# Finding book cover design(er)s for Black/African American Novel *UPDATE*



## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Hi, I'm at the stage of getting my first novel together where I'm ready for my cover design. This novel is Sci-Fi Romance (maybe Paranormal Romance, I can't exactly pinpoint it). The heroine is Black, the hero is Native American. I have done some research, looked at recommendations and emailed a few designers, even perused premades and it makes me more and more frustrated every time.

Although I'm happy for anyone to read my novel, the book's target audience is black women , 25-40. I want those women to look at the cover and see a reflection of themselves. In my head I imagine a cover similar to one of Amanda Hocking's, but with a strong Black female on it. All I keep coming up with is big-bootied women dressed like street walkers standing in front of pimped out cars or sprawled on a bed. That is great for urban fiction and erotica, but that isn't the crowd my book is targeted to. Why can't our covers be more diverse than that?

Am I looking in the wrong places? I know many cover designers are willing to work with me, but I don't want to get into hundreds of dollars of commitment with someone and not get what I'm looking for, because they don't understand the audience.

...am I making sense? I really don't want to come off as haughty or condescending. I'm just very new at this whole thing and want my first impression to be the right one.


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## Guest (Feb 11, 2015)

https://jhillustration.wordpress.com/

Jen was great to work with. If the covers you see on my post are green, these are the "before" covers, not the ones she did for me.


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## Lizzie G (Oct 12, 2012)

Stephanie,

Check out James from GoOnWrite.com. He's done all of my covers. He does amazing work. There's lots of options for designs depending on what you are willing to pay. But he also has great pre-made covers for 40$.


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## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Lizzie G said:


> Stephanie,
> 
> Check out James from GoOnWrite.com. He's done all of my covers. He does amazing work. There's lots of options for designs depending on what you are willing to pay. But he also has great pre-made covers for 40$.


Thanks, Lizzie. Actually, I keep looking all over and going back to his site. He's at the top of my list and I've heard a lot of good things. Nice to hear one more.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

This site has black models in premade covers. Just enter "black" in the search and see if you like what they have to offer. Prices are reasonable too.

http://www.selfpubbookcovers.com/


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## Courtney Milan (Feb 27, 2011)

You're not haughty or condescending. It's nearly impossible to find stock photos with pictures of racial minorities on them. I share your pain.

At this point, I have basically resigned myself to doing photoshoots.

That being said, my friend Jenn LeBlanc is a photographer who has done some of her own photoshoots, and she has some pictures that might work for you:

http://jennleblanc.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/ALICIA/C00007kmKwl.ojT0

All of these images are available only as exclusives, though, and that's a hefty price tag for an image.

You might also look into Taria Reed, who is both a cover designer and a photographer. She has a TON of multiracial stock on her site: http://thereedfiles.photoshelter.com/

[And by "a ton," I mean "more usable stock photos of black women that would work on book covers than all of shutterstock combined."]


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Leslye Penelope on these boards has the most gorgeous cover with an African American woman on it, and it seems it was done by Bookfly design. Maybe you could get in touch with them?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PYWRNKO/?tag=heartspell-20


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> You're not haughty or condescending. It's nearly impossible to find stock photos with pictures of racial minorities on them. I share your pain.


I just want to echo, you're not being haughty or condescending. It's hard finding non-sexualized images of women anyways, but women of color, even more so.

I don't have any advice, just wanted to empathize and wish you the best of luck.


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## LanelleH (Jul 4, 2013)

I know the feeling, there's endless amounts of stock photos with non-woc in high quality *beautiful* images, I gave up my search a long time ago.  I tell myself I'll just hire my own models/photographers for future covers if I could afford it.


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## cvannatta (Jul 6, 2014)

Totally agree with previous comments about your lack of condescending-ness. If your heroine is African American, then the model on your cover should be, too.

Knowing my present science fiction romance series would have multi-racial main characters, even though the first book has two (mostly) Caucasian characters, I chose the more expensive route and hired an illustrator, so I could tell him exactly what I wanted. The main characters for my WIP are an Asian male and African American female and her son, and I even had trouble finding non-insulting photos of African American women just for reference. And every stock photo site seems to believe Chinese men should have at least one shot in a "martial arts" pose. (Cue eye roll.)


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## Shelley K (Sep 19, 2011)

I second Taria Reed.


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> Leslye Penelope on these boards has the most gorgeous cover with an African American woman on it, and it seems it was done by Bookfly design. Maybe you could get in touch with them?
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PYWRNKO/?tag=heartspell-20


That cover is absolutely gorgeous.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

ShayneRutherford said:


> That cover is absolutely gorgeous.


It's beautiful, isn't it? I think it's one of the best covers I've seen on Kboards.


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> It's beautiful, isn't it? I think it's one of the best covers I've seen on Kboards.


Yep. It's stunning.


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## Jennifer Lewis (Dec 12, 2013)

A lot of authors recommend Kimberly Killion's cover design service http://thekilliongroupinc.com and she also has a stock photo arm (Hot Damn Stock) where they've made an effort to shoot models of different ethnicities. Just glancing over there I saw something like this might be up your alley: http://hotdamnstock.com/shop/page/2/?adv_search=wc&post_type=product&relation=AND&tax%5B0%5D=none&op%5B0%5D=IN&s=african+american+woman&min_price=0&max_price=30
I haven't worked with them but might be worth a call to see if they can help.

I do my own covers and finding the stock is always stressful and time consuming!


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> It's beautiful, isn't it? I think it's one of the best covers I've seen on Kboards.


I think it's one of the best covers I've seen.
Anywhere.


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## Lizzie G (Oct 12, 2012)

Go with her! I concur with everyone. It looks beautiful.


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## Maia Sepp Ross (May 10, 2013)

Lydniz said:


> It's beautiful, isn't it? I think it's one of the best covers I've seen on Kboards.


+1. It's fantastic.


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## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> Leslye Penelope on these boards has the most gorgeous cover with an African American woman on it, and it seems it was done by Bookfly design. Maybe you could get in touch with them?
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PYWRNKO/?tag=heartspell-20


Wow, very nice!


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## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Martitalbott said:


> This site has black models in premade covers. Just enter "black" in the search and see if you like what they have to offer. Prices are reasonable too.
> 
> http://www.selfpubbookcovers.com/


There have been a couple of covers on there I've considered. They are still a possibility.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Try http://thereedfiles.photoshelter.com/#!/index

example -


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Nevermind lol Courtney already mentioned it


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## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Wansit said:


> Try http://thereedfiles.photoshelter.com/#!/index


I did look at those, and I liked the diversity on those and on the Hot Damn images as well.


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## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Courtney Milan said:


> That being said, my friend Jenn LeBlanc is a photographer who has done some of her own photoshoots, and she has some pictures that might work for you:


I looked at this, and I found the two models that look more like my characters than any other site so far:

http://jennleblanc.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/ANTOINETTE/G0000G3CpUysuCW4/I0000SrVrwfOv9NY/C0000ZS4_KysFcBA

I saw there were non-exclusive licenses that were more affordable, and I will look into this more. Thanks, Courtney!


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

I can empathise with this. It's even harder when you want the model in period costume. My cover artist had to swap heads onto dresses and play around with skin tone on my three covers that feature a black woman in Victorian times. A good cover artist can do this with stock images for around $100 for an ebook cover. Here's what my cover artist came up with:


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## Marcella (Mar 22, 2013)

I highly recommend Tyora Moody at www.tywebbincreations.com.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

I'm running into a similar problem. My latest novel is about a Buffalo Soldier in the Korean war era...  Try finding a stock photo for that one! I finally found a historic archival photo that I'm hoping will work. Fingers crossed.


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## Nana Malone (Dec 31, 2011)

Stephanie, I feel you. It's something I've struggled with since I started.  Like Courtney suggested, The Reed Files are awesome. And Kim Killion is my go to designer.  Even if something isn't quite right, she'd modify an image to make it work.  Like if I want complexion darkened or something, she'll do it, so anything is possible.

And no, not at all haughty or condescending. I agree that there are a plethora of hyper-sexualized images of AA women. What I wouldn't give for images like Bella Andre uses, but with black women.


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## Mr. Sparkle (Oct 8, 2014)

Thank you to the OP for starting this thread. I also was in need of a lot more PoC cover for future projects. CJ, those covers are beautiful. I'm sorry your designer had to resort to head-swapping, but she did a great job, if that's any consolation. On my TBR pile!


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## Melody Simmons (Jul 8, 2012)

I occasionally post mixed-racial / AA paranormal romance and UF premade covers to these sections of my website. I must warn I have a few regular customers who usually purchase them all quite quickly, but right now there are two sets left and one single cover I think...

https://bookcoverscre8tive.com/premade-book-covers-urban-fantasy/

https://bookcoverscre8tive.com/premade-book-covers-urban-fantasy-paranormal-romance/


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## Annette_g (Nov 27, 2012)

Courtney Milan said:


> http://jennleblanc.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/ALICIA/C00007kmKwl.ojT0
> 
> You might also look into Taria Reed, who is both a cover designer and a photographer. She has a TON of multiracial stock on her site: http://thereedfiles.photoshelter.com/
> 
> [And by "a ton," I mean "more usable stock photos of black women that would work on book covers than all of shutterstock combined."]


They were the two I was going to suggest as well


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

Dar Albert of Wicked Smart Designs has done all of my covers and she's terrific to work with. She's reasonable, and she's a talented graphic designer. She can give you what you want. Her web address is http://www.wickedsmartdesigns.com/


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

CJ - those are absolutely gorgeous!!


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

Mr. Sparkle said:


> Thank you to the OP for starting this thread. I also was in need of a lot more PoC cover for future projects. CJ, those covers are beautiful. I'm sorry your designer had to resort to head-swapping, but she did a great job, if that's any consolation. On my TBR pile!





Wansit said:


> CJ - those are absolutely gorgeous!!


Thank you both. The post above is the first time I've lined the 3 up together (haven't even done a proper reveal for the 3rd yet) and I have to say, they look good like that. I'm ridiculously happy with them.


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## Stephanie Marks (Feb 16, 2015)

CJArcher said:


> I can empathise with this. It's even harder when you want the model in period costume. My cover artist had to swap heads onto dresses and play around with skin tone on my three covers that feature a black woman in Victorian times. A good cover artist can do this with stock images for around $100 for an ebook cover. Here's what my cover artist came up with:


These are amazing. Absolutely gorgeous. I'll have to keep this in mind for the future. Swap the heads and fiddle with the skin tone!


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## Fictionista (Sep 14, 2012)

CJArcher said:


> I can empathise with this. It's even harder when you want the model in period costume. My cover artist had to swap heads onto dresses and play around with skin tone on my three covers that feature a black woman in Victorian times. A good cover artist can do this with stock images for around $100 for an ebook cover. Here's what my cover artist came up with:


These are stunning....absolutely STUNNING.


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## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Just to let you guys know, I used Kalen O'Donnell http://coverdesigns.kalenodonnell.com/ and we worked together to come up with a beautiful cover for my first novel:










I think he did a great job! Thanks again, Kalen!


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## LG Castillo (Jun 28, 2012)

Stephanie Tsikrikas said:


> Just to let you guys know, I used Kalen O'Donnell http://coverdesigns.kalenodonnell.com/ and we worked together to come up with a beautiful cover for my first novel:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


OMG! I love it! Can't wait to read the book!


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

That's a great cover. I'm glad you managed to find something you liked. Best of luck with the book!


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## anewwriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Their covers have a more Urban Street Lit feel...but have you tried Dynasty Cover Me? http://www.dynastyscoverme.com/.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Stephanie Tsikrikas said:


> Hi, I'm at the stage of getting my first novel together where I'm ready for my cover design. This novel is Sci-Fi Romance (maybe Paranormal Romance, I can't exactly pinpoint it). The heroine is Black, the hero is Native American. I have done some research, looked at recommendations and emailed a few designers, even perused premades and it makes me more and more frustrated every time.
> 
> Although I'm happy for anyone to read my novel, the book's target audience is black women , 25-40. I want those women to look at the cover and see a reflection of themselves. In my head I imagine a cover similar to one of Amanda Hocking's, but with a strong Black female on it. All I keep coming up with is big-bootied women dressed like street walkers standing in front of pimped out cars or sprawled on a bed. That is great for urban fiction and erotica, but that isn't the crowd my book is targeted to. Why can't our covers be more diverse than that?
> 
> ...


Stephanie, I'm coming in late, but I highly recommend Skyla at Indigo Chick Designs in the future if you run into cover issues again (http://skyladawncameron.com/indigochickdesigns/product-category/cover-art/premade-cover/ ) I know she has done covers with WOC on them and is very sensitive to the depiction of WOC on book covers. Her prices aren't very high, she's normally fast (if she can't be fast, she will let you know - she's excellent with that).

You are 100% right that there aren't a lot of WOC covers/stock images - and even less when you remove the sexy-sexy ones.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

That's a beautiful cover, Stephanie!!


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Something I found yesterday that you all might be interested in. A kickstarter for MOSIAC Stock. They'll specialize in diverse stock art.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elisemarion/mosaic-stock


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Stephanie, I'm coming in late, but I highly recommend Skyla at Indigo Chick Designs in the future if you run into cover issues again (http://skyladawncameron.com/indigochickdesigns/product-category/cover-art/premade-cover/ ) I know she has done covers with WOC on them and is very sensitive to the depiction of WOC on book covers. Her prices aren't very high, she's normally fast (if she can't be fast, she will let you know - she's excellent with that).
> 
> You are 100% right that there aren't a lot of WOC covers/stock images - and even less when you remove the sexy-sexy ones.


I second this. Skyla is a great cover artist.


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## legion (Mar 1, 2013)

Stephanie Tsikrikas said:


> Just to let you guys know, I used Kalen O'Donnell http://coverdesigns.kalenodonnell.com/ and we worked together to come up with a beautiful cover for my first novel:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sweet! Congrats!
Looks great.


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## Leslye Penelope (Mar 10, 2014)

I'm all kinds of late, I just wanted to say thanks for the cover love. James from Bookfly did have to combine several images to create the character on my book cover. It was something I was really concerned about and he did an amazing job. But it's a neverending battle ... I'm seriously considering doing a photo shoot for book 2, because if you think finding appropriate photos of black women is hard, doing so for black men is nearly impossible. 

I've already supported that Kickstarter campaign, I'm so glad it exists! Thanks for posting!

To the OP, your cover turned out great - when I scroll through Amazon and see POC on book covers it still makes me excited because it's still relatively rare, especially in genres outside of IR or AA-specific.


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## DidEverythingButThink (Jun 25, 2012)

Great cover and keep up the good work. Thanks for bringing up this topic too!


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

Wansit said:


> Something I found yesterday that you all might be interested in. A kickstarter for MOSIAC Stock. They'll specialize in diverse stock art.
> 
> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elisemarion/mosaic-stock


That Kickstarter campaign is a fantastic idea. I'm very excited that it exists, even though I don't use stock photography for my cover art (wouldn't fit with the feel of my stories).


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

CJArcher said:


> I can empathise with this. It's even harder when you want the model in period costume. My cover artist had to swap heads onto dresses and play around with skin tone on my three covers that feature a black woman in Victorian times. A good cover artist can do this with stock images for around $100 for an ebook cover. Here's what my cover artist came up with:


Also, those covers are STUNNING. I'd totally be interested. When I clicked on the first book, though, all I saw at the top of the description was a bunch of quotes about how good it was? It would have been better if I could've read a few lines about the premise, because it lost my attention just as quickly when I couldn't see what it was about. 

But back on topic, YES MORE COVER ART WITH MINORITIES. I also loved that she mentioned plus-size women. Speaking as a woman who is definitely "size healthy" (well, okay, more than that after I got pregnant with twins . . .), I feel like that's another "minority," in cover art at least, and having the option to have it represented would be great. (I'm sure there are romance authors, or women's fiction authors, who envision their characters as being a bit more substantial than twiggy!)


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