrast but I needed a light tone as Sarah starts the book in the best place in her life she has ever been.

And then once everything was blended and styled I cropped the image down to fit the back of the book and still have room enough on the space across the wall for the back of the book blurb. The book design people may take one look at the image and giggle hysterically at my Photoshop kudos and blow out their cheeks at the 500 technical aspects for a back cover I got wrong, or never thought of. But I'm pretty sure the back cover will look something like this.

Finding Sarah

The book cover for Chasing Innocence will feature the shadowed and somewhat determined and fraught features of the books female lead: Sarah Sawacki.

Stock Image #1 - Great Look, but...

That sounded simple, didn't it? Now onto the reality. In finding the right image of 'Sarah' I exhaustively searched through shutterstock, dreamstime, iStockphoto and so many more stock photo libraries. I found a bunch of faces that met the criteria for the shadowed look but not for how I imagined Sarah. And a bunch of images that hinted at how I imagined Sarah but didn't give me the shadowed look. The look is important. This is thriller fiction and the image needs to very clearly state this. The images I found all spoke of Non-Fiction, which I needed to avoid.

Stock Image #2 Which I loved, but...

And I have to admit, I considered no one might match what I thought Sarah Sawacki looked like. So I started wondering how much it might cost to do the photos myself? It sounds crazy but I did think that. I hatched a scheme where I was going to print business cards and hand them out to women that might be Sarah and invite them to send me face to camera photos of themselves. The trouble was, well there was endless trouble with that approach. Not least the most important delimiter - time. I didn't immediately abandon it though, although fortunately I quickly realised me and my Canon EOS, more so me, probably weren't upto the job. So I started looking for photographers, preferably one that was local. The first photographer that impressed me specialised in glamour and listed the models he used on his website. Browsing through the models I wondered whether I could find one that looked like Sarah. A thought I'd had before but searches had only ever taken me to modelling agencies with very expensive looking websites. It occurred to me the photographer's model portfolios were linked to a separate website - a community site that was an advertising focus for photographers and models - that covered everything from editorial, fashion, headshot, lingerie, body part (hands and legs and the sort, I think), glamour, nude and adult imagery. I typed my detailed criteria for 'Sarah' into the sites search dialogue, which immediately returned zero hits. So I narrowed it to 'blond female' and spent many jolly hours looking at model profiles. I probably did get a little sidetracked at times.

Monika

You quickly learn there are different levels of models - the stunning ones who think looking good is everything, good looking ones who also think looking good is everything, and some that I couldn't fathom why they were even there. A few leapt from the page, not just because they were amazing, but because they possessed some quality beyond looks. I think it starts from inside, mostly it's in the eyes. I clicked on the next profile in the long list and was suddenly staring at a woman sat on a chair wearing a bikini and a cardigan. She seemed for all the sexiness, to be smiling with a quite enchanting innocent abandon.

The model was called Monika and she had her own website which I clicked on. And suddenly I was looking at almost everything I ever imagined Sarah Sawacki to be. Even more important, was she brought character to every single image. It was breathtaking and a little unnerving. It was an incredible realisation, thrilling and very daunting - surely her rates would make me weep.

They didn't as it turned out, in fact it would seem the focus of any photo shoot - the model, strangely seems to be the least expensive of all. The next day I had Monika's hourly rate and two days later she agreed to do the shoot. I found a photographer who didn't focus on glamour, purely because I didn't want the images to be erotic in any way - John Wood had a style I did want in my images.

Caitlin and Monika

Soon enough and much fraught organising later Monika was stood in John Wood's studio. The lights flashed and John photographed while Monika did her little dance as she moved between poses. This John, the Potter John, was officially the creative director, busily watching images appear on the laptop screen and trying not to be too Gestapo. We lunched and Caitlin arrived to do what she does best, which is special effects make-up and soon enough Monika really, really looked like the Sarah of Chasing Innocence. Together everyone delivered time and time again, pictures appeared on the laptop that previously only existed as fuzzy concepts in my mind. A real moment for anyone that invested so much in bringing the thought of a story this far.

John W, Monika, Caitlin, John P

I had definitely found Sarah in Monika, and in Caitlin and John I had found people to help me realise the vision. In fact, the truth was I had more than I could have hoped for. I now realised I had another problem. I had 400+ images to choose from and at least 100 that were each valid candidates for the book cover. Almost all but the test images were suitable for use in poster or website media. I was now spoilt for choice, how the hell am I going to find the image I had always imagined as the book cover?