Ideas for new covers

During the blog tour last year for The Princelings of the East, one comment made by a reviewer suggested I should rethink the covers for the trilogy, or at least for the first book.  Joshua, at Published Bestsellers said “Overall outwardly the book title and cover is very deceiving however the plot is absolutely brilliant.”

Asking around, I think the problem is the covers don’t imply action, although they might be slightly mysterious.  Danielle English (my illustrator) and I have been working on this off and on, and Dani has come up with these concept sketches.  I suggested we should be thinking about electrical sparks from Castle Marsh in the first one, and more action at sea for the second.  I’m still not sure about the third, since I love the original Lost City cover.  We’ve just gone more 3D with it, and Dani suggested trying it central.

PrincelingsThumbs

I also like the titling.  In many ways I love the freshness of the drawing, but then as you know from the illustrations, I tend to be a bit scribbly myself!  They will of course be tidied up and in colour for the final versions.

What do you think?

4 Replies to “Ideas for new covers”

  1. My initial reaction was that I like the original covers, and thought they were fine. But when I look at the sketches, they have a dynamism that really is better, especially the Pirates. Covers are such a challenging thing! Even so, I’m glad that we get to have an active part in designing them, rather than just accepting whatever the publisher puts on it.

    1. Yes, I like the originals. But Joshua is right – they don’t tell you much about the book. Dani and I feel we have learnt a lot over the last two and a half years, and if you compare Bravo Victor to Princelings of the East… well.

      I’m also looking at a new publishing option in the UK, which would be nice to have a different cover for 🙂

  2. Do you have a third person to bounce covers and ideas off of? When I’m working on mine, one of my co-workers is a major partner. Like me, she can’t draw, but she has good taste, an eye for design, and has looked at LOTS of book covers, so her Ideas have been a huge help (the basic idea for the DBIC cover was hers).

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