So today I put up the new cover for Firedrake Volume 3, finally replacing the last of my old covers that even I described as being horrible. After it had posted, and I had dropped the gorgeous new art onto my readers, I was notified that the original cover had been posted to “Lousy Book Covers” on Tumblr. Link Here if you want to see it.
At first I was angry (“Those bastards! I hope they get crabs, and then fall in a woodchipper!”). After that came sadness and all those other stupid emotions that one gets when any part of something they did is ridiculed. That’s natural.
But after a couple of minutes, I smiled. Why smiled? Because they were right. That cover was shit. A drunken aardvark missing two toes could have bettered that one. That was the work of someone who had no business designing a cover, who simply wanted to get his writing out there and was too industry-ignorant to think any better.
Times have changed. I’m not quite that stupid any more (Hey! I’m looking at you. Don’t say it…). I have turned my book cover services over to the fine folks at Arani Creative, and they’re knocking it out of the park every time. They did the covers for Golem, Tales of the Emergence, and now Firedrake 3. They’re damned affordable, too, so any of you reading this who are thinking of marketing a book but wondering where you’re going to get $200-$400 for a cover, hit their link. I made it out of their name so it would be easy for you to find. Do it now. I’ll wait. See? Get them on the case, and you’ll have a cover by the time you’ve finished formatting your book for market.
And if your book was featured on the LBC Tumblr, take a minute to reflect on why it was. I did. It wasn’t because my writing sucked, or even because whoever posted it to their site was an asshole. As I said before, it was because the cover was terrible. For whatever reason, someone has alerted you to the fact that your cover is not up to snuff. Yes, they did it in a manner guaranteed to be a little sharp and stabby, but hey, maybe one day they’ll fall in a woodchipper and you can have the last laugh. The easier way out of the situation, though? Get a new cover. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be better than what you have.
Mine is. Thanks, Arani.
