Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erin Dameron-Hill. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Erin, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
While I work for big publishers as a romance cover artist, my mission has always been to help the Indie author community. Several years ago, it was difficult for Indie authors to find any artist who would take a chance on their books and it was even more difficult for interracial romance authors and the LGBTQIA+ community. They became my priority. I believe love is for everyone and I want to make sure that message gets spread. I’m not an author–I don’t have a way with words–so I will help those who do.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Erin Dameron-Hill and I am a multi-award winning cover artist who has made thousands of covers. I stopped counting at 2, 456. I have always been creative so I sought work in that industry. Over a decade ago, my friend was a self-published author who had a hard time finding a cover artist. At that time, self-publishing was new so finding editors, artists, etc was extremely difficult. I only knew how to make jewelry at that point but she was desperate and I wanted to help. I learned everything I could about Photoshop and Marketing from online classes. I researched every book cover I could and would spend hours in book shops comparing genre books and figuring out the patterns of what made a cover sell a book. I finally made her cover and things took off for her. From there, my business took off. She knew other authors who wanted a book cover and so I gained popularity through word of mouth. After only making covers for 3 years, I became Art Director for Entangled Publishing. That was a huge learning experience and I will always be grateful for it. From there, I was given the opportunity to work with other publishers including Amazon Montlake. My heart will always be with Indie authors so I tend to give them priority.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I don’t think this could happen in today’s industry, but I started with literally $15 and a free 30-day trial to Adobe Photoshop. The $15 was used to purchase an image from a royalty-free stock site. I used my old, really slow laptop to run Adobe and I remember wanting to scream because it took so long to load or “fix” something I wanted to fix. But, the patience paid off. After a few months of making covers, I was able to “quit my day job”, purchase a powerful computer and a drawing monitor. I usually have to purchase advanced computers every few years these days as even the powerful ones become obsolete so quickly.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
My reputation was built on word of mouth. It really is the best form of advertising. When people know you make a quality product, they will tell others about it. I didn’t have to do much heavy-lifting in that area. I treated my clients with respect and made sure they always had a spectacular cover.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.edhprofessionals.com
- Instagram: @edhprofessionals
- Facebook: Erin Dameron-Hill
Image Credits
I made all the artwork provided using images purchased from royalty-free stock sites including PeriodImages.com, iStockphoto.com, 123rf.com, depositphotos.com, shutterstock.com. I do NOT use AI Software to make covers.