Exciting 'Backpacker To Nomad' book Cover Design - You choose!

(Last Updated On: July 30, 2022)

Final book cover design…Your chance to choose

Table of Contents

Heya guys I’m so excited, the new travel memoir ‘Backpacker to Nomad’ is coming together and is in the final stages of production.

The book itself is with the editor for the final round of edits, and if you would like to be added to the advanced reading team let me know in the comments section.

In this post I wanted to take you behind the scenes, through the cover design process I’ve been going through from the first conception I had until the options the designer has given me which I want to hand over to you so you can choose the final cover design.

Before we get stuck in, have you been keeping up to date with the sneak peek posts? #1 Plans? Sure, they work! – #2 Me, myself & I #3 Clenched teeth (Check them out if you’ve not already)

First concept idea

Ok, lets dive right in from the begining of the cover story.

I’ll be honest, it took a very long time before the first concept even came to mind.

While there are some authors who have a very clear picture in mind, I didnt have a clue.

It was only after writing up the book did a inkling of an idea pop into mind, that was to have passport stamps involved in the background of my book cover design. I started to throw ideas out onto the canvas but it didnt really stick.

First book cover design idea

second concept idea

After the initial lack of ideas, slowly they started to come out the more I threw at the canvas. I tried to incorperate stories from the book into the cover.

In doing so the evolution of the book cover started to take place. More of my website branding started to appear but it still diddn’t feel right.

There was a lack of punch to it.

I ended up with this design. At this point the book was still tiitle-less

third concept idea

A suggestion was given by a friend, about the evolution of my backpacking life. It also provided the idea to add evolution charactor into the cover.

The idea was that they represented my traveling evolution. I wanted each character to show different stages of my backpacking life, from the naive party backpackper, to the angry backpacker, through to when everything went wrong to becoming the experienced nomad.

Although I liked the evolution idea, it started to feel like the cover was getting a bit too busy with too much going on. So I decided to get rid of the other distractions. But in doing so, the overall look changed too. I wanted to keep the stamps but got rid of the sign posts and tried to make it look a liittle cleaner.

Tme to hand it off to the professionals

It got to the point where I was happy enough with the concept but felt I had sarted to go round in circles so it was time to hand over to the profesionals.

I scoured the internet, and decided to try out Reedsy having heard some good things.

The original designer I wanted to go with was out of my budge range so went for the second choice on the shortlist. The concept was in his hands now and all i could do is sit back and wait with anticipation growing as each day passed.

The designer came back with three different concepts – and the excitement was gone. The covers were underwhelming concidering the work on his portfolio on reedsy.

I gave my feedback, and to be fair to him, he took them on board and came back with a combination, changed a few things around and it did look a little better. I do like the cover but in my opinion not really it didnt scream memoir; more text book.

This was his final cover design:

Original designer

I wasn’t sold on the cover, and in a stroke of luck the designer i wanted to use in the first place become available and was willing to compramise on the price.

He also was a traveller, an author who just so happened to create covers.

He had his own ideas to my concept but I was open to listening and decided to ditch mine to go with his.

Unlike the other designer who used vectors, this one freehand drew the cover, changed the font on the title, and created more of a vibrant look.

There was some back and forth, changes in design but finally he came to an agreement and I couldnt be happier with his concepts. The only thing we couldnt agree on was the colour of the book cover so he provided a number of different book cover design options.

It’s your turn

I’m so excited to hand the reigns over to you now. It had always been my intention to get you the loyal reader to have your say, and what better way than to choose the cover I go with.

All you have to do is drop your email in the box below, vote for your favourite cover and if yours is chosen recieve a FREEBIE book bundle all before the book is released. Oh did I mention you aslo get the book for FREE.

So what are you waiting for, drop your email before and get voting. – I can’t wait to see which cover is your favourite.

Amit's books

Weather you would like to get informed on long-term solo travel or love reading travel stories of adventure, discovery & despair Amit has you covered. Check out his latest books