It seems like I’ve been working on new paperback editions of the Princelings books for ages, but I put them aside for a while to work on other projects. In January I asked Dani, my illustrator, to have another look at the covers for the first and fourth books.
We’ve pretty much got the idea right for Princelings of the East, I think; now to get the colour scheme right. This is the greyscale draft. We are going for a similar colour scheme overall, but Dani’s given me six backgrounds for the castle, which I’ve only managed to narrow down to three so far – a dark blue (very moody), sky blue (striking) and cream much like the current cover. It’s the lightning that makes the difference – I’m trying to indicate an electrostatic discharge that the tunnel draws from the Princelings world to create the energy drain.
For Traveler in Black and White, I’ve decided try a cover without a guinea pig on the front. It really hurts to lose Mariusz in his Bogart fedora, but the mixed feedback over whether to abandon the explicit guinea pig characters and just leave them as they are tends to suggest a more neutral cover. We’re working on a noir approach to the more gothic castle that he comes across in his travels.
These are works in progress, so any suggestions are welcome, as always.
The new editions will come out in paperback from Blurb, once I’ve finished my other hardback project with the company. The aim is to make them available in physical bookshops and non-Amazon online stores. I’ll also be doing some minor editing on them, bearing in mind my younger reader Becca’s comment “I like the long words, just not in such long sentences.” As I’ve found with my flash fiction: I can always tighten the prose!
Those look good! I like the lightning, and have to admit that the portrait of Mariusz always bothered me–I have trouble seeing the face right.
Dani is busy right now!
And, oh, yeah, one can always edit! Bringing out a new cover is a good time to do it. I read from mine the other day to a class of 1st graders, and besides the editing I do on the fly to make it more accessible to 6- and 7-year-olds, I found myself wanting to tighten the prose and make the opening stronger. I’m resisting the urge.
As you say, do it when there’s an opportunity, not just to do it! Is a castle to replace Mariusz a strong enough pull, though? Although most of the others are a castle :O