The Saga of a Cover Art

I had never really considered the Cover art of Sew, It's a Quest during the plotting and writing process. Even the ideas my Mom suggested to me ... I didn't like.

So, when it came to time for me to order my proof copy from CreateSpace,  I really din't know what I wanted to do. The first cover art I tried was basically just text on a pink background. Legible, but not very appealing. Mom told me that I needed to get a picture.

I wanted a sword, but unfortunately, CreateSpace didn't have any in its stock photos, and I didn't have any in my possession. (Unless it was about three inches long, wooden, and attached to a Nutcracker) However, there was a really nice one with a path, so I settled on it, since the book was about a quest, after all.

I liked this over very much ... and it stayed my cover for about a year ... Until I discovered that there were about ten or so other books with almost the exact same cover. The only difference was the fact that I bothered to changed the text color to pink. (Default color on that template is olive green)

So I realized that I needed an original cover art.

First I tried drawing myself something.

This was actually my third attempt ... but the previous two were so bad I refuse to let them be seen. I really liked this picture ... but I made the text box too small, and it would have been difficult to attract readers with on Amazon.

So I decided to take drastic measures. In the middle of July (and where I live, it's very humid, which means that both heat and cold are amplified to insane levels) I donned a pair of khaki pants and my sister's leather jacket (didn't have one myself) and traipsed into the woods carrying my big stick and with my mother trailing behind with a camera. Afterwords, I pulled out my Picasa photo Editing program and played around.

Here are some of the results.

I then uploaded these to facebook and asked my friends, family and fans which one they liked best. (There were more ... some of which left much to be desired. I gave you the best ones here.)

And that's when Cousin Tenya decided to take pity on me. She asked to be sent the pictures we had taken, and she came up with what I have now. (Minus the sword. She added that later.)