I have a book cover! Thanks to the most amazing designers over at 99designs. I don't mid telling you that I signed up for the silver package which is $499. For $499 I got 35 designers to submit over 200 designs, all for my book. I work with graphic artists and I know how much they get paid and so I know that $14 a designer is criminal no matter what their level of experience is.
I posted my "contest" on Saturday night and I went to bed. By Sunday morning I had two designers and twelve book covers to rate and comment on. A contest is a mere seven days. And it was a crazy week. I didn't think one week would be enough, but I don't know if I could have gone for much longer. Every time I checked the page there was something new to look at. I spent most of my time giving feedback to people all over the world and seeing what they came up with next.
After the first four days you have to choose only six designers to continue on. I had a few obvious front runners but to fill out my six I had to consider a lot of different things. That;'sNow that I had only the most awesome designs, I could let the artists know what to change and get really specific. This phase was a much slower pace and I got way more sleep.
Then came the day of reckoning. THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE. You actually get two weeks to make a final decision and I did not want to agonize that long, nor did I want to leave the six designers in limbo that long. So after many polls, walking from bookstore to bookstore, and soliciting the opinion of many total strangers I have made my choice.