So, big news…
Level Me Up officially has a cover! Woot! Check it out…
I’ve had the final cover for a couple weeks now. And it’s like that wad of cash chilling in your pocket…it was burning a hole right through. I’ve wanted to share it with the world for since I received the final image. But since I was paying for a service to reveal the cover to drum up some excitement, I had to hold off.
So let’s talk about the cover creation process for a minute.
It all started with me telling my designer (who was wonderfully patient with me. AND is still talking to me) what I had in mind for the cover. And let me tell you, the final cover was not what I had envisioned. (No worries, that’s a good thing!) I told her that I wanted something kinda nerdy. Level Me Up is just kinda nerdy, so the cover needed to be too. But you see, I suck and explaining my vision of something. I’m not a creative person when it comes to designing things. Or crafts. (Really, I try to be one of those Pinterest people, but it’s just not in the cards for me.)
So over the course of two months, my designer would send me images from her stock image collection and I would tell her what I liked and didn’t like. I would spend hours looking for more ideas and then send them back to her. (Yeah, the sister-in-law can attest to this, as she fell victim to stock image search for the perfect cover couple one afternoon.)
The point of the story right here: I just didn’t know what the hell I wanted.
FINALLY, my designer ripped off the band-aid and sent me a mock up cover full of techniques and a very basic vision that she somehow pulled from all my emails. She kept telling me not to puke since it was just crammed full of ideas. Honestly, I secretly loved it. Even though it wasn’t even close to the end product, we were moving and it was starting to feel real.
From this first mockup, I was able to tell her what I liked and what I didn’t. After that, the process went pretty quick. Before long, the official Level Me Up cover morphed into exactly what I wanted.
AND. I. LOVE. IT!
I’m also publishing LMU as a paperback, so we also needed a cover wrap. Needless to say, I’m in love with this too. I can not….CAN NOT WAIT until I can hold my novel in my hands. Squeal!
Actually, I’ll probably cry. Really.
As a note, what I love most about this cover (besides those awesome gaming elements) is that it can be easily copied for each book in the series (I have definite plans for two more, maybe a fourth installment). We will pick a new couple and color combo, but the look and feel will be the same. I LOVE when series stay with the same cover theme.
Yeah…so really, it’s all about the cover…becuase who doesn’t kinda, sorta, maybe at least sometimes judges a book by it’s cover?! Am I right?
OH! BUT HOLD THE PHONES. Guess what? In order to get a nifty pre-order link on Amazon, I had to upload a cover. And I couldn’t upload THE cover until after the cover reveal. THEN come to find out that I can, in fact, make changes to my book, but those changes won’t actually take effect until release day. Which, I accidentally selected Monday, June 5th as my release day. It was supposed to be Tuesday, June 6th…you know since Tuesdays are traditionally the day of the week when books are released. Sigh. So now the “coming soon” cover will remain on the product page until 6/5. Yay! *her voice dripping with sarcasm*
Anyways…
Now that the cover is OUT everything is just moving along. Finishing touches on all the bajillion-and-one things I have to do in order to publish an eBook and paperback.
Riiight.
Pre-order the Level Me Up eBook on Amazon now!
