How did you become a book cover designer?

From an early age, I wanted to become a writer (still do), and began submitting my work to journals and magazines in my twenties. In the process, I came to love the form of the literary journal. So, in 2008, I decided to start my own. I didn’t know anything about graphic design, and didn’t know any designers. But, over the course of a year or so, I taught myself enough to put together a first issue. Later, I began slowly picking up typesetting and design jobs here and there from contacts I’d made through the magazine and things progressed from there. By 2014 I was doing sufficiently well enough to quit my day job as a line cook.