Tuesday, February 2, 2016

A Doorway Back to Forever: Believe --The evolution of a cover

What an experience! I've got a super awesome cover design, created by the team at CreateSpace, but the evolution of it was pretty fun. I first searched for an image from a website that I wanted to use as a base. Here is a screen shot of the doorway which I liked.


I purchased the image, and sent it along with a sketch I made of a sunburst:


I requested they put the sunburst inside the top arch of the door, with a castle inside the sun.
Simple enough request...and this is what they came up with:


For some reason, they put the sunburst outside of the archway, and the castle in the top crowning rays...*smiles* So I called the wonderful team at CreateSpace and asked for a do-over! They were happy to comply. This was their solution:


I loved the way they set the sunburst and castle above the opening of the door. But I wanted a few more changes. I felt the cover was too busy the way it was laid out, so we moved the endorsement to the back, moved the title up top, took out the subtitle, and maneuvered some of the wording and images on the back and the spine. After a few color enhancements, I finally settled on this:


In this version, the doorway pops a bit more, and the word, BELIEVE, is redder in color. I like the way the entire presentation is less busy. It seems to convey the fantasy-style I'm looking for.
It was a fun process to go through, and I really enjoyed the steps taken to create it. What do you think?

I'm in the process of approving the interior, meaning the printed portion of the book. Once it's done, I'm going to set a launch date, probably mid March. I will be setting the book up for pre-sales at a discount in a few weeks. Be on the lookout for my invitation for you to be on my Skyborn Warrior Launch Team! You'll receive some added perks, to be announced!

 It's finally happening, people. Can you BELIEVE it??

2 comments:

  1. I love your final cover. It's always cool to see how these things come about.

    ReplyDelete

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