E.S.P. has stopped by the blog today to tell us about her book cover adventures & misadventures. We are happy to have her here, and without further ado I'm handing the blog reins over to her!
Dawn of the Apocalypse is my first book. It's very precious to me. So I spent many hours trying to find the best cover designer for my book. One day I stumbled across Steven Novak Illustrations. Not only were his designs amazing, but he has the same name as the famous basketball player. I don't know about you, but I call that a sign.
Needless to say, Steven was the only one I seriously considered to design my book cover. So when I felt like I was ready to go, I asked him to design my cover. I emailed him a bunch of information and waited for his designs. I wanted my cover to look most like this picture:
Two to four days later…
I come home and I get an email. He finally had something for me to look at. SO I opened up my inbox, and I got this:
When I saw this, it immediately made me think of one of those books they sell at Target that are originally $14.99 and get marked down to a dollar. This is not what I wanted. At all.
I could go on for hours slandering this picture, but in a short this looks like a cheesy romance novel. Not a blood thirsty apocalypse. And that girl's nose is humongous.
In all fairness, I highly doubt that Steven expected me to buy this image. He was just giving me something to look over and build off of. So when I went back to him with an even longer email, I got this almost immediately after:
I actually do like this image. It has grown on me. Every time I look at it, I find something I like about it.
It didn't really fit my book's image though, and that's a tip I have for all of you. Even if it's nice, that doesn't mean it's a good representation of your book. This would be awesome if my book took place in the fiery pits of Hell. But it takes place in New York City, so…
I was getting frustrated. I needed something that SCREAMED apocalypse. I had to go to my dad who has already gotten several book covers designed. He helped me to be more descriptive in my emails. So I sent him a third one. And this is what I got:
I think it's beautiful.
It's even better than the image I originally wanted the book to look like. It had the color sequence I requested and the smoke in the back…
It’s perfect.
Keep in mind that this whole process took about two days, starting on when I received my first cover. So two days for this masterpiece…
I kind of didn’t want to end the cover extravaganza, but I did. The only thing I asked was to change the color of my name from blue to white.
I think Novak Illustrations is a great place to go for affordable covers that are extremely well done. The worst part about getting a cover done is that you can't make people envision what you do. And I think with this cover, people will finally begin to see things like me.
I love, love, love how the cover turned out! It looks great! Now for a little about the book itself...
Genre: Young Adult (Apocalyptic)
Date Published: August 9, 2013
Publisher: Mind Candy Media
The Blurb:
January 1, 2000.
May 21, 2011.
December 21, 2012
These are just a few of the days humans prophesied as bringing catastrophic events that would end the world. We predicted nuclear warfare. Drastic climate change. A call from God.
We were wrong.
Cue the gargoyle invasion—laboratory bred mutants designed to slaughter humans. When the government goes AWOL and gargoyles are swarming by the hundreds, it's up to the citizens of the United States to regroup and save themselves.
Meet Cliff Matthews, a teenage boy separated from his entire family with the exception of his younger sister, whom he is desperate to keep alive. Along the quest to save their lives, he encounters people who aren't all that they seem. Everyday's a battle, but if he can't trust his own species, where does that leave his family?
And we can't forget the man who may be willing to sacrifice Cliff's life, if it means world domination.
In terms of doomsday, no one could've seen this coming. The dawn of the apocalypse…
Being the daughter of an accomplished author, E.S.P. grew up listening to stories and telling her own to classmates. After writing for several years and even publishing some short works, she finally decided to take the plunge to write (plus finish!)a full length novel. Thus, Dawn of the Apocalypse was born. When she's not writing, she's either reading books, blogging at whoistheserialreader.blogspot.com, or watching eighties movies.
Yay yay yay! Thank you so much for doing this and having me on your blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!! It was a lot of fun!! :o) Come back again!!
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