Prossia had been out for a year and some months when 2012 rolled around, and I was sitting back, relaxing, and just waiting to see if it was going to take off. Yeah, I know -_-. If you’re a fellow author, you’re probably hollering “Nooooooo!” right about now. Up to this point, this was one of many numerous mistakes that I had committed throughout my first months as an author. Fortunately for me, I managed to do one right thing later on that year, and that was attending the Superstars Writing Seminar in Las Vegas.
While there, an arsenal of professional writers like Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, David Farland, Dave Wesley Smith, and James Artimus Owen, taught me the ins and outs of what they were doing to make their passion into a successful occupation. I was given numerous opportunities to sit down and chat it up with these amazing authors, and boy, did I learn a lot! However, one of the most inspiring lessons came from James A. Owen. See, he was an illustrator who loved to do his own book covers as well, like me! So, I took him over to the side one time during the seminar, and asked him what he thought about my current cover for Prossia.
He actually liked it, for the most part (I, of course, geeked out over that :P). He felt I definitely had the skills to design my own covers along with drawing some illustrations in the interior. However, there was one main issue he had with the current looks of my book. It was way too dark. People wouldn’t be able to read the title of my book from a distance or really see much of the illustration. If that was the case, it wouldn’t stand out that much if it was placed in a group of other novels.
After the seminar was over, I went home and checked out other popular YA sci-fi novel covers. I quickly realized they had a certain “liberty” about them, compared to other books. They were vibrant, energetic, exciting, much like the persona of a teenager! So, after putting my research and advice together, it was back to the drawing board! By the time I had finished, I had seven comps for Prossia’s new cover. I did have a personal favorite, but I wanted to make sure I picked the BEST one and not make my decision merely based on a matter of personal preferences. So, I placed the images in a poll and asked people which one they thought was the best. The results, to my pleasant surprise, were quite staggering, with half of the voters voting for one particular pic. So, I had the layout for my next cover…
No comments:
Post a Comment