IWSG: What's in a cover?

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. This month's co-hosts are: Jacqui Murray, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Gwen Gardner!

February 1 question - If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?

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As of this writing, I'm a traditionally published author, with most of my work held by small presses. I do, however, have ambitions of becoming a hybrid author with the release of my first all-indie project later this year. It's daunting, but I feel like it's time. I've hired the cover already (I hired one of the artists who worked on my novels as a side, freelance job), so I just need to do the rest of the work--layout, formatting, ISBN, etc. and one more editing pass, and then I can send that baby out there into the world. 

For my traditionally published work, I've been fortunate to always work with folks who listen to my opinions and keep me involved in the process, but I'm the first to say that I am not a graphic artist, so while I will offer feedback and opinions, I trust to the professionals when it comes to things like branding across a series and making images that work not just on the book, but in thumbnail images on social media and anyplace else we might need to use them. 

These are my Menopausal Superhero books (so far--the fifth and final novel is still in the works) with Falstaff Books. 

The top row are the novels, and I love the way they work together, using the cityscape and pastels that become more vibrant as we move deeper into the series. They definitely let you know right away that these are women-centered, superhero works. 

The bottom row are the short works, and I love the way the stripes work to brand them all as a set, and the silhouettes echo the novels, to show how those connect. Agents of Change, is a collection of all the short works in a larger, single volume, so it kind of bridges the two looks. 

I can hardly wait to see what they come up with for that fifth and final novel and for the Omnibus editions we've been talking about! 

Fellow authors, what's your experience with book covers been like? And readers, what attracts or turns you off in cover art? I'd love to hear you thoughts in the comments!