BooksChatter: ✉ Behind-The-Scenes On My Cover For CHERISHED

Today author Christina Bauer takes over our blog to tell us about her latest novel, Cherished (30 May 2017, Monster House Books, LLC, 243 pages), a Young Adult Dark Fantasy, book three of the Beholder series.

"The world Ms. Bauer builds is such a beautiful blend and balance of magic and non-magic, darkness and light, and so much mystery. It reminded me a bit of Garth Nix's Abhorsen series - except this heroine is sassy!" - Davisa reviews

|| Synopsis || Teaser: KCR Preview || Series Trailer || The Series || Author Guest Post || About the Author || Giveaway & Tour Stops ||

Behind-The-Scenes On My Cover For CHERISHED

By Christina Bauer

My book, CHERISHED, tells the story of a woman who wants to be a farm girl but ends up as the most powerful Necromancer in her realm. It’s book three in my Beholder series (if you aren’t familiar with the series, there’s a quick trailer right here.) In any case, I’m now doing an author tour to celebrate the launch of CHERISHED, and I’ve been asked to share some of the ‘behind the scenes’ on the cover with BOOKS CHATTER. It’s quite a story, so I’ll share it in steps!

Step One

My covers started with an image of a woman in a natural setting. I loved the movement and intrigue of her pose, and I thought that by book three in the series, people would know she was a Necromancer.

It looked cool and I had a reveal. And then, the trouble started. Readers thought my heroine Elea (pronounced Ah-LAY-ah) was a jungle princess or haircare model. I needed to add in something that said ‘kick ass mage.’ Thus came version 2.

Step Two

I asked my graphic artist to add a ton of these cool logo thingies about magecraft, which you can see easily at full screen size. But guess what? People don’t buy ebooks at full screen, they get their first glimpse at what’s called a thumbnail. The logos were getting lost.

Long story shot, this look didn’t work either.

Moving on.

Step Three

Now, I go back to the artist and ask for some freaking magick to get into the image. We played around with lightning bolts and whatnot, but we ended up with this magickal orb that’s flaming out a little.

Me likey!

Now, I had a Cherished Cover that said magick and it looked great even at an itty bitty size. I needed to put it with the rest of the revised covers and see if they all made sense together:

Woot woot! I’m thinking it works, although I won’t know for sure until I get reader reaction.

:::Crosses fingers:::

Long story short, the process of launching a book and creating a cover doesn’t end with the release date. I’m constantly tweaking stuff including the cover, price, promotion and a whole lot more. Publishing is very much an endurance sport, but when I get to share my stories with other people? It’s all worth it.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to answer this thoughtful question; I certainly enjoyed the journey of writing my response. If you think of more queries, please know that I’m always up for reader interaction, and more information on how to contact me is listed in the About the Author section.