by Jules Older 

To my great surprise, and with zero training and no observable skills in:

1. art
2. illustration
3. AI (artificial intelligence) or
4. ChatGPT,

I find myself creating cover art for my wife’s children’s books. I was thrust into this unforeseen role by a cover crisis—her book, HELP! Santa is in Trouble, was on the tightest of deadlines, and the publisher’s artist was unavailable. You can read the full story here.

Fine. I did it. And assumed my one-shot cover-artist career was over. 

I was wrong. The publisher informed me that the covers of Effin’s subsequent books in the series had to reflect the look of the first one, And, since AI and I had created Santa, now generating the cover art for the newly released HELP! Easter Bunny is in Trouble and the forthcoming HELP! Tooth Fairy is in Trouble also fell on my unartistic brain and my novice fingers.

What you’re reading now is about what I’ve learned along the way. My hope is that it will help you navigate the AI highway without biting off your fingernails and/or tearing out your hair. Here we go …

The biggest change in my short cover-career is also the most important—attitude. My attitude has taken a 180-degree turnaround. In my deadline-scramble to create something useable for Santa, I felt infuriated when ChatGPT or ImageFX or Claude wouldn’t follow my instructions. Now, I’ve slowly come to realize that the field of AI is still in its infancy. Infants don’t do as they’re told, and neither do these platforms. 

By the way, don’t bother experimenting with Claude to create images. Claude doesn’t do images. Nor does Perplexity. Oh, and if you’re generating images of children, ImageFX is so cautious about somehow turning the Tooth Fairy into porn, it’s deeply frustrating to work with. At least for me, ChatGPT is the best choice. Just don’t expect it to respond to your prompts in an adult fashion.

Want an example? Here’s my prompt:

FOR CHILDREN’S CHAPTER BOOK COVER Two children and a dog: a nine-year-old girl, a four-year-old boy with thumb in his mouth, and a long-eared basset hound. Girl is taller and older than the boy. Both are in their pajamas. All three have wings. They are looking up at the tooth fairy flying over a castle. The castle has five towers.

Here’s one response:

Note the missing boy. When I pointed this out in my next prompt, I got:

Ah, but this is a landscape view; book covers are portrait view. I pointed this out in my next prompt. Which resulted in:

ChatGPT and I went through many, many more tries. My absolute favorite? The one below. The sky is full of teeth (remember: Tooth Fairy), now the girl disappears, and in her place … check out the dog and its tail:

I lost count of how many variations I tried, how many prompts I corrected. In the end—at least so far—we’ve chosen one winner. Which is:

It’s far from perfect. Instead of five towers, the castle now has six. Un-asked-for curtains frame the kids and their dog. The image is pretty much square, not portrait, making it harder for the publisher to turn it into a cover. But still … 

So, in summary, here’s what I’ve learned about creating cover art with AI:

1. Be patient. AI is still an infant. Nurse it along.
2. Laugh, don’t swear. When your basset hound suddenly puts on PJs—PJs with a hole for its tail—enjoy the unintended humor.
3. To come up with a cover that works, you need word skills more than art skills.
4. Perfection is unlikely, but you can make imperfection work for you. The castle on your cover has six towers, not five? Simply re-write that detail in the book.
5. At least for me, ChatGPT is the cover-creator of choice. Though I’m constitutionally averse to spending an unnecessary dime, I’ve actually subscribed.
6. Don’t let your lack of experience—with art, illustration or AI—stop you. Give it a go.

And finally, there’s this. According to Dr. Alexa, I’ve published at least 26 books, and Effin’s published another 22. In all that time, not one person has ever said, “Hey, what a great cover!” 

Until now. Although HELP! Easter Bunny is in Trouble has just been released, five folks have, in their own words and to my stunned surprise, heaped that praise.

You may or may not agree; judge the book by this cover:

Before he and AI began creating cover art, Jules Older was (and is) a writer, author, clinical psychologist, executive consultant and crisis counselor. His latest kid’s book is Special Ed and the White Force. He did not create the cover.

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