EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO, I released my first creation to the wild. Pathfinders is a supernatural thriller with a sprinkling of science fiction. Panning two worlds, it explores this reality and the dream world through the phenomena of ‘Lucid Dreaming’, popularized most recently with the movie Inception. Pathfinders 1.0
Uncertain whether it was best categorized as horror, science fiction, mystery or thriller – the act of finding a suitable cover which encapsulated the story suddenly became quite tricky.
I used a company called Design for Writers, documenting my experience in this blog post. The ‘look’ I was striving for was something kooky, symbolic and minimalistic – something that would stand out from the horde of other options lining digital bookshelves.
In hindsight, I’m not convinced the gamble paid off. It’s impossible to know with any degree of certainty of course, but I doggedly stuck with the cover despite the protestations of some friends and family. The fact that I had already parted with €360 was probably a factor too!
In any case, after weeks of scouring sites for pre-made, cost-effective covers, I found one that fits with the book theme. Importantly, if also reflects what’s charting well in the book stores. If you can’t beat em… Pathfinders 2.0. You Beauty!
I highly recommend the work of James over at goonwrite.com. I’ve worked with him on covers of my short-stories, Crystal Clear and Spectrum (which won an e-Book cover design award).
James has hundreds of choices neatly categorized on his site by genre. It’s a cheaper option, but they are pre-made so there isn’t too much wiggle room with editing graphics.
The good thing about the cover change of Pathfinders is that the first edition paperbacks are now collectors items!
As the cover changes are updated on Amazon and beyond, there are only a couple dozen of the first edition in circulation.
Who knows? Perhaps in years to come they might fetch something similar to J.K. Rowling and the first Harry Potter at a cool £39,000. One can only dream!
