Tales Of A Cover

I have a few talents that I'm proud of, but computer graphics is not one of them. Neither is photography. Therefore I called in some outside help when it came to designing my cover. I hired a company called Damonza and think that the artist, Damon, did an awesome job:

It took a few tries to get it right, though. When brainstorming ideas, I told him that I wanted something dark and intriguing, but somehow relating to music. I initially pictured a flute sitting in pieces on top of sheet music, with a few spatters of blood. But he came up with this:

It's CSI: WIND ENSEMBLE! It's a really cool cover (my husband loves it), but that's A LOT of blood. And there are no murders in my book, so as eye-catching as this cover is, I had to turn it down. Perhaps I can make my next work a murder mystery and use this design.

Next up, he sent me this cool, moody cover, which focuses on the chair that's central to Melinda and Kathy's rivalry:

I like this one very much, too, but my friends determined that it was a little TOO moody and still had too much blood. One friend thought that it's a horror novel, which it most definitely isn't. It's a dark comedy. So if I ever go the Stephen King route, I can use this for that book.

One friend suggested that I lighten the background and have him make it pale blue or green because those are colors that you often see used inside of a school. This was a great idea and I shared her thoughts with the artists. I also asked him to clean up some of the blood, please. And that's how he came up with the cover that I'm now using.

So far, I haven't gotten much feedback on my writing; after all, the book did just come out yesterday so those who purchased it are still reading. But I've gotten many compliments on the cover. I know that I made the right choice in going with this artist and in going with this design. So thank you, Damon, for the fab job! Your brilliant work is much, much appreciated!

Please check out and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.