Cover Redesigns

I have new book designs!

I wasn't particularly happy with my current FBA cover and the upcoming TEBM covers, and it was beginning to get to me. Since I'm a proper nice person, I will warn you right now - there's an incoming rant about my thoughts, feelings, and process. If you don't want to read that, all you need to know is that the FBA series has new, matching, brand-y covers. Now for the rant.

When I first published FBA, I was rushing through, just trying to get it out into the world. Friends and peers encouraged me to let AI handle my cover. I didn't really like that idea; it felt really impersonal. I was already struggling to write a blurb that sums up the madness of FBA and I wanted a cover that reflected the story.

I set about creating a mixed-media collage, which was the original cover. It's mostly made from stock photos and hand-drawn elements, but there were also around 10% AI images. I thought the cover looked pretty sick at the time, and it took me a week to make, so I felt proud of it.

But as time passed, I realised I was very unsatisfied with it. There were two main problems eating at me:

1. The cover looked like a cool movie poster, but it was very crowded and busy. Most people view it as a thumbnail on Amazon, and the image was not very clear at all. It was very scroll-past-able.

2. With the recent Ai hate, I was worried that people would see Ai images on the cover and assume that the written story was also Ai or contained Ai pieces. This fucker took me 14 years to write, I'd be devastated if people thought that.

So recently I cracked open a cold one and had a drunken brainstorm. I collected my favourite novel covers of all time and thought about some of my favourite things like 80's pulp horror novels and B-Movies. After just 2 hours I had a new cover for FBA. The next day I made a matching TEBM cover, which took 6 hours total.

I like how it's easily readable and recognisable. It has 80's horror elements, a hint of 'Fighting Fantasy Books' interior art, and somehow the tiniest inkling of Dr Seuss. Plus, the concept is like a template I can use across the series with different colours and skull styles.

And the best part? It's completely hand-drawn and unique.