Crocodiles Need Kisses Too - Cover Process

Hi friends! I’m back to share the process of creating the cover for my new book “Crocodiles Need Kissed Too”. If you missed the first post, I show my process for the interior of this book in the previous post.

Covers are so important! They are the first thing a kiddo sees to determine if they might want to pick up a book and take a look inside. So with that in mind, I sketched out a few little thumbnail ideas of what it could look like. I wanted the title to be big and front and center, and I played with different compositions to present the title. I like to keep my thumbnails pretty loose:

I sent these to my art director and she thought it might be nice to see a kiss on the cover. Yes, of course that makes sense! So I tried a few more ideas, including one with a smooch. This time I used a bit of color to see how that might look also:

We settled on the one with the kiss and I painted the final as a wrap around cover. It’s fun to see it go all the way around to the back and even on the flaps. Here’s how the final turned out:

And a photo of the cover that kiddos see when they’re looking at the book shelves:

And finally, endpapers! I love book endpapers. They are usually a little different from the book and give a little thrill as you open the cover and start to flip through the book. For Crocodiles Need Kisses Too, I thought something bold and colorful would be a fun surprise!

I hope you liked seeing how the cover process worked! You can see these in person if you’d like to get one from your local bookstore, or you can order from Amazon here!

Take care, friends!