Thanks to the hundreds of people who voted in the Indie Cover Hall of Fame competition. The response was amazing, and we had some truly brilliant covers to choose from! And thanks to cover designers Berni Stevens, Bryan Hamilton and Chris Howard for sharing their advice with us for free.
OK, so here are the results of the public vote:
1st Place
Nominated by Helen Hart
2nd Place
Nominated by Cathy Bramley
3rd Place
Nominated by my good self!
It was a pretty close-run thing, I can tell you! All the covers nominated for the competition were worthy winners, and a fantastic showcase for the standard indie authors can achieve. You can click on the book cover to go straight to the Amazon link and buy! The only one of these three I’ve read so far is Unravelling (a brilliant book, well worth a read), but the others look fascinating too.
Now for the choices of our professional cover designers. Bryan’s favourite was The Seven Steps To Closure by Donna Joy Usher, and both Berni and Chris opted for Don’t Tell The Groom, which I have to confess was my favourite too. Chris said: “Great use of illustrations to frame the cover and great use of the dress silhouette to house the text.”
I’ll be contacting the authors of the winning titles and inviting them to come on the blog and talk about their cover design processes. In the meantime, let me know if you’ve enjoyed this competition and I’ll run it again next year. This post marks the last in my We’ve Got it Covered series – details of all the posts can be found in the Self-Publishing Guide link above.
So, over to you – what do you think of the winning covers? Were you disappointed not to see your favourites here? What do you think they all have in common? (Or don’t have in common?) Looking forward to reading your comments …
I am thrilled out of my socks to win, Joanne. Against such strong competition, too. I would have found it impossible difficult to choose. But, of course, I am still in love with my own cover.
Thank you so much for running the competition – it’s certainly raised the profile of indie covers and shown how beautiful and clever they can be. I will now go and quietly recover from the delightful shock of winning.
Well deserved, Alison – a lovely cover, and clearly the outstanding favourite for the people who voted
Good look with the launch, Jo x
I think I voted for unravelled. It was a difficult choice because they were all such great covers! Congratulations to Alison
Thank you, Rebecca. I’m still recovering from the surprise – all the covers were so attractive. The big plus is that I’ve discovered some new books to read…
Unravelling is a great cover too, Rebecca – Lindsay’s was the first self-published book I bought as a paperback and I could not believe the quality of it. It’s a beautiful book, in every way. x
Thank you, Jo. What a lovely thing to say.
Congrats to Alison! A stunning design!! And thank you to Joanne for showcasing indie book cover design! I was very honoured and humbled to be among the finalist!!
Thanks, Cathy, that’s very kind.
Hi Cathy, Thanks for your comment – I love Sea Witch, it’s a stunning cover. (Actually, Sea Witch was joint 4th in the votes!) Maybe you’ll come back next year and be one of the professional judges for 2014′s competition?
Joanne, I would be honoured!!! Yes, please do keep me in mind for 2014′s competition! I would love to help out. It is extremely important to showcase that indie books can be published with the same level of professionalism as any mainstream novel. And the cover is the first thing that any potential reader sees.
Thank you and bless you for the generous compliment on the Sea Witch cover! And wow! 4th! I’m flabbergasted and thrilled to know it received so many votes! I think all of the covers were just brilliant!
Well done to all the winners – and also to those who didn’t win, because they were all really super designs. Great idea to run this competition every year – it’s a really interesting showcase for just how good indie cover designs can be, and I can’t think of anywhere else where you’d have the chance to see so many brought together all in one place. Well done, Jo, for organising!
Seconded!
Thanks, Debbie – I will! Joel Freidlander runs a great cover design competition each month on his blog, and Joel is the design guru – I’m so happy that so many people got involved in my little comp!
x
I couldn’t agree more!!
I’m delighted to have come third in the cover competition. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for Unravelling. Congratulations especially to Alison for winning, and also to Cathy for their covers – lovely designs! It’s interesting to see how different the three covers are from each other, and yet each works. Thank you, Jo, for organising such an interesting competition – and for nominating Unravelling. In case anyone’s thinking of buying the ebook, hang on, as it will shortly be at a new lower price of £1.99!
I was definitely going to buy Unravelling, Lindsay, and will look out for the lower price. Ditto INCEPTIO which will be on a special launch price on Friday for five days.
If these covers are the starting benchmark, I can see this competition becoming very popular in future years.
Thanks, Alison. Just to let you know, it’s now at the lower price. I’ll look out for your launch offers. Congratulations again on your win!
Hi Lindsay, That’s so nice of you to let us know about a bargain! Are you running a short promotion or going with a permanent lower price? Jo x
Not entirely sure yet, Jo. The lower price seems right in terms of the length of time Unravelling has been out, and thinking of my next novel’s publication later this year, so it might be permanent, or not. And it is NOW £1.99!
Hi Joanne. Delighted to see Don’t Tell The Groom featured as runner-up to INCEPTIO (which is a fabulous cover). I designed that cover for Anna Bell (who briefed marvellously by the way…always the secret!) and it’s great to be featured in such good company. Thanks for your kind words.
I’m a bit late to the party, but just wanted to say HUGE congratulations to everyone who entered. There were some superb covers and really good design work. I’ve also picked up a few samples on Kindle for new books, which is great. I agree with everyone who’s suggested this should be a regular competition. As Cathy H said, it’s vital to show that indie books can be published with the same level of professionalism as any mainstream novel.
Our INCEPTIO designer, Ali, is overwhelmed at seeing her work win. We were chatting this morning and she said that it was lovely to work with author Alison Morton who offered a clear brief and some excellent cues for Roman styling. Ali worked hard to ensure the design works for paperback and ebook formats, and also as a thumbnail online (the latter because, of course, that’s where most people will see it first).
Thank you to everyone who voted!
I voted for Unravelling because I found it intriguing. I didn’t look any of them up to see what they were about and it just goes to show the power of a cover. I probably would never buy Inceptio because it looks like the type of book The Hubster would read, and Dont Tell The Groom just screamed chick lit at me. Will NOW check them all out on Amazon
Well done to the winners!
Xx
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