Production Covers and NEW Afterwords: Arhel Trilogy, and Sympathy for the Devil

First, I’ve decided to write a new afterword for every one of my books I reprint. One of the things I did last week. 😀 I had a lot of fun writing them, and got to talk about the experience of writing them, and then working with them again years later.

I also got the entire Arhel Trilogy finished in CreateSpace (awaiting proofs), along with the third version of Sympathy for the Devil.

ALL the covers underwent some major morphing—I discovered that borders don’t work for CreateSpace, and as a result, was forced to completely rethink my whole Arhel Trilogy design, to the serious benefit of the books.

Take a look at the new covers. The Arhel covers are complete overhauls. They have some of the same elements, but a much livelier feel.

The Sympathy for the Devil cover has a blue sky, courtesy of the “no borders” issue, and again, I think benefits from it.

All images are clickable so you can see the larger version.

The NEW Fire in the Mist
The NEW Fire in the Mist
The NEW Bones of the Past
The NEW Bones of the Past
The NEW Mind of the Magic
The NEW Mind of the Magic
The NEW Sympathy for the Devil
The NEW Sympathy for the Devil
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By Holly

Novelist, writing teacher, on a mission to reprint my out-of-print books and indie-publish my new ones.

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Joy
Joy
11 years ago

The versions without the borders look much better without the borders, I can see why you chose the second option.

Annie Anderson
11 years ago

Holly,
I think they look much better without the borders, personally. Much cleaner looking. This will translate well to printed covers.

Sylvia
11 years ago

Holly,
I, too, love the new covers. Can’t do better than the other commenters – they pop!

MaryN
MaryN
11 years ago

I really like the new covers. The old ones were nice but the new designs and bold solid colors create a great dynamic effect. The knotted background graphic keeps the series feel going strong. Your changes are great!

Eliza
11 years ago

Ooh! I especially like the Fire in the Mist revamp.

Cassie
11 years ago

Awesome covers Holly! I agree that they look better without the borders. One thing I’ve noticed in my (limited) experience with design is borders tend to make things look smaller and more enclosed. This is not necessarily something you want to do if your going for a “clean” design that pops. Also, I think borders make your piece look more busy even if it’s not.

Anyway, grats on the new covers. I’m looking forward to getting these books in ebook format and reading your new afterword. 🙂

Kit Russell
Kit Russell
11 years ago

Wow! Those new covers just POP!

Reetta
Reetta
11 years ago

The new covers look really good. They catch the eye and look modern. Everything is easy to read.

Bill Seidel
Bill Seidel
11 years ago

Liked the old covers, love the new covers.

Could this be called “writers without borders”. Sorry, it was there…

I enjoy the newsletters, thank you!

Laraine Anne Barker
11 years ago

I’m very impressed, Holly. Interesting that you don’t do your work in Photoshop. I’ve designed a few CD covers (strictly for my own use, alas) and I did it all in Photoshop. But I’m still stuck on CS2, which I bought second-hand. I’m going to hate it when all software comes only in downloadable form.

I love the passion in your writing. It makes even your emails irresistible. 🙂

Jan Biggs
Jan Biggs
11 years ago

Holly, I really like the new covers. Did you do them yourself or did you have a designer do them for you? They’re really great.

Michelle
Michelle
Reply to  Holly
11 years ago

Unfortunately we non-US authors have little choice about this. Amazon will only pay non-US contributors in cheques and only when you’ve made $100, which my bank charges 15% to convert. B&N don’t deal with anyone who hasn’t got a US bank account – read pretty much every non-US country. So Smashwords is pretty much it if I want to get my stuff out there.

Athena Grayson
Reply to  Holly
11 years ago

You can opt out of the distribution for Amazon and B&N if you use the Smashwords meatgrinder. You’ll get the benefits of Smashwords distribution to the smaller markets and the international markets/formats without the extra percentage taken off your AMZ/BN editions. Plus, Smashwords allows you to generate coupons that allow you to offer discounts or free copies as giveaways without affecting the algorithms that the others use to price-match.

For anybody who’s going the SW/AMZ/BN distribution route, my best lesson learned was to not use the meatgrinder file for AMZ or B&N.

Michelle
Michelle
Reply to  Athena Grayson
11 years ago

Thanks for the advice, Athena, much appreciated. Still a newbie on the great ebook adventure…

Lewinna
11 years ago

Oh wow. Those covers jump for you right away! I already like them much better.

Wendy Scott
11 years ago

Sans borders, the covers are cleaner — thumbs up! 😀
One caveat to the border question — if you are using a pale or white background for a digital cover design, a border will improve visibility, especially when the image is reduced to thumbnail size, for eg at Amazon.

Carol
11 years ago

I must say that I prefer the borders on these graphic covers (vs the paintings on the non-self published versions, being the copies I own). The borders tie the books in the series together better and make the images seem more polished. Maybe that’s just me though.

Danzier
Danzier
Reply to  Holly
11 years ago

I like the workaround on the Arhel books. The original design looked rather like Celtic knots to me; this way the “knitted” design ties into the story more, and that element isn’t completly gone from the cover.

Kelly A. Harmon
11 years ago

I think the borderless versions look great. They’re also much more readable, particularly in the smaller sizes.

Thanks for the tip!

Eileen Clifford
11 years ago

I like both versions of your covers, but prefer the new ones, overall, because they’re more ‘alive’, if you know what I mean.

donna morang
11 years ago

Love the new covers! Much less distracting and more vivid. You have a winner.

SE Shurtleff
11 years ago

Sleek, dynamic and attractive. Perfect.

Carrie Anne
Carrie Anne
11 years ago

I think the new cover designs look wonderful. Borders would detract from the artwork, for sure. Thanks for the tip!

Lynda Miller
Lynda Miller
11 years ago

I love the clean designs of your books. Great Work!
Lynda Miller

Sue Santore
11 years ago

I do like the Arhel books better without the borders. Thanks for the tip because I was thinking along the “borderline” for my current book.

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