If there’s one thing I’ve learned during my path as a creative, it’s “change happens.” Now, this isn’t exclusive to the creative community, change does indeed happen daily throughout the world. But in the writing world, change is prevalent and constant.
Take writing a book, for example. Often, when a writer starts a new book, they will outline it in some form, or at least have a mental picture of the story they want to tell. This mapped out path will frequently change during the course of the story’s creation. Character names will change and plots will take paths they didn’t foresee, just for example.
With my last book, THE DEATH LIST, I experienced pandemic setbacks, editing issues, a cover art change, and a last minute title change. THE DEATH LIST’s working title was EPIC FAIL. It was a little juvenile, so I switched it out. I made decent cover for the book, but Lisa Vasquez made it better. Oh, and that editing problem. I’m not going to say Beetlejuice.
My next book is no different.
Next week we’ll unveil the new cover art and title to you all.
Yes, I said new cover art and title.
First, the cover art. As happy as I am with the art I made for the book, it’s a common stock photo I manipulated. As a result, I wasn’t happy with it. I’ll still use it in marketing, for sure. But the art I purchased from a pro in the field is a direct scene from the book. The artist made this without having knowledge of the contents. It was as if it were meant to be.
Then…
After consulting with the cover artist (an established pro whose work has seen mainstream attention), my mentors, beta readers, and peers … we determined for marketing’s sake, changing the title from FIREFLIES AND APPLE PIES to <insert title next week> needed to be done. We’re keeping the original title for the first segment of the book. I’ve also had stickers printed with the FIREFLIES AND APPLE PIES printed on them. A waste? Nope. Now each segment of the book will have a sticker, each is 1 in a series.
All will be revealed next week…until then… don’t forget-
#TheGodProvides
Thomas R Clark 