Tag Archives: Cover Art

Feb 26 2012

Tattoos, bare midriffs, and leather AKA Fantasy Cover Art

Not only am I writer, but I’m a reader and I, too, have a tendancy to cyber stalk a few of my favorite authors.  Okay, maybe stalk is a little creepy, but I’ll check out blogs, tweets and Facebook posts.  It’s a great way to discover new voices and interesting opinions.  So one day I was out on one of my newest stalkee’s sites and he had a link to Jim C. Hines’s blog on cover art for Urban Fantasy.  Of course, I had to check it out and now I have to share it with you: Striking a Pose (Woman and Fantasy Covers).

 I LOVED IT!  So much so, now I’m a regular visitor to Mr. Hines’s blog.  I have great respect for Mr. Hines and his posts.  Besides the bravery factor in that post alone, he deserves a medal.  Seriously, I don’t even think with years of yoga I could pull off some of those poses!  He’s shared information you generally have to shed blood for, like how much can a writer realistically expect to make doing what they love, and how Amazon’s pricing impacts the self pubbed writer. 

Since I’m currently considering the art for my second urban fantasy, Shadow’s Soul, Mr. Hines’s observations mirror a lot of mine.  Take the cover for Shadow’s Edge. I submitted it a cover art review blog where peeps are welcome to leave their honest feedback. At the time of this post, I’ve only gotten three comments (so feel free to add your own).  As a writer, I did this not so I could hear the gushiness of “I just love it”  but because I knew I could trust this site to give me serious reactions on the cover.  Now the comments on color for typefacing, I can understand and I’m changing for Shadow’s Soul.  I’m thinking along the lines of reds, oranges and blues as a starting point this time around.  Maybe lighten the overall image.  The third comment discussed Raine’s clothing or lack thereof, and really, I get it.  I’m not so sure I’d want to fight someone with that much bare skin, but like many writers, I’m learning as I go. 

Then there’s the issue of cover models.  For Shadow’s Soul, I’m really hoping to do a male and a female on the cover. Here’s the challenge I’m running into with that concept.  I need a man with a shirt.  I have nothing against six or eight packs, I have a pulse and can appreciate some seriously drool worthy examples of testosterone.  However, since I do have male readers, I’m trying to keep in mind that when they’re out reading in public they may not want to flash all that male flesh.  Granted, if it was female they might be okay, but still…

It’s hard to find that thin line between urban fantasy and romance, especially when your story has romantic elements.  I’m lucky enough to work with a great cover artist, so here’s hoping we can figure out a really, wickedly cool solution!

Aug 21 2011

TA DA! MY COVER IS HERE!

Okay, I had to share my very first cover with you all! So here it is, the beautiful cover for Shadow’s Edge!  And a HUGE thank you goes out to Kim Killion at HotDamn Designs, who’s endless patience is forever cherished!   I just finished the second round of edits with Black Opal, so soon we should have an official release date!

 

Do you like? Huh? Come on, I know you want to read this!

 

Jul 24 2011

The Joys and Agony of Cover Art

I thought I’d share my first experience in the world of book cover art. Now, to be fair, my publisher would do my cover art for Shadow’s Edge because that’s what publishers do for their authors. But, I know for me, the cover is one of the first things that draws me to a book.  With that thought in mind, I really wanted my first cover to do the same.  Here’s the thing with Urban Fantasy cover art.  We’ve all seen it, the standard book cover, a very sexy woman holding the weapon of your choice–sword, dagger, gun, knitting needles–with her back to you while nifty cool tattoos either trail down-pick a body part: arm, leg, face, shoulder, back, butt- and you can’t see her face.  I get that image, really I do.   Here, I’ll prove it to you.

I worked with the wonderfully awesome and, more importantly, patient, Kim Killion from HotDamn Designs.  I had it narrowed down to two images, one with a dark haired woman, where it was cropped from just above her shoulders to the top of her thighs.  She even had a dagger (not quite the style Raine prefers, but it had an edge so…) and the second image where the woman was facing towards the reader, nicely clean and wicked dagger in hand and the “I will hurt you and you’ll like it” look on her face that I think Raine tends to go to in most situations.  Since both designs hit things I really liked, I had to ask my cronies (read, family, friends and the 7ED’s) and put it to a vote.  As much as I love these groups, they did not help. Oh no, it was about 50/50 on the votes.  Funny enough the guys in the groups tended toward the butt cover, and the woman were split. So I left it up the final decider–my editor.  And viola~ we went with the second one.  We’re still tweaking a few things, but I’m hoping to put up the final here and at www.jamigray.com very soon.

As a newbie author, I had to turn the wonderful group at Savvy Authors, who gave me some really fantastic names of cover artists.  I have to say, there are no words to fully explain how valuable groups like Savvy Authors, or my truly outstanding critique group, 7 Evil Dwarves, become your best fans and your greatest source of information.

So what did I learn through all of this back and forth and hemming and hawing over colors and images and designs?

That I’m so glad there are people like Kim Killion out there who understand that writers are really quite decisive people in general, it’s just that they need someone who has a little patience and knows the right questions to ask to bring these people who live in our heads to brilliant life.

So here’s to the quiet heroes of the writing world–cover artists!