All of which was in my mind when I commissioned the cover of\u00a0Realmgolds<\/em>.<\/p>\n All too often, you can tell an indie book by its cover because the cover is really bad<\/a>. I wanted to commission a cover that you could tell was an indie book, not based on lack of quality, but because no major publishing house would ever commission this cover<\/strong>. They wouldn’t have the imagination.<\/p>\n I found an artist who had done a cover for someone I know on Google+, and sent him detailed art direction. Here are extracts:<\/p>\n The cover shows the two main characters, Victory on the viewer\u2019s left and Determined on the right,\u00a0sitting talking at a table. They are equals in terms of their rank, but Determined is younger, less\u00a0confident and less competent. Both are of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance… Definitely not Northern European. No whitewashing.<\/p>\n VICTORY is in her early to mid thirties. She is a small woman, but has such a dominant personality that\u00a0people usually don\u2019t notice this….<\/p>\n She isn\u2019t beautiful. That\u2019s very important. She\u2019s not unpleasant to look at, but she\u2019s not conventionally attractive. Kind of nerdy, if you can imagine a nerd girl who is extremely<\/em> confident.<\/p>\n DETERMINED is a bookish young man of about 25, who really wanted to be a historian… he has a slightly scruffy, academic look to him…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Even with this brief, I had to say things like, “She’s too pretty. Make her nose bigger.” But I got what I wanted:<\/p>\n My artist, Chris Howard<\/a>, did an amazing job, and I’m very happy with the cover. Much more so than I would have been had I not been able to brief him and engage in back-and-forth with him.<\/p>\n The book is with the editor right now, and I’m still planning for publication in March. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n If you’re not already signed up for my mailing list, doing so will make sure you know when books come out, and also give you free access to short fiction set in the world of the Gryphon Clerks. Just enter your email address in the sidebar to the right on any page of the website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the reasons I self-publish is for greater control. Nowhere is this more significant than in cover design. Traditionally-published authors, even the very popular ones, have little if any control over the cover art for their books. A process … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/images\/Realmgolds-CoverDesign_1024h.jpg\" "\\"Realmgolds")
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