Self-Published Authors
In addition to the book covers I’ve designed for my publishing clients I also work directly with authors looking to self-publishing through such platforms as Create Space.
The Year After, by psychoanalyst Ashley Warner, is an honest, courageous, and inspiring chronicle of Warner’s recovery from a rape she experienced as a young woman in New York. Warner brings a forward-looking perspective to the book while remaining true to her arduous journey of recovery. The result is an empowering memoir about the courage to heal and the promise of peace. When Warner approached me to design the cover for her book we discussed different concept options and decided to focus on illustrating year after the rape when she walked around New York observing the changing of the seasons. The final design avoids any direct reference to the trauma of Warner’s story, focusing rather on the process of healing and change she underwent. The book has received considerable praise from readers and journals, including this from Kirkus Reviews: “An honest, moving and inspirational memoir of recovery.”
Filmmaker Ephraim Horowitz (Machiavelli Rises and Men of Respect) found me online after working unsuccessfully with a number of other designers on the cover for a book he (or rather, his fictional alter ego Lama Bodi) wrote, Advice to Rich People. Much to Horowitz’s satisfaction after the previous frustrations, we nailed the design right out of the gate.
From the book: “LAMA BODI is a master storyteller who is in turns funny, challenging, surprising, cynical, authoritative and always entertaining. As a genuine Bodhisattva his teachings have enlightened nearly 3.5% of the world’s billionaires and their families, thousands of millionaires, and a global roster of intergenerational heirs of vast wealth. He is also the entirely fictional creation of filmmaker/author Ephraim Horowitz, director of “Machavelli Rises” and producer of “Men of Respect”, starring John Turturro and Rod Steiger. “Lama Bodi’s meditations, teachings and commentaries focus on creating an awakened state of consciousness resulting in permanent happiness. By combining 21st century science with ancient methods of mastering the mind, Lama offers an effective means of personal transformation by deepening one’s perspective on the world. As a spiritual teacher he provides both a master plan for creating happiness and a call to action.”
Ephraim Horowitz subsequently contacted me again to design the cover for a book by his wife, Dr. Tracey Fein, titled The Menopause Plan. Fein describes in the book the work she has done over the course of 25 years in her New York practice helping women navigate their experiences with menopause, specifically as it affects sexual vibrancy.
Finding My Way Back to 1950s Paris is Beverley West’s engaging memoir about a young American woman going to Paris in the 50s and doing all the things young people did then. She lived in a garret, studied French, wrote, listened to jazz, and fell in love. After raising a family back in the US she returned to Paris in her 70s and wrote this book. Beverley had a handful of photos that I considered for the cover, eventually settling on two that we photoshopped together. The memoir was a finalist for the 2015 Nancy Pearl Book Award of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association.
Small Worlds, by Kendyl Monroe, is a self-published book that chronicles the author’s family history in the 19th and 20th century as his relatives moved arose the US. When Kendyl approached me he had already written the book and collected a large number of family photographs, as well as maps detailing the areas the family had lived. I designed a simple cover for this thorough and fascinating family history.
