Every once in a While

Every once in a while, I will get a cover done, and be either completely stunned at how different it is than what I envisioned, or a bit disappointed because it didn't turn out quite the way I hoped.

One of those was for The Chalice of Life. Here we have an author eager to really make a difference in the book world, and a little outside it--committed to learning and growing--and the cover didn't quite meet expectations. So we sold out the print run, and I am pleased as punch to be posting the working version of the new cover. It's not often that we will go back and redo a cover, but we did this time, to help support both her efforts, and ours.

Karen asked what I thought the impact of the new cover would be. And here's my thoughts on the matter: My firm belief is that covers sell books. I know that I will often pick up a book in the bookstore based on a cover. Whether I buy it or not is another matter, but I will pick it up because the title or cover look interesting. I think this cover will sell books. The girl on the front (yes, I know her name but it evades me at the moment... and I did mention we needed to reprint because we're out of books, right?) is a little light-skinned compared to her description in the book, but we're going with the fact that she is lit by the fire of the dragon's breath. The chalice itself is now a jewel of note, and the dragon wraps it all up. Lynn Perkins and Christina Yoder pulled this one together (They've also done Sojourn and Virtual Evil for me), and they've done wonderful job.

I'd like to point out that the previous cover wasn't a bad cover -- it just didn't fit with the feel of Dragon Moon. I tend to go for a more commercial appeal in my covers (and as anyone will note in the next year, I like dragons... but that's a no-brainer, right?), and the previous one didn't have that feel for me. So, by changing it up, I hope to see sales increase, and I think that is a no-brainer :)

Drop me a comment--tell me which one you prefer!