We recently connected with Carmen Di Mauro and have shared our conversation below.

Carmen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

I work as an artist and illustrator in the book industry, especially for fantasy and romance books.
When I started out as an artist in that area back in 2018, the only job opportunities were if you had connections to publishers or book subscription boxes.
To get a foot into this industry, I started learning about making quote illustrations, because they were a popular design choice for items in book subscription boxes.

Nowadays, it is much easier for authors to self-publish their books via print-on-demand book printing companies. This gives the author the full control on what they would like their book to look like and offer a lot of customizations to make it stand out. Artists can now get commissioned directly by the author to create a cover, endpapers, chapter headers, sprayed edges and many more book customization options!
Being present on social media plays a big role too, because here authors look and follow artists who think would suit their visions.

Seeing the change in this field made me realize that there are a lot more job opportunities, if I were to shift my illustration style slightly to fit into this. So I went from designing quotes, basically lettering on a graphic illustrated page, to illustrating book titles on a graphic illustrated cover. Other designing and art skills I learned on the way are now also shown on mockups of books, to make authors understand that my art can work on it’s own, but also in relation to books.

A rising concern we artists see now is the usage of generated AI. Services that required artists and illustrators are now being replaced by machine generated images, that have a questionable background on how the AI was trained to begin with.
There are several publishers and authors now who use AI images for book covers, to showcase characters or to create graphic merchandise. Digital artists are now expected by the community to show proof, that they are not using AI for their art. Some of us have a history of having our art posted before AI generators, but newer artists are viewed more critically.
Using stock imagery has become a hardship for graphic designers, because stock-image sites are now filled with AI images too and some are not even labeled or flagged as such.

Several authors have started to take a stance against generative AI. I have seen a shift from stock graphic book covers to covers that were illustrated and drawn by an artist or created with a 3D modeling program.
Personally, I offered both services: stock graphic illustrations or digitally drawn illustrations. The past year, about 90% of my commissions have been digitally drawn illustrations, even though they are the pricier option.
I think, this makes the client feel safe, that the work they receive is truly handmade and not something that might unknowingly be AI.

My tip to get into this industry now: be consistent, show your art on social media, be social in your comments and showcase or write how your art could be used by clients!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hello readers,
My name is Carmen and I’m a german-indonesian book artist working full-time from a small, idyllic village in Italy!

My shift into this work area was rather unusual. I was in the middle of studying for my Master degree in architecture and was drawing and reading a lot as a hobby. I had an account where I posted my art sporadically and one day, I posted a bookmark I made for myself and found this whole reading community called “bookstagram” (Book + Instagram).
I noticed there were some shops selling fanart merchandise to book and realized my art skills were good enough to do this too.

By the time I finished my Master degree, I was already an established artist in the community and decided to pursue this more. From doing book fanart and merchandise, I have now shifted to working directly with publishers and authors to make their visions come true.

Clients come to me now and request for example a book cover. I ask them what symbols play an important role, what color scheme they would love and what mood or feeling the cover should give.
From there on out, I provide them with sketches, color concepts to slowly creating a finished piece.

Something I’m also known a lot for is my love for celestials. I love putting moons and stars on my pieces.
One of my big hits in hitting it off in the book community was me drawing portraits of book characters in a rather unusual and new style, that has now become unique to me. I used to draw with watercolors and have shifted to drawing digitally. I wanted to maintain my watercolor style, so I thought “why not make the character look like it was drawn with watercolors, but the watercolor artist got interrupted halfway through?”. So my portrait faces are half colored, and half only sketched. Did I mention I love celestials? Because I cover the portraits of my book characters with lots of stars, moons, sparkles and other golden or silver elements that fit to their personality.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for me right now is Threads.
My algorithm there often shows me clients (authors) looking for services and I can reply to those with some attached photos to show them my art.
Not only does the person who created the thread see this, but also other people who are interested in the replies.
I use Threads to reach new clients and Instagram to have a portfolio they can look through.

I would generally advise to be active on various social media platforms and spam about your art! Always make sure though to put a signature, watermark or your social-handle on your art before posting.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is reading the reactions of my clients to the art I’m sending them.
They are always so enthusiastic when they receive an update and it just makes my heart soar that I can make someone happy with my art and that I get to do this for a living!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dimaurodesign.carrd.co/#
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carmen.dmdesign/