I’m referring to covers of others’ novels as well as my own. Note that no cover considered here is from the Big Five—most of theirs are terrible, looking like some kid did them with PowerPoint. Let me consider others’ first:

Scott Dyson’s Odd Man Out. Scott specializes in horror stories, short fiction so far, and mostly horror. I think he does his own covers. I love this one. (Stephen King might covet this cover…and wish he’d written this tale too.)

Saralyn Richard’s Murder in the One Percent. Saralyn’s novel is a mystery in the Christie tradition. Her detective here is even named Parrott, a take-off on Poirot. Great novel, great cover. The cover is from Jackson Cover Designs, by the way, once associated with Black Opal Books, but gone in the re-org of that small press. (They also did the cover of The Last Humans, first book in “The Last Humans” series.)

Stan Brown’s The Legacy. Like Scott with horror, Stan got me back into fantasy a bit (as opposed to sci-fi—or is this novel also a horror story?). Also like Scott, all Stan’s stories are good. So is this cover…again by Jackson Cover Designs.

Hugh Howey’s Wool. Here I’m referring to the original ebook “trilogy” edition, which seems to be unavailable now. Houghton Mifflin’s cover is one of those Big Five PowerPoint failures. I guess they made him remove the original ebook edition. Figures. Howey was once a self-published author who sold his soul to that Big Five devil. He originally published the three wooly parts separately, even though they were soap opera episodes and not stand-alones. (Something I hate as a reader. I waited for the bundle, which really amounts to just one novel, but the stitching-together still remained to annoy me.) Good cover on that original trilogy, though (sorry, I don’t know who was the cover artist).

And now for my own covers:

 

Survivors of the Chaos. The old Infinity trade paperback and ebook editions had a great cover, a scene straight out of the book and very sci-fi-ish, consisting of a space-suited figure on a moon of Saturn looking at the ringed gas giant. This novel now has a second edition contained in the ebook bundle of the complete “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy”; I just borrowed the cover from the last book for that (yeah, lazy me), also an excellent cover by Sara Carrick.

Soldiers of God. Again, the old Infinity trade paperback edition had a great cover showing a Juan Valdes-like fellow on his burro looking at a mushroom cloud in the distance. (Read the novel to find out why.) That novel also has a second ebook edition with a spiffy new cover I like a lot too, thanks to Sara Carrick.

Gaia and the Goliaths. This is another great Sara Carrick cover.  The world is burning, thanks to global warming and the fossil-fuel industry’s conglomerates. (In the book, Detective Castilblanco champions nuclear energy as the best alternative to fossil fuels.) Great cover by Sara Carrick, but a disturbing novel?

Leonardo and the Quantum Code. Let’s call this a “cover reveal.” I’ve used the same artist, Betti Bup, for all three of my Draft2Digital books published so far. They’re all good, but this new cover is the best. For those of you who follow my oeuvre (hopefully most of you who read this blog), you will know that this cover is for an ebook not yet published, but it soon will be. This cover seemed like ESP in action between me and the cover artist because it depicts a scene from the book I had just finished! (A preview of the story is found at the end of Palettes, Patriots, and Prats. The cover of that book, in my mind’s eye, at least. shows the mysterious road one main character, Bobbie MacDonald, must traverse as she escapes two thugs sent  to kill her.) I’m sure Betti Bup is a pseudonym—you can find her artwork at TheBookCoverDesigner.com).

Do covers make the book? No, but they add to it, and they are often better than any advertising an author or publisher might pay for. The Big Five haven’t learned that lesson yet, or they forgot it. In their arrogance, they stopped learning lessons, or applying lessons learned, two decades ago. I haven’t read any fiction published by the Big Five in a while. Why subject myself to formulaic stories…and terrible covers!

My list of covers tomorrow might differ from this one. Like a book’s content, appreciation of cover art is subjective—you never can tell what might turn readers off…or catch their eye. (Big Five covers generally make me say, “Ugh!”) Whether you like the cover or not, you should always “peek inside,” either at your favorite online retailer or with a visit to your friendly neighborhood bookstore.

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Comments are always welcome!

A, B. Carolan’s Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One. One group of hominids survived to dominate Earth, but some of their descendants and those of the other groups are “out there.” What happens when their scientists return to the home planet? And which group does Kayla Jones belong to? Available at Smashwords and all their affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Gardners, etc.)…but not on Amazon.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

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