Fun with Cover Design

It's Fun Friday, lovely readers, and I thought you might like to share my fun working with my cover designer on a new series. This is the first time I've worked on a multi-author series, so I was restricted to certain elements. The series name, logo, sequence, type model, and setting were all set in stone.

The name of this exciting new series is The Brides of Pelican Rapids about a mail-order bride agency and the brides brought from the post-civil war south to marry the bachelors of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. You'll see the culture clash with that, I'm sure. My particular book is number 7 and won't be released until Jan 2020, but these stories are interconnected, so all the covers must be too.

My heroine, Molly, a talented pianist, brings her grand piano--the only thing saved when her plantation is burned--all the way from Georgia. This creates a problem for the hero, since it's impossible to fit the piano into his small farmhouse. A clash of expectations there.

Naturally, I wanted the piano to be on the cover, but the covers had to be set outside. No problem. My idea was to put it in a picnic setting, since Molly plays at the Fourth of July picnic. This is my first cover view.

Lovely--except that's not a grand piano. Back to the drawing board.

There are a few problems with this cover. It is a grand piano, but it's so small, it looks like a toy. I suppose its size in relation to the trees was proper, but it still looks funny, besides, this is not a picnic site, and setting up a picnic, with people, tents, blankets on the ground, etc, would make the cover too busy. The other problem is this part of Minnesota doesn't have mountains like that in the background. On the other hand, I liked this new pose. Notice how the model's hair is outside the collar. Much better.

I finally threw out the idea of the piano. It just wouldn't work. I suggested the farmhouse instead, but with a clean background, no mountains. Here is the result. The farmhouse is way back there, but it's in the picture and doesn't make the cover too busy.

This is perfect, except the logo gets lost in the sleeve lace. To me it looked like that poor pelican got caught in a fishing net. Fortunately, my designer could tweak things like that.

I've really enjoyed working with Evelyne Labelle, of Carpe Librum Book Design. She's not only talented, but she knows how to deal with ticky authors. This is the final, approved design with the logo fixed. In fact, I'm glad to get this cover so far in advance because it's inspiring me to write the story.

What do you expect in a book cover? Do you look at the details?

Everyone, have a great weekend.