Step Sixteen: The Cover

Judging A Book By It’s Cover - And The Process For Getting A Finished Look

I’m not going to tease you because this is the post we’ve all been waiting for. Here we have it, the amazingly cool cover for LAST SEEN!

I love this. It’s evocative. It encapsulates the story. It’s familiar—the road through the forest, the aerial shot, the thick green woods—but also shocking, with the unexpected pop of color from the highlighter neon pink title. It is clean and elegant, and straightforward. You know what you’re getting, taking cues from both the art and the title. It’s branded, with my name and rank up top to establish bona fides immediately. It has a stellar quote from an author I’ve admired for years. I absolutely cannot wait to see it on the book itself.

It was not the first cover I was shown. They rarely are. It’s close, and I’ll talk more about that in a bit, but it wasn’t the very first.

Getting a final cover is one of the most amazing experiences you can have as an author. Especially the first time, when you’re green as new grass (um, forest growth - ha!) and have no idea where the artist might be headed. How do you encapsulate a story in an image? Sometimes, it’s so incredibly easy, and sometimes, it’s impossible. This cover has a long and storied history, as many of mine do. But first, let’s deep dive into why art can make or break a book.