Cover for As Far As Souls Go is done, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.
You know the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, right? Well, I’m here to tell you it’s bollocks. It’s the absolute first thing somebody does. If a cover doesn’t pop out, people aren’t even going to pick up the book to read the blurb.
The theory behind cover design puts the practice in the same region as waiting for the dinner rush to pass. Like when you want to go to a restaurant, or get some take-out, and you decide to wait for a bit so all the people who are lining up at exactly dinner time will be gone.
That’s smart. You’re smart because you’re the only one who’s thought of it– Nope. Everybody’s thought of it and now dinner rush is an hour later. Which brings us back to covers. Everybody has a cover that “pops”, so now your potential reader is looking at a wall of covers all popping equally hard.
That’s the way I saw it, anyway, so after long deliberation I just found an artist I liked and asked them to make a cover I liked. I had a pretty clear picture of what I wanted, but if I had any kind artistic skill I could do it myself. So mustering up the best of my abilities, I drew up a rendering of what I wanted. It wasn’t pretty.
You’d almost feel sorry for the artist. One day you wake up and the sun is shining, your coffee tastes extra nice today, and you sit down at your computer to see what’s up.
That’s when clouds gather and coffee starts to taste bitter. There’s a long winded message from some idiot who isn’t sure what he wants, or how this system works, and he’s included pictures drawn by a toddler, for some reason.
However, the mess of scribbles didn’t deter Rocío Martín Osuna and she stepped up like a trooper. Whipped up a cover in no time, based on my sketches, and it was a weight off my shoulders. I was already imagining all kinds of doom scenarios that I couldn’t get the “face” of my book to look right, or that I’d have to go with a generic stock photo built “popping” cover.
But no. Within no-time I received the first version, which was already very close to what you’ve seen. Just a few minor tweaks, little more texture here, little extra grime there, back straight, boots square, and bob’s your uncle.
Is it a cover that’s supposed to be on this kind of book in this kind of genre? Hell, I don’t know, and I stopped caring long ago. I don’t even know the genre, but at least it’s got a pretty picture.