Book Cover Designer for the Next Five Volumes of a Series

I’m an author who published the first two volumes of her literary saga The Crooked Little Pieces last year. These were designed by illustrator Eloise G. Morgan, who is now pursuing other interests. I am therefore looking for another illustrator to design the following five volumes. Depending on the style of the creator, I may also ask for redesigns of the first two to lend the series a consistent visual style. Payment for each cover will be transferred separately. The Crooked Little Pieces’ covers have so far been crafted in surreal, quasi-expressionistic styles: great metaphors made from my heroines’ emotional conditions. Their details have been intricately outlined using various effects on ProCreate and Photoshop. To my mind it has been necessary to include the girls – sisters Anneliese and Isabel – to make it evident the series’ genre falls into the category of women’s literary fiction. That said, I’m open to suggestions about other ways to make this obvious on the covers. The illustrator should have a preference for and much experience in the use of paints and natural media for their creations. At the same time, I am happy for the final project to be crafted digitally. The artist should additionally be ready to read The Crooked Little Pieces’ first three volumes before starting work on the third cover (or, as it may turn out, the first). These total around 310,000 words. For this reason the designer must have either native or fluent English. If you do not like reading English fiction, this is not a job for you. Here is the blurb for the first volume: ‘1926. Professor Josef van der Holt obtains a post at an all-women’s college overseas. Stuffy London suddenly becomes the site for the unseemly exploits of his half-Dutch and half-German daughters Anneliese and Isabel. When tragedy carves out a hollow in their lives, their ailing souls send the sororal twins on jagged paths: while Isabel takes flight in sensual hedonism Anneliese skirts danger in her role as sleuth. Elusive are the sentiments they seek: swift stopovers of fleeting feeling. Seditious loves and passions scarcely probable veer each away from the predictable. And when the obvious appears unstoppable the opposite may achingly be true. Spanning the twentieth century’s five most volatile decades, The Crooked Little Pieces is a series about inextricable entanglements: connections indefinable yet tantalizing. Plots criss-cross over a rich tapestry of twists and tension-fuelling characters: some relatable, others opaque and many “crooked”. It is television drama. Novelised. Welcome to CLP.’ My selection process will first narrow down a shortlist of designers. To them I’ll offer $30 each for just a pencil (or digital) sketch of my main characters. The illustrator will be chosen on the basis of both that and a discussion of their concepts, likely over Zoom. The deadline for applications is 18 February. The deadline for the book cover for Volume 3 is 12 April. A fee of £600 will be paid for each cover completed, with the option of the additional payment of a 5% commission from every book sale in the future. More information on the books can be found at [login to view URL] and on Amazon: [login to view URL] I look forward to hearing from you. Sophia