Saltswept: From Vibes to Cover

It’s been an exciting few months for Saltswept and Soft Life Slow, my intermittent newsletter, rises from the depths!

In February, it was a thrill to see the announcement in The Bookseller. Mere months later, in June, we shared the absolutely stunning cover!

I wanted to share my experience of the cover design process as an author. I was incredibly grateful to have so much support and care from my team at Hodderscape. My Editor had requested an aesthetic, so I shared my moodboard for the project which I had compiled while drafting. Then I collated some covers in my genre which I felt vibed well with Saltswept. 

My Editor spoke to the Design department in-house and created a design brief, which was given to a Freelance Illustrator, who worked with the Cover Designer on the final image. I was shown a few different concepts for the cover and once everyone was in agreement, I was shown a detailed line drawing, then rough colours, and finally the detailed full-colour illustration.

The Cover Designer at Hodderscape, Natalie Chen, and the Cover Illustrator Jason Lyon, were both an absolute joy to work with. It means a lot to me that two Asian artists worked on this book’s cover, and they went above and beyond. Jason added so many little thoughtful details such as the sampaguita flowers and the rainbow eucalyptus tree.

I thought it was serendipitious that the font I had chosen for my playlist cover was the exact font chosen for the final cover. It was also lovely to be able to share Hannah Kaner’s very generous and thoughtful quote on the cover and I’m so grateful to everyone who has shared their joy and excitement about the novel’s journey so far.

Til next time, stay soft, light, slow,

Kat x