Goal: Create cover for book three

The book is entitled "Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions."

Here's how we set up the shoot:

Then we took dozens and dozens of pics:

After a few hours in front of the computer, here's what I've got for a potential cover:



And here's a link to a bigger image, in case you want to see more detail and offer feedback: http://i42.tinypic.com/2qkotb8.jpg

Likely to change a bit between now and July, but it's nice to have a start. Having a cover to look at makes the editing go smoother, somehow.

callalily61 said:

Nice! Liked the shots of the setup process, too. Thanks.

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Thanks! Now I wish we'd taken shots of the setup for the second book's cover. I had my wife lie down on a mirror, had a white sheet draped over her legs, and had another white sheet suspended between those same two chairs. She had one of those lamps in each hand, and there were two flashlights on the floor, aimed at the camera. It all resulted in the overblown effect you see here:



The toe-tag was cut out of an index card and affixed with twine. The name/barcode were added in Photoshop and skewed to match the perspective of the card. A neat feature: you can actually scan the toe-tag to purchase the book! I used the ISBN for the character's "serial number." Devoted fans distinguish themselves by who had the "front scanned."

Hey, if we're not gonna get rich off this, we might as well have fun!!

Phaeal said:

Ewwwww, gross cover. Me likes.

And what?! You got a cover quote from Douglas Preston! Now I'm really envious!

CGs on the successful shoot.

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Yeah, Douglas is a huge fan of mine.

Okay, it's probably more the other way around... Still, when I got that endorsement from him, it was a good day. And the email he sent went on and on before he got to the "official" endorsement. It detailed enough of the book's plot and character development for me to suspect he had actually read the book (and honestly loved it!).

Oddly enough, I became a fan of his through his nonfiction work THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE. I didn't delve into his science fiction/thriller stuff until later. He's a fine human being and a wonderful storyteller (and obviously an astute judge of a book's worth).

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement. Now you've got me scared to play around with it any more.