We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jodi Cobb a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jodi, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

Honestly, the idea of doing book cover design came up out of necessity. I’d dipped my toes into the independent author community and realized that there was a lot I was going to have to learn in order to publish… or else wait for some unexpected financial windfall to provide me the apparently necessary funds to cover the costs associated with publishing a quality product. As there was no wind that day, I dove head first into design software, teaching myself the basics by simply experimenting with the program. Truly, I never set out to succeed at anything but creating covers for my own work. From there, I realized how many new authors faced similar financial roadblocks in getting their books to readers and began offering design services at lower rates – a direct proportion to my limited skill and knowledge at the time.

Jodi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into the industry almost by accident. I’d been privately writing with friends and it was my husband who said, “as much work as you put into this, you should publish it”. The rest of the publishing related skills I taught myself were through sheer ripple effect from that one statement. One client became dozens, and cover design morphed into marketing materials, branding and even interior manuscript design. I like to think the problem most of my clients come to me with is the same I had when I began. Entering an industry where few are willing or able to help, advise or explain the ins and outs to newcomers. Many of my clients have never published before. They have no idea how to go about it at all and simply Googling for answers leads to more questions. I’m able to walk them through the basics, step by step, because I learned them through sheer trial and error. I’m most proud of that – that these fledgling authors have all said the same thing – “Jodi helped me when no one else would even return an email”. I helped. And that means more to me than anything.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I rely strongly on client referral and word of mouth. My reputation is everything to me. To that end, I have yet to ever miss a client’s deadline. I’ve been in business since 2016. In that time I’ve handled multiple out of state moves, medical issues, many losses of loved ones and 4 eye surgeries due to failing vision. In fact, I’m going to be undergoing a fifth soon. Not once have I missed a deadline or client release, the screens I work on are just getting larger. The idea is very simple. Do what you promised you would do, when you promised to do it. Reliability in a constantly shifting industry is priceless.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Oh, absolutely. Companies like Phlearn were foreign to me until a friend told me about them. I wish I’d had known how to look for the classes and technique instructions to advance my skills earlier on. I’m honestly embarassed by my earlier work. Aren’t most creatives? But the resources are hard to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Admittedly, I still find an awful lot with simple queries like “How the Hell do you do that glowy thing in Photoshop?”

And if any of you know how, drop me a line.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.darkcitydesigns.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/darkcitydesigns
• Facebook: facebook.com/darkcitycovers