Eye-Catching New Fantasy eBook Cover

1/26/2015

Wow, isn’t this a beautiful cover!

I got this from Johnny Atomic over at Atomic Covers. I highly suggest you check that site out, not only to see cool cover designs and ideas, but also to read up on what elements make a good book cover.

You can see many of those elements here. The following are some of the things that I really like and that really stand out to me:

The White: Wow, look at that white space, huh! That’s different, I think. You just don’t see a lot of covers that have this, and I think it’s because many artists aren’t that confident. It takes confidence to leave something ‘blank,’ if you will, but you see that a lot with Johnny Atomic covers. At first I was a bit thrown by it, but each time I look at it I like it more.

The Drool: I love that fiery drool, don’t you? This dragon is a real beast, a killer. It’s awesome how those yellow and red and orange colors of fire and face really meld together and work to create this huge visual draw for the eye. And having those white, sightless eyes is kind of eerie as well.

Layout: I love getting covers with layout and image and just everything done. Maybe that’s because I often get an image and then have to get someone else to do layout, in effect giving me twice the work. It’s nice getting that all done at once, and in such a good way...like you see here. I love this montage of the scroll and the subtitle and the author name above. It’s a nice little package, kind of another compartment to this cover that’s got so much going on. I never requested any of that, I never asked for that dollar sign or the little pointed tail coming off the ‘H’ but they all work great. This is why you get a good eBook cover designer and just let them have at it. It really is the best approach.

Skull & Coins: I like the skull and coins and dagger a lot. We get a lot of images and subtle messages there, and the colors have a great tone that kind of ‘deadens’ them. This works really well to create a foreground/background contrast, and the result is awesome.

Overall, this is a really amazing cover and I feel extremely blessed to get something like that from Johnny Atomic.

For the past few days I’ve been going through the POD version of The Hirelings, and it’s been an eye-opener. There were several typos (when are there not?) and quite a few little things I needed to change. I’ve also strengthened a few fight scenes, adding in quite a bit more “Hollywood” action. What’s surprised me the most, however, is how good this book is...and funny - I laughed out loud many times while re-reading it.

This new cover is being uploaded now to Amazon, and it’ll take up to 4 days to appear (new Amazon covers always take a few days it seems). After that I’ll email a few sites to see if I can do some direct email marketing, so this will probably be BargainBooksy, as they don’t require reviews. (BookSends is a good one, but they require 5 reviews). Hell, with a cover like this I might even do a BookBub submission! It has been awhile since my last BookBub rejection.

As you might have seen from my eBook Sales Deals post a few days back, this book will be promoted at $0.99 from February 9 to 11. I hope you’ll buy a copy! With this cover, a lot will.