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Is it weird to be thrilled you've made someone cry? (And hope it'll happen again? 😉)
Getting this cover made was the kind of hectic, crazy time that makes you wonder if the universe is trying to tell you something. I hired two different designers. Though I did my due diligence both times, looking at portfolios and feedback from authors, both experiences were disastrous, in truly ridiculous ways. As if the people doing the designs had no actual understanding of basic graphic design principles—and I say that as someone who's terrible with visual design!
Still, after the second designer was a bust, I decided to try to create this cover myself. After all, I had already found both the primary image and font I wanted. Because this is not in my skillset, I spent many hours working on it before I got to a draft that I felt looked all right.
And then—the very next day, as I was about to keep working on it—I drowned my computer (accidentally of course). Backups are critical, and I was relieved when I thought the online tool I had been using would save the design to my account on their site. Turned out, they don't. They rely on the local computer cache, meaning that entire design—all that work—was in jeopardy. You can understand that week was intensely stressful.
Unfortunately, after waiting for the computer to dry out, it still didn't turn on. Thankfully, though, I was eventually able to get a full bootable copy of my hard drive, which is genuinely great. I'm also fortunate that I was able to borrow a computer on which to boot that copy and pull the draft cover file (among some others).
I still don't have my own computer, but I have been able to use someone's older one to keep doing some work, like redesigning this page on my website, and adding a Heat Level Guide I hope will be helpful. Ultimately, this has turned into a stressful and very expensive—but not entirely catastrophic—accident.
Still, despite all the setbacks, and with a lot of helpful feedback from a good friend, I was able to finish the cover for my next novel. I can't wait to hear what you think!
I started writing this book for NaNoWriMo 2015, so you can imagine how happy—and anxious—I am to finally have it be reaching readers! I'm definitely looking forward to hearing what you think of this story. Meanwhile, let me know your thoughts on the cover in the comments! 💕
In other news, Fallen recently received an incredibly positive review from Readers' Favorite! I admit, I blushed 😊 Can you blame me, with comments like: If you haven't read it yet, maybe now's the time to grab your copy. 😉
