It's funny, the wide variety of responses the cover has gotten. I didn't provide any input to the graphic designer except for the most vague of ideas about the storyline and a sketch of the protagonist I did years ago. When she sent me this cover and I approved it, I was elated -- it is (to my eye) absolutely perfect.
I've heard everything from, "I'd pick up a book with that cover" to "I would not pick up a book with that cover" to all manner of picky criticism in between those extremes.
I guess there really is no way to tell for sure what people will like and what they won't like.
(You can buy the book in PDF form without a cover at all, if you like. )
To be honest.....I just find it that appealing. I could go through what I would have done...but to be honest I dont think you or anyone cares. I just wouldnt pick it up at a glance with that cover....I would have to have heard some good reviews to go looking for it first :asian:
Keen-eyed posters will notice that the cover has changed from the original version, slightly (it's a long story) and the version you see here has the back cover and UPC and everything.
The book will be available "soon." The cover person has to upload the cover art and then there are some final things I have to do and sign off on before it will be ready for sale.
Now that Im looking at it it really does grow on you.....I do like the new sword better as well.......Got any idea if it will be sold down here in Merry Old England?
take it from someone in the design biz Phil...you can't please everyone, and there's no accounting for taste. you should see what some of my clients think is attractive.
Things are very nearly done -- I'm waiting for word from the printing company on one minor issue before final okay. Then I get a copy of the book, after which I tell them, "Okay, let's sell the thing."
Forever -- because there were huge periods of time in which I did not work on it at all. I started writing it in college and then finally called it done in 1998. There it sat until recently, when I decided it was time to get off my behind and have it see print. The copyright on it says, "1998, 2003."
I'm working on a science fiction novel that I think is actually better (Demon Lord was the first novel I ever finished -- I've started many), but it's still in draft form. I also am planning on writing a relationship book, a self-help type text.