My Writing Process (part seven)- Formatting and Covers

Now, this is a little out of order, but I wanted to go by sections. Somewhere in between the beta reading and the professional editing, my dad reached out to an artist about drawing the cover for us. First, we had to fix the formatting of the book. My original print version for my self-editing was 6x9, but seeing it in person made me reevaluate the dimensions and choose something more standard. At the time, I was thinking of publishing with Barnes and Noble Press, and so I selected one of the allowed paper sizes and reformatted everything to meet that (which ended up making things more complicated later, but I'll explain that). With those new dimensions, which were 5.5x8.25, I worked with the artist to finalize sketches and figure some things out, and eventually, we received the final cover.

However, this was not the perfect journey, or the perfect result. Some art styles just don't work for certain things, and though we tried to make it work the best it could, my communication was not good with the artist. This was definitely a learning experience, because when I first wrote what I wanted out of this cover, I did not do well or cover all my bases. I didn't know what to describe, how to describe things, and, worst of all, I didn't even know really what I wanted. I didn't think of the theme or the book itself, I just went with the first thing that came to mind because it was the easiest for me, and it ended up not being the right fit. On this cover, there were four of the characters (with the plan being to have four of the remaining others on the next two covers, and have them connect into one scene), but my problem was that they weren't accurate to the story. They didn't look like teens, or like the happy, clever people I had in my head, because I had done a terrible job of describing them. In the end, this wasn't the result I'd hoped for, and it wasn't the one I was willing to keep.

I've attached that cover here for you to see- but take my word seriously when I say this is NOT what they truly look like. Trae gets full nights of sleep and doesn't constantly look like he wants to murder someone, Kirk doesn't look like a toddler with a muscular body, and Saye doesn't have two uneven eyes and a weirdly long abdomen.

That all being said, this is a pretty cover, it just wasn't what was right for me or the book, and I listened to my gut on that.

So in the end, this cover didn't end up working. We let it rest for a bit, and then I got the final report back from Anne after she finished her beta reading. In her report, she included a cover she created by pulling some things together online- and I loved it. This was a much more fitting cover for Moonbound, and with my mom's solid arguing in favor of it, we decided to try again for a different cover. The cover she created was protected by copyright since she took already existing images off the internet, but I was determined to have a cover that looked something like it- shown below.

This, however, is where I started to have a ton more problems.

We collaborated with a new artist, but her style just didn't fit. This cover was supposed to have a Strymph flying in front of the Castle Feiye, but she had shifted so far from the example picture we gave her (of the copyrighted images) that I didn't like how they turned out. We kept tweaking different things, and in the end, we got three separate results, each getting closer- until the last one hit the mark. But let's backtrack for a second and look at them.

This one just didn't fit. It was the first attempt, and it just wasn't very mysterious or secretive or Moonbound at all. We made a ton of changes, and this was our second try.

Looking back at this now, it really is a pretty cover! But things just seemed off. It looked like she had layered things that shouldn't be layered, and the Strymph just really didn't fit in its environment. So, we decided to dash the bone bird, and stick with nice and simple scenery- and that hit the mark the third time around.

But, we aren't there yet, because after the second version, I decided to play around with AI to try and make the perfect scene to be the cover of the book.

I tinkered around with this for a couple of days, and eventually got the picture above that was going to be the cover if things didn't work out. Being able to see this now with a clearer head, I can see how the font wasn't right for the vibe, and the scene wasn't perfect either. There are definitely better options for a book cover out there- and I finally found it.

The final version the artist gave us was the now-official cover of Moonbound. It wasn't anything like the example picture, but it was just pretty and mysterious and it gave off the right vibes. This is why vibes are important. Listen to them always. And these ones, I was feeling them. \

So, after we received the final art, we had to go through another person who helped us create the spine, touch up the cover, and pasted the blurb on the back. Then, it went to yet another person who gave us a ton of font options and helped us play around with them until we found the perfect ones to use.

Then, the cover was finally finished, and the next step was self publishing!