Designed to Sell

This morning I met with a graphic designer to discuss my book. Everything I have heard and read indicates that you should not hire just any graphic designer, but instead find one who has done book design in the past. Seems book design can be a little quirky and technical. Hmmm...sounds like writing a book! Anyway, I met Peggy at a St. Louis Publishers Association meeting last week, and she had designed a book written by an author with whom I was familiar. So she met the first requirement of being both a designer and having experience with books. The second requirement is coming up with an award winning cover on a minimal budget. Okay, so it doesn't have to be award winning, but it does need to look professional and not cost me an arm and a leg. (Especially not my "write" arm.) Because my book is on researching house history in St. Louis County, I have a very small market. I understood that when I decided to write the book, but this approach will be the most beneficial to the reader. Since I won't be selling a lot of books I need to keep my overall expenses as low as I can. Having said that, I also don't want the book to look like I designed and printed it on my home computer. Don't I sound like the typical American? I want it all and I don't want to pay much for it! Peggy listened to my concerns and came up with a reasonable approach where I think I may get to have it all. She will get a proposal back to me next week, and we'll see if we both get what we want.