Of Covers and Red Ink

This past week has been one of not having the utmost control over my work, one where I was not the sole person in charge. This is good news. Just over a week ago I fired out book two of As Darkness Ends to my editor and also had my cover artist begin her work on one of the most important pieces of the book. Of course, nothing goes as planned.

I (mistakenly) thought I would be done with the first round of edits on the manuscript by Thursday the 12th and I would email it to my editor. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t work out that way. Some things came up and I ended up getting the edits to the final chapter and second-half of the previous done late Friday evening. I did make the deadline and got it to her.

The world isn’t without its gremlins because with only 5-pages to go until she got to the end, my editor’s computer bit the dust and wouldn’t boot. She was panicking because she likes to get work back fast but being a techy guy, I know what these things are like and I said it wasn’t a worry. My edits were returned in a week, which is still stellar.

Then we get to the cover. All I can say is wow! My cover artist took a murky idea that I had in my head, let me see that my vision was all wrong and by my request took the reins to create a beautiful cover that I absolutely love. My original idea was busy, muddled, and I did not have much of an idea of what I wanted aside from a few cues I took from other covers I liked. Want to know what a disaster looks like? Well you won’t because I’ll never let those versions see the light of day. I applaud my cover artist on her efforts to make sense of what I wanted when it was a complete mess.

Sometimes you need to scrap what isn’t working and let someone with the knowhow take over. Given the fact that I’ve put together only one cover (Paradox) and she’s done hundreds, I have no problems admitting she’s the expert and has a better eye for this. Admitting defeat was the best move I could’ve made. The cover is great and I am excited to have it be the first impression of the book. As of Saturday, the cover was done and finalized.

With the cover and edits complete, book two is hitting the final stages towards gracing your eReader. Next comes a second round of edits with me going through the corrections and suggestions from my editor to tighten it up and strengthen any areas that may need some adjustment. Lastly will be a final read-through for polish and then it’ll be whisked off to Amazon, B&N and Smashwords.

As I get closer to the final book, I will set a ‘street date’ and I also plan on having a big cover-reveal party and an unveiling of the book’s title (it’s not just going to be ‘book two’!) before that. As those dates and details work themselves out, I’ll be sure to let you all know!