Meet Emilie Haney | Book Cover Designer, Author, Podcaster, and Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Emilie Haney and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Emilie, what do you attribute your success to?
Being genuine. It’s something I realized early on as I started to see more success via my online platforms. When I was honest about struggles or about successes and shared those things with my followers, it generated interest. Then I was able to harness that connection to help build my business. My clients and my online followers know who I am from my quirky humor to my fascination with Star Trek: The Next Generation. They know what to expect from me work-wise as well as I am honest about my business practices and my commitment to them as clients.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I grew up in a household that valued art. My dad is an artist (a painter) and my mom quilts (its own form of art). I was encouraged to draw and paint and take pictures as a child, which I attribute first to my love of photography and secondly to my graphic design business today.

I began as an amateur photographer by taking photos of my friends. We’d go to unique locations and shoot with dramatic poses for fun. That turned into a business almost accidentally as I photographed my first wedding and moved into family photos, portraits, and eventually headshots at major conferences.

During that time I was also working on my craft as a writer and attending conferences where I was connected to a huge number of amazing authors. Through this process, and being an avid reader myself, I began to see how important book covers are to actually selling the book itself. We do, in fact, judge a book by its cover.

After being “forced” into learning a lot of design on my own for a previous job I was working, I began to dabble in making my own covers. I studied markets, watched tutorials, and did all sorts of research, but at the heart of it was just creating fun covers for myself and as mockups. I got my “big break” after I designed a cover for a book I wrote and got the attention of Enclave Publishing where I was then hired to design my first cover for them. From there, I began to see a demand in my design services and have reached where I am today (which is almost booked a year out).

It wasn’t always easy though. There is a big mental barrier for me sometimes when it comes to “feeling worthy” of my position as a designer. I am self taught and often compare myself to others who are further ahead of me in their journey, or who have professional training, but when that happens I bring myself back to the reality that I have built my own business and can only improve from where I’m at. I’ve put in the work and the time and will continue to do so. That is success, in my opinion.

I would say that, for me, the main thing I hope my brand conveys is attention to detail, marketability, and quality. If I can create a cover with those things in mind every time, I’ll be doing my absolute best.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As someone who works from home and is a bit of a homebody, I think we’d start with dinner out on our deck looking out over the immense greenery in our back yard. The highlight of this would be the fireflies that come out at dusk during this time of year.

I’d also plan a few trips to locations like the local State Park for a hike, to the small touristy town nearby where we’d walk through quirky shops and eat pizza at a favorite spot. Then I’d take us to the historic part of town and we’d walk down the streets talking about book ideas (my best friend is also a writer) as well as plans for the future.

Finally, I’d make sure we had time to chill by watching a favorite movie with some sweet treat I’ve baked up – I’m a huge fan of baking. And we’d laugh and catch up and reminisce on the past but also share the things we’re most hopeful for the future.

I’m the kind of person who likes to go deep. I’d expect a lot of my time with anyone would be more focused on the person that the place, though I’d certainly show off my favorite parks, restaurants, and local bookstore.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would say some of my success is definitely linked to Enclave Publishing and the fact that they “took a chance” on a newer graphic designer like me to utilize my skills for creating book covers for the books they publish. I know that many of the clients I now work with have seen my work on their books and have come to then hire me.

Website: www.eahcreative.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/createexploreread

Twitter: www.twitter.com/emiliehendryx

Facebook: www.facebook.com/eahcreative

Youtube: www.youtube.com/createexploreread 

Image Credits
EAH Creative Photography