It’s an exciting day!
I have a book cover for my soon-to-be-published book Forever Loved: Eve’s Story!!
Update: It is now published. Yay!
And, here it is:
It’s been a long time coming!
I’d love to share something of the story with you (and a few of the covers that didn’t make it).
My book, Forever Loved: Eve’s Story was finished last February 2016 – the writing part of it anyway. I optimistically thought it would be ready for publishing May 2016. There was just the question of a cover (and interior design, a new website, marketing, and a ton of other things I needed to learn and do).
I thought the cover would be the easy part of it … just hire a designer … and get a great cover.
Well, several designers, ten months, and a multitude of designs later …
Phew!!
It’s been hard work, and one of the most difficult processes of my life!
Imagine someone trying to see inside your head, what you want and what you like, and putting all that into a beautiful design that will sell your book (even more difficult when you don’t know what’s in your head to start with). And then all the back-and-forward communication, and having to tell your designer, yet again, that you don’t really like the cover they’ve just lovingly created, or it’s not quite what you expected. Hitting send on those emails was so hard.
(I want to say a big thank you to all the designers who have worked with me. Thank you for your incredible patience with me, and your professionalism.)
Several times I kind of gave up, and thought, ‘I’ll just try and design this cover myself’.
Here’s one cover I created:
I ended up with about 20 variations of this cover, playing around trying to get it just right. I liked it, and still do, but it wasn’t right. It has more of a children’s story book feel to it.
I tried again:
This cover was my ‘baby’ for months.
I loved it! But I knew it wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t sure about the fonts, and it’s all too small and white to make much of a splash on retailer websites. I had other designers play around with it to see if they could improve on it, but the long stem of the flower made placement of the text difficult, and I always came back to liking my original, imperfect design best. It was with great sadness I finally let go of this cover. I absolutely love the flower, and I’m sure I’ll use it in some future design, but it wasn’t right for this book.
I went back to getting draft designs from other designers. Nothing that I liked. I really began to wonder if I’d ever get a cover that I loved and would be proud to share.
I wasn’t planning on trying to design another cover myself, but, one afternoon, inspiration hit as I played around with a floral image I liked, and this was the result:
Finally, it seemed just right!
I ran upstairs to show my daughter. She loved it too.
I passed the design on to my new designer, Rachel Lawston of LawstonDesign.com. She made a few tweaks to perfect it (spot the differences below), and what an amazing job she did!
Here’s the finished front book cover:
Yes! I love it!
(Rachel is now doing a brilliant job designing the back cover and the interior of the print book. Thank you Rachel!)
It’s been an incredibly difficult year of waiting, pressing on, waiting some more, and pressing on again. I thank and praise God that I finally have a cover I love, and am proud to put out there!
I can’t wait now for the whole book to be ready. Not long to go! (I plan to release it late February 2018.)
Update: It is now published. Yay!
And, in case you’re wondering, Forever Loved: Eve’s Story is the story of Father and daughter as told by Eve (based on the Bible account in Genesis 1-5). It’s the story of a Father’s love so passionate, so deep, so beautiful that it pursues Eve even in her darkest moment, and lavishes forgiveness, life and hope on her. It’s the story of the Father’s heart for you, his precious daughter.
It’s been a revelation of God’s love for me. I can’t wait for you to read it!
Want a sneak peak of Forever Loved: Eve’s Story?
I’d love to give you a free copy of my devotional study Treasures Hidden in the Story of Eve which includes extracts from Forever Loved: Eve’s Story.
Find out more and download it for free here!
This post is linked up with Literary Musing Mondays
Mary Hill says
Congratulations on your book cover. Can’t wait to read this book. Thanks for sharing on the #LMMLinkup this week.
Joanna Chee says
Thanks so much Mary 🙂
Sarah Geringer says
Looks beautiful! I just signed up to be on your launch team. So excited for you!
Joanna Chee says
Thanks Sarah! Thrilled to have you on my launch team! I’ve just signed up to your blog too. Looks great 🙂