The Great Adventure

To be perfectly honest, one doesn’t become a writer to be rich. And I haven’t disappointed myself.

I made the transition from traditional publishing to indie publishing in the beginning of 2012 for a variety of reasons, one of them being the fact that I simply love the process of putting a book together. It’s not enough to write the book; I want to build the book as well. I’ve learned things along the way, such as the fact that I should leave some things to the professionals, like covers.

I love covers. I love working with cover designers. I love the idea of taking an idea in my head and seeing it show up as a tangible image that affects other people. So even though I’m not getting rich with my books–yet–I will continue to put them out, and work with wonderful designers who make me look good. Here are some of the best covers, or at least the ones I have loved the most:

#5: The Heretic: Cover Art by David Martinez Alfaro. I found this art on DeviantArt.com, and was thrilled when the artist was willing to work with me to include this as one of my covers. Specifically, The Heretic is book 2 in The Champion Trilogy and the art seems to fit well with the idea of a pastor who has both been rejected by many people and at the same time, has rejected traditional ways of reaching people for Christ.

#4: A Hole in the Sky and Other Stories. Cover Art and Design by Matt Robinson. This concept was created by my son to follow a fantasy story of two men in a steampunk balloon who discover a baby and spend years trying to return her to her home in a island in the sky. The cover is fun and exciting, and we had a good time putting it together.

#3: Salome’s Charger. Cover Design by Wicked Book Covers. This was my first time co-authoring  a book, and Celeste Walker also introduced me to Wicked Book Covers who not only did a great job on this particular cover, but on the following one as well. This cover seems to fit the mystery/action/adventure theme of the story well.

#2: Infinity’s Reach. Cover Design by Wicked Book Covers. I originally did this cover with my son, spending a day at a photo shoot here on campus and using one of my own students in the shoot. And we were quite happy with the results. But when we say what Wicked was able to do with Salome, we decided to give them a shot at redesigning this YA cover. I’m glad I did.

#1. Tom Horn vs. The Warlords of Krupp. Cover Art by Mateuz Ozminski. I came across Mateuz Ozminski, a Polish architecture graduate student, on DeviantArt.com, and immediately fell in love with his art. He was willing to do a custom painting for the cover of Tom Horn–which was once again a remake. I had to wait almost six months for the art to be completed, but it was well worth it. I sincerely believe that this cover is a steampunk work of art, and if and when I ever continue this steampunk series, I want to include Mateuz as my cover artist, regardless of the cost.

There you have it, my five favorite covers so far. There is no direct correlation between sales and cover art, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love the art itself.