So, I’m not active on social media, other than the fact that I browse in lots of reading groups. Apparently, this has led people to believe that I’m not… real? That my books are written by computers?
Nah, every wild, nasty word on those pages comes straight from my brain.
Do I use AI to create my covers and images inside the books? Yep, you bet.
Story time.
When I first decided to write these, I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted my covers to look like. I’m visually creative, and even had examples drawn out of what I was looking for to help cover artists get inside my wacky brain.
I emailed over 70 artists. Of these, around a dozen responded to me. Of these, three stayed in contact after the initial round of emails. I picked one, sent them my reference materials, PAID THEM, and never heard back.
Okay, I’ll move on.
I sent the second my images, PAID THEM, and what I got back was lower quality than the references I emailed them to begin with. In order for them to change them, they wanted to be paid again.
Okay, I’ll move on.
My next attempt was one of those cheap, big websites that offers to do your cover for like, $49 or something. It was AWFUL.
Okay, I’ll move on.
Fourth artists, when I explained my experience so far, also said that if I wasn’t happy with what she produced, anything outside of minor edits would cost another full payment. She seemed very confident in her work, so, what did I do? PAID HER.
Are you seeing a trend here? Figured out where this is going?
At this point, I was out over $700 in unusable covers. So, I hiked up my big girl panties, and jumped over to Canva to see what I could do on my own. Did I use AI to generate my covers? Again, yep. Was it as simple as putting some words in a generator and hitting copy? No, no, it was not.
I spent DAYS putting together dozens of images, drawing and shading to make them blend, and honestly, it was kind of laughable at first how bad it was. But then I thought… you know, I’ll just embrace it.
The images inside the books were made because I was having fun helping to visualize what I was writing about, and I thought others might appreciate seeing it. Even if the quality was questionable, at best.
Come to Cupid was published, and that’s then the AI hate immediately rolled in. And to an extent, I understand it. But no one-not a single person-understood the headache I’d been through attempting to get my covers created.
So, I reached back out to another group of artists to redraw my work. Of this group of twenty-ish, I got three responses. One had great reviews, plenty of portfolio work, and so, I hired her. I PAID HER $750 to redo my pictures. I have no idea if that’s a fair rate, or cheap, or expensive, because at this point no one is being responsive in the least and I have a giant ol’ chip on my shoulder.
Cupid was published mid-December 2023. This artist was paid mid-January. It is now mid-March and I haven’t gotten a single response, so I’m writing it off as another loss.
So, before you jump on small, indie artists for using technology to fill in the gaps of their abilities, maybe hold your other artists to the same standard. There should be zero reason why I’m out $1500 with nothing to show for it. I did my due diligence, I checked out reviews and portfolios. I was nice, and easy to work with, because at heart I’m a people pleaser and I wanted nothing more than to build a mutually beneficial relationship, because although my skill level has increased, I’m still not an artist. And it takes me a long, long time to create these images that get so much criticism. Time that, as a mother of two, I don’t have to spare, but I do it anyways.